Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Tracers
by Diabolic Tracer
Summary: When three siblings suddenly find themselves in a world where everything is determined by a card game they end with no other option but to trust and help each other. Now, inside the Synchro Dimension, the group find themselves hunted down by Roger, who acts under the command of an unknown third side.
1. Chapter 1

Here it begins, Sissy

 **Evan's POV**

This world, what was its purpose? Why does it have to be such an unfair and boring place to live in? I have been ten years old when I first asked myself that and it hasn't passed even a day without me reminding myself about it. As you could have guessed by now, I'm not the kind of guy that has a lot of friends or is popular. Actually I'm the type of person that prefers to not stand out, but at the same time I want something exciting to happen.

Hanging with the few friends that I have isn't interesting anymore and school just bores me to dead since I already know everything that's important about life. The only interesting thing in this world were the games. Computer games, sports or card games, I was hooked in trying and mastering all of them. Now I remember, one of the things I was pretty good at was playing Yugioh. It was a really interesting game for me and I often used it as a way to train my brain. Coming up with complex strategies and combos; it was far better than most Strategy games that I played before due to its interesting concept and amazing artworks.

Back in the days when I was younger Yugioh was a very popular game among the boys at my school. Watching them all group together around a table playing the card game while talking and laughing made me feel isolated from them. That pretty much was what caused me to get interested and after much begging my parents gave me money to buy a structure deck. I started playing and quickly gained a few friends among my classmates.

Unfortunately after some time has passed the others lost interest in Yugioh and most games in general. To be fair, I was pretty sad since by then I got really hooked in the game but there was nobody to play with expect my sisters.

And so time passed by; we grew older and each of us found their own hobbies and interests. Today wasn't any different from any other day. I came back from school with my two sisters walking beside me.

"Ugh, today completely exhausted me." I groaned as I opened the door of our house, letting my sisters walk in before I would enter.

"Stop acting like a baby please." My younger twin sister, Elizabeth, respond harshly as she walked inside the house.

I can't really understand what her problem with me is. She acted coldly and harshly toward me since we were six or seven. What makes it worse is that I'm the only one who gets that attitude from her. She was pretty popular among our classmates and was trying to be in a good relationship with our younger sister – something that I tried to use in order to understand why she dislikes me so much but alas, I had no such luck.

"It's you who's acting tough as a gorilla." The youngest among us, Avice replied crossing her hands. "After running an entire kilometer your legs probably feel numb, right?"

Elizabeth just shrugged and the two walked in our room to change, while also locking the room so I couldn't get in; after all, I'm the only boy among use. Being the oldest and only male of three siblings isn't awesome at all.

You see, our parents were expecting to have just one child so our house has only two bedrooms - one for them and one for the kid. But ironically, they got twins instead and had to renovate the room, adding a second bed and what not. And later when they learned that another daughter was coming our room changed again, with my sister's bed getting replaced by a bunk bed.

Though, right now I had worst things to think about. My whole body was aching from today's P.E. classes. Dragging myself to the living room I threw my schoolbag on the ground and fell face first on the couch. Then something caught my eye. It was one of my old Yugioh cards which was lying on the ground; probably Avice dropped it.

I took the card and looked at it – Summoned Skull – the monster that used to be the ace of my very first deck. It had pretty good stats for a mere Level 6 and I had a whole bunch of support for Normal Monsters which I used to protect it from my opponents while powering it up with equip spells.

"We are done." I heard Elizabeth's voice calling from our room.

Groaning I forced myself off the couch and walked in our room. Both of my sisters were lying on their respective beds with Eliz doing something on her laptop while Avice was playing on her phone. I put Summoned Skull on the deck on my desktop near my bed and lied down as well, taking my tabled and headphones.

"Why are you still keeping those cards if you aren't playing with then anymore?" Eliz asked. It seems that she has noticed the card. "They are pretty old and in a good state so why don't you sell them to some collector through internet or something?"

"We still playing with them from time to time." Avice answered instead. "Like when we are really bored or there is a maintenance of our games we duel to pass time."

"Like she said. We still play it when there is nothing else to do." I nodded putting my hands behind my head.

"Seriously, I don't see what you find to be so interesting in those cards…" Elizabeth sighed closing her laptop. "You are already too old to play these childish games. You should get yourself together or you will never be able to make good friends."

"It's not my problem that everyone is so boring." I mumbled turning to the side.

It annoys me how my sister keeps talking to me like I'm some child. Yes, I act childish, but that's my life so I should be the one to decide about how I'm going to live it. Alone or with others, it shouldn't matter for the others since it's none of their business.

"You sound like a little kid." I turned to look at Eliz and saw a smirk on her face. She's trying to provoke me but it isn't going to work; in fact, I like being called this. At least I'm not boring like the others teenagers.

"I would prefer if you don't talk to us like that!" Avice defended me and glared at Eliz. "You don't understand us so don't talk like you know!"

"Avice…"

"She is completely right." I agreed. "You just keep telling us that we should grow up like everyone else. But the truth is that we like ourselves the way we are."

"Don't you think that you two are starting to become weird with all those games?" Elizabeth asked us; a confused look written all over her face.

"I'm weird by nature." I and Avice answered in unison.

"Weirdos."

"Dweeb!" As the three of us started exchanging insults, my deck suddenly started emitting a white blinding light. In reflex I covered my eyes. From where did this light come from? I didn't have the time to ask or wait for an answer. I felt a numbness in my body as I slowly started to lose my sensibility. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my head as words seemed to write themselves inside my mind.

 _Thou shall be my emissary. Between Heaven and Hell, the Pendulum of Fate keeps swinging._

What is happening with me? It's almost like someone is talking directly to my brain. No, its like they are writting on it! I... I can't… take it anymore…

My consciously is fading in the light…

* * *

"Ugh." I slowly opened my eyes seeing the blue sky. What. The. Heck? I was no longer in my room or in a building for that matter. Instead it seemed that I was lying somewhere outside. My head was still hurting from what has happened, but the pain started to pass.

Slowly I got up into a sitting position and found that I was on a grass field near a riverbank. That was strange enough because there was no river anywhere near the town I live in. What was stranger; the ground around me was completely black, like it has been burn by something and the grass that was near the burned sport was blue and looked somehow… not from this world. I don't know how to explain it but it seemed artificial, no, due to the circuit board-esque pattern that was all over it, it seemed like it has partially turned into some sort of machine.

Suddenly I heart a light moan followed by the voice of Eliz saying: "My head hurts."

I quickly turned my head around and saw a girl that looked nothing like my sister lying next to me. She was rubbing her eyes and her appearance was like she came from an anime!

The girl's hair was short and mostly black with blue locks at the ends and two pointy locks on the left side of her fringe. Her outfit consisted of bluish-white jacket with pink pads on the shoulders, a bluish-grey jumpsuit underneath, and white boots that reach up to her knees. She also had a purple belt with a golden button in the center and what seemed to be a deck holder on the right. After she removed her hands I was also able to see her eyes; they were big and blue like the ocean.

"Um… hey." I waved at her smiling awkwardly. "Is your name Elizabeth?"

"Yeah." She nodded with a sleepy expression.

Ok, so she really is my sister. But how did her appearance changed into that of a cute anime girl? I guess it happened because of that strange light. That's probably and what brought us to this place. But wait – if Elizabeth is here shouldn't Avice be somewhere around?

"But who are you?" My sister suddenly asked me. It seems she was wide awake now and by her question I can only guess that my appearance has changed as well.

"It's me. Evan. Do you have any idea of how we ended here?"

"Here?" Elizabeth stared at me dumbfounded for a few moments before looking around our surrounding. "Where the heck are we?! There is no river near town!"

"Please, be quitter." I hear another voice and Avice appeared behind me, leaning her head against my shoulder sleepily. "My heard really hurts for some reason. Are you Evan and Eliz? What happened with you appearance."

"I could ask you the same thing." I replied looking her from head to toes.

Avice's age doesn't seem to have changed as she is still shorter that me and appears to be physically around twelve years old – her actual age. Short grey hair that reached just above her shoulders, some green locks at the ends with the green fringes extending to the sides of the head leaving her eyes to remain visible. A bluish-green shirt was underneath a closed white jacked with green star emblems on each side; it had a hood with a large green line in the middle and two rabbit ears pointing from it. Along with that she wore light green shorts, black and white shoes with long white socks underneath that reached just below her knees. There were also white and green fingerless gloves on both hands and a black belt around her waist with a green deck box hanging from it.

"You seem refreshed." I joked and walked closer to the river to see my own reflection and how I have changed. Hopefully whatever transported us here didn't steal my handsomeness.

Thankfully it didn't. I still had the appearance of a teenager and my skin was paler that my sisters' just like before. I had white hair with red edges and three bangs on the right side of my face, one swiped toward the right while the other two at the left, partially covering one of my eyes, which by the way were red, and also by touching the back of my head I feel that it's tied into a ponytail. Next, my clothes consisted of a very dark purple jacket with blue borders and red stripes which reached just below my chest. The cloth also had a hood with a red gear symbol in the center and a pair of cat ears located between it. Underneath I wore a short sleeve white shirt red tiger stripes at the sides and another gear symbol in the center dark blue skinny jeans, black and purple robotic boots that reached a bit under my knees. Just like Avice I had gloves, but with a triple color of purple, magenta, and red; and if that wasn't enough, there was a secondary armored glove on my left hand.

"Just like expected; I'm fabulous." I said nodding my head. My appearance was pretty cool and I always wanted to let my hair grow so I had no problem with the ponytail. Avice walked beside me and gave me a trump up. Heh, she liked it as well.

"So, where are we? What is this place? How did we get here? Why do we look like this?" Elizabeth assaulted me with an onslaught of questions.

"I have absolutely no idea." I answered casually and put a hand in the pocket of my pants. Strangely, there was something inside. I pulled out everything and found that the only things which remained were a Yugioh deck and an apartment key. Oh, I also had my headphones hanging around my neck. "But certainly it isn't somewhere close to home."

"I agree." Avice nodded. "Somehow, I know that we have a purpose here."

I smiled at my little sister, she was always there with me and vise verse. Avice was also right that we were sent here for a reason. I remember something with being emissaries, but the rest is all blurry.

Also, why was my Yugioh deck that sent us here? Actually that was the source of the strange light. I took it and fanned the cards to see if everything was here.

There was almost nothing.

Most of my cards were blank; no name, no artwork, no effect or stats. Only usable cards were a few Spells and Traps with the word 'Pendulum' in their names, like Pendulum Reborn and Pendulum Back along with other cards like Star Change, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow and Urged Tuning, but other than those cards I had no monsters or whatsoever.

"What the heck is this?" I groaned. Just great the only thing I had with me was useless. "Great, I got shit."

"You aren't the only one." Avice said hanging me her cards. Just like she said other than Battle Fusion, Light Laser, Flash Fusion the cards in her deck were all blank. "And I don't think that we were given those decks just to fool around with them."

"Are you trying to say that we were sent to another world?"

"That's a nonsense!" Elizabeth shouted at us. "Such things happen only in fiction! This is probably all a dream. Yes, just a bad dream. I will wake up any moment."

"I'm not making any claims yet, but the decks and our anime-like appearance do say that this is the case. The only other explanation is that, just like big sister said, all this is a dream." Avice explained.

"Guess you are right." I sighed and turned toward the river before looking at the sky. "Hey Avice, do you think the same thing?"

"Of course I am!" Avice answered and I didn't have to look at her to know that she is smiling right now.

"The world we were born in was a total crap. There were no rules or goal in it. Everyone you can do in it is to exist. At first it's fun but then you grow up and the rules become much harsher. The moves you can do are heavily restricted by morality, principles, justice. Once you get out of line and start living the way you want, you are seen as a defect, a mistake that shouldn't exist."

Suddenly I feel something touching against my hand and saw that Avice was holding my wrist. In the world we live games and fun were just a needless distraction used to manipulate people's way of thinking from a young age.

"But you know what? If this is really the Yugioh world, even if it's a dream it's far more worth living in it." I continued. "A world where everything is solved through a card game… The possibility to get hurt or lose your life a pretty big, but at least there a clear goal for which you risk your life."

"Because of that we should take our time in this 'dream' fulfillment."

"I agree."

I nodded and turned back to Elizabeth. She was sitting on the grass, curled into a ball with her hands wrapped around her body.

"Get up. We are going." I told her.

"Going?" Elizabeth raised her head and looked at me confused. "Where? We don't know anything about this damn place!"

"Chill sis. Just be calm and let us handle the rest. If this is what I think it is, you might just enjoy our stay here."

"If you could find out what happened with us then I'm going to follow you."

"I guess that means that we have a deal." I smirked and held out my hand toward her. "What do you say?"

Elizabeth really hatesdwhen I helped her out and always tried to do everything on her own. Because of that I know that accepting to follow me would be a big hit on her pride.

All the more reason to do it.

Elizabeth looked at my hand unsure and disgruntled. She must be really angry at me right now. But after a few moments she slowly raised her own hand and put it on mine.

"Just this one time."

"That's all I'm asking for." I answered and helped her get up. "Now that it has been decided, let's go find where civilization is. For some reason I don't think that the address written on the apartment key is fake."

"I surely hope that you remember how to duel, sis." Avice added.

"Why do I need to?"

Neither I nor Avice answered to that question and instead I just turned away to hide my smirk before walking off to wherever.

' _Here it begins, Sissy._ ' I thought to myself.

 _Now then, let's play._

* * *

 **Update 24/12/2018: Fixed a lot of mistakes in the chapter. Small changes in the dialogue and the backstory of the characters to fit better with what I'm going for.**

* * *

 **Hey everyone! I'm back again and this time with the rewrited version of my very first fanfiction on this site:** **Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Twins.**

 **Anyway, this chapter was pretty much like a copy-paste but what do** **you guys think about the little twist that I added? That's why I didn't simply name it** **Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Gemini.** **Lol. Things aren't going to be as they were before.**

 **Anyway, this is the end of the first chapter. Please, fav/follow/reply and see you next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	2. Chapter 2

Breaker of Timelines

 **Evan's POV**

After walking for around twenty or so minutes, me and my sisters found ourselves in some kind of city and let's just say that our suspicions about this being another universe or world were all confirmed. We were somewhere in the Yugioh multiverse. Where exactly, I didn't know, but there were large billboards and advertisements about Duel Monsters, Duel Schools and Action Duels – whatever that last one meant – most of which were missing in any of the four Yugioh series therefor I could only assume that this was the Arc-V timeline of some kind.

Anyway, we asked some people about where exactly this place was, the name of this city and so on. Turns on that the name of this city was Maiami City, where Leo Corporation – the company that has created Solid Vision with mass and makes the Yugioh cards - was situated. Pretty useful information so far.

But then when I asked what are those Action Duel that everyone seems to be talking about… they looked at me as if I'm insane before walking off. Truly, people in all worlds treat outclasses with the same sort of kindness.

It was annoying me to no end how I ended in the Yugioh world, but was unable to recognize anything in it and the deck that I got was completely useless with only seven cards that weren't blank. Or that's what I thought until my deck started to suddenly glow. Yeah I know that sounds like a pretty dumb deus ex machina, and it was, but suddenly all of my cards took their forms. I guess it just took them some time to download. Get it? Because trading cards can't download…

Anyway, I looked thought my deck once again and it wasn't like anything that I have seen before. The archetype name was 'ChronoDevil' and all cards seemed to have a time or streampunk motive in them. And if that wasn't confusing enough some of my monsters also had a very strange appearance. They had two text boxes, as the top one had two crystals, a blue and a red one, on each side of it and every monster had matching numbers underneath the crystals.

All of those card also had 'Pendulum' as a Type. This reminds me of the last words that someone told me before I got teleported to this world. It was something about a pendulum that keeps swing, but I wasm't able to go any further in my memories for some reason.

Of course I also had an Extra Deck that consisted of six cards, three Synchro monsters, two Xyz and just one Fusion. And last there was one final blank card. It was put with my Main Deck as the fourthly first card in it, so I had no problem to move it in the Side Deck.

"I don't remember such cards to have ever existed." Avice commented from beside me, looking through her own cards. "I have never seen cards of this archetype in any of the video games either."

"What about you, Eliz?" I asked turning toward my twin. She sighed and took out her deck before showing it to me. "Oracle Sister… And it seems you have those 'Pendulum' cards as well."

"Ugh! Why?" Avice groaned and leaned against a wall, crossing her hands. "This is getting weirder and weirder with each passing moment! Getting sent to another world, getting blank cards that actually aren't blank. Things are going on too fast and random to be able to think of a logical explanation."

"Maybe that's our problem." I answered putting a hand on her head. "We are thinking about it too much instead of acting. Maybe whoever sent us here wants us to just give into the flow. At any rate we won't be able to do any progress if we only try looking at the logical side. After all, the fact that we are trapped in an anime world is pretty illogical by itself."

"But you can't success if you don't have a strategy to follow."

"And you can't form a successful strategy without enough data. Right now we have almost no knowledge of this world so we can't do anything but improvise."

"Actually, I think this could help you." Eliz said hanging me a blue tabled. There was the latest information about the game in it and a lot more. It had an already downloaded file with explanation about Pendulum Monsters and how they work in it. And if that's not good enough it also had a map of the town with a marked place.

"Great job." I nodded my head and returned the tabled. "Now at least we have a trait to follow. Let's go."

"Look out!" I heard someone yell before something bumped into me, knocking me onto the ground.

"Ow! Watch it!" I yelled and looked up to see a tomato-haired teen with crimson eyes, who wears a red shirt, a jacket over his shoulders like a cape, baggy dark green pants, and red shoes, lending me a hand.

"Sorry for that! I was in a hurry and…" he started to give me excuses so I simply took his hand and let him help me get up.

"I don't really have a problem. Just what where you are going next time." I told him brushing off.

"And maybe you should move aside when someone tell you to move." Ah, Eliz would never miss a chance to bark at me, would she?

"Sorry again." The boy apologized, then smiled. "But I'm going to be late for our Duel School so-! Hey, are you three duelists?"

"You bet we are." I and Avice answered in unison before Eliz could ruin this.

"That's awesome!" The boy exclaimed. "My name is Sakaki Yuya by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Evan Greyson." I introduced myself and then pointed toward my sisters. "That's my little twin sister, Elizabeth Greyson and the youngest member, Avice Greyson."

"So, you aren't from around here, are you?" Yuya asked us, a somehow hopeful look in his eyes. "Sorry that I'm asking, but do you attend any Duel School at the moment?"

Ah yeah, this timeline's Duel Schools; I have asked about them. Those are basically schools where instead of Math and Geography they teach your how to play Duel Monsters. It was somewhat like the Duel Academy from GX but less strict, if others' words are anything to go by. It would be actually beneficial for us to join one of those Duel Schools, if not it will at least be a fun experience.

But judging by how Yuya acted I could tell that his school was in a very bad condition. I mean, why else would you ask random strangers you met on the street about whenever they attend one of those or not? He is practically hunting down students for his Duel School. This in turn could mean that if we accept to join there is a big chance for us to get a special treatment.

"Speaking the truth, we have never attended a Duel School." I answered honestly. "We are pretty interested to know what one looks like."

"And Since whe-! Umh!" Eliz tried to retort, but I quickly covered her mouth with my hand. Just a bit more and she was going to blow it up.

"Ha-ha-ha. You see, when she is very excited, sis tends to say stupid or weird things." Avice explained covering up for me.

"Mhm." I nodded while biting my lower lip to stop myself from yelling. That little bitch was biting my hand!

"Then if you have no problem with it, why don't you come to see my Duel School? I'm sure that you will be amazed by it." Heh, just like planned. Ouch!

"Of course!" Avice exclaimed while I simply nodded my head; holding back the urge to snap Eliz's neck and end it all here.

"Then let's go!"

So we headed toward that Duel School which Yuya explained is called You Show Duel School. During the entire journey the tomato head told me everything about that school. How it was specifically made for Entertainment Duelists, aka duelists who wanted everyone to enjoy their duels and have fun, including their opponents. Now that annoyed me a bit because I didn't really like that idea. Duels should be straight toward with the duelists using all of their strength instead of fooling around and calling that 'fun'. In fact the idea itself was and insult toward the word 'duel'.

But I should probably stay quit about that. So far this was our only way to gain better knowledge about this universe and if putting a fake smile in my duel was all that I had to do then I was cool with it.

You guys have no idea what face I made when we reached the You Show Duel School's building. It looked nothing like a school building, rather it had the appearance of something asymmetric… Ah, I couldn't tell! Let's just say that it was shit and end it there.

"Why on Earth did you made him lead us here?" Eliz asked; low enough for Yuya not to hear.

"I figured we could do that much while we are here." I answered simply. "Also, you lost all rights to complain the moment you bite my hand."

"Let's see what this school has to offer." Avice whispered. "We need every bit of information that we can get."

"This is some weird dream." Eliz said, with a sigh.

"Are you three coming?" Yuya asked; waiting for us to get inside.

We walked with Yuya and found 3 kids, a girl with pink hair who appeared to be the same age as Yuya, and a boy in a blue uniform, with blue hair, eating a lollipop. Just a look at them was enough to understand why this school was failing. These kids didn't have a spark in their eyes, they were all weak.

"You are finally back, Yuya." The pink haired girl said, before noticing us. "Who are they?"

"Guys, meet Evan, Elizabeth and Avice Greyson; they are duelists I met on my way here, and they're new to Maiami City." Yuya explained.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Yuzu Hiragi." Yuzu introduced herself.

"I'm Ayu." Said the little red-haired girl.

"I'm Tatsuya; nice to meet you." Followed the little blue-haired boy.

"I'm Futoshi." The not so little green-haired boy followed.

"I'm Sora Shiun'in." Finished the boy with the lollipop. "So you're siblings?"

"Yep, all three of us." Avice nodded.

"So, are you here to sign up for You Show Duel School?" Yuzu asked with a smile.

"Actually, I came to just see what this school is like." I explained to her. "However, I might sign up if I like the school and its teachings."

"Interesting. Then won't a duel be the best way to display what You Show has to offer?" Sora gave a suggestion.

"I like that idea." Yuya nodded in agreement and turned toward us. "So what do you say? Won't a duel be amazing?"

Well, that certainly would help me to warm up and test out my new deck's abilities, while at the same time learning about how others' decks work - since I haven't been up to date with the anime, I wasn't very familiar with how they dueled. So, that was perfect opportunity for. I was going to hit two rabbits with just one bullet.

"Then I'm going to be your opponent." I told Yuya and turned toward Avice for confirmation. The girl looked at me as well and nodded in agreement.

"Well, since it's a good opportunity to test out the new mechanics, let's use the dome." Yuzu suggested.

"Very well then." I grinned; this was going to end up great for me!

* * *

I and Yuya walked into a small room with a black floor. I looked to the side and saw that everyone was by the window watching for our duel. So they no longer stood in the same room as the duel? That was certainly something new.

"So, this is a Duel Field." I said looked around the rest of the room. "It seems... ok?"

"What Action Field do you prefer?" Yuya asked.

"Well, you see…" I started rubbing the back of my head. "From where I come, there aren't Action Fields, so… anything is fine by me"

Dueling in an Action Field, along with the fact that I don't know that much about my deck outside of a few combos, would give Yuya even more of an advantage against me. But at the same time, a game is more interesting on higher difficulty so I'm going to give him that advantage.

"I understand." Yuya told me. "Although I'm a bit surprised that there aren't Action Fields in your hometown. Any Action Field is fine by me too, so…"

He took a red tablet, similar to the one Eliz used earlier and put it on his hand. Then out of nowhere the device burst into a Duel Disk with a yellow energy blade.

' _That's pretty handy._ ' I thought, taking my own which was attached to the back of my belt. It was completely black and in a different shape; more rounded and longer. I put the Duel Disk on and activated it, materializing a red energy blade which was shaped similar to some kind of crystal.

"Action Field on! Haunted Demon Den!" Someone said and the room started to change, turning into a dark, cursed forest with a spooky castle in the center.

"Duelists locked in battle," Yuya started.

"…" No, I'm not saying it.

"Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters…" He continued nervously while I kept giving him an unamused expression.

"They storm through the field!" Yuzu suddenly shouted.

"Behold!" Sora exclaimed.

"This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling!" The three kids continued.

"Action…" Yuya said.

"Duel!" I finally joined in.

 **『** **Evan** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS)** **Yuya** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Hey why didn't you-"

"That's not my religion!" I shouted before Yuya could finish and looked at my hand. This would be good. "Newbies first! When there are no monsters on my side of the field I can Special Summon this card from my hand! Come out! **ChronoDevil Gear Tuner**!"

A black ball formed in front of me with two gears pointing from its body and crossing the middle of it in an X shape. The creature had a grey right eye, a clock for the left and a mouth filled with spark teeth.

* * *

 **Chrono** **Devil Gear Tuner**

 **Level** **:** **1/Attribute:** **DARK/** **Type: Machine** **/** **Effect/Tuner**

 **ATK:** **2** **00/DEF:** **3** **00**

 **Effect: If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards or their effects until the end of the Damage Step.**

* * *

"A Tuner Monster!" Yuya exclaimed amazed. "Does that mean that you are a Synchro user?"

"I will leave it to your imagination. Next I Normal Summon **ChronoDevil Stream Supporter**!" I declared summoning my second partner.

A dark-brown cape formed on the field with a mechanical arm coming from within it. Then the monster's head formed, it was completely black with the numbers from one to twelve floating as if they were part of it. Suddenly two orange orbs appeared on the monster's face which I guess are its eyes.

* * *

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Stream Supporter**

 **Level** **:** **4/Attribute:** **DARK/** **Type: Fiend** **/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **18** **00/DEF:** **1** **00**

 **Effect: When this card is Summoned: You can make this card's ATK 0 until your next Standby Phase and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower DARK monster from your hand or deck, but it has its effects negated until the End Phase.**

* * *

"Now I use Stream Supporter's effect! By reducing its ATK to zero until the End Phase I can Special Summon a ChronoDevil directly from my deck!" I said and a list of my cards appeared on the screen. Now, I don't know how Pendulum Monsters work, but it has a handy effect, so "Come out! **ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost**!"

To be honest, that monster's appearance wasn't very original, in fact it looked more like a Resonator than anything else. Ghost wore the upper half of rusty armor with clock parts on the shoulders and was missing any kind of legs, floating in the air instead. Along with that there was a broken knight helmet, but without anything in it giving the impression that the armor was in fact, empty.

* * *

 **Chrono** **Devil** **Timefrozer Ghost**

 **Level** **:** **3/Attribute:** **DARK** **/Type: Zombie** **/** **Effect/Tuner/Pendulum**

 **Pendulum Scale: 5**

 **ATK:** **13** **00/DEF:** **3** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect: All monsters you control gain 500 ATK.**

 **Effect: If this Pendulum Summoned card is used as Synchro Material, banish it. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can negated the effects of 1 card on the field, until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"Due to Stream Supporter's effect the monster that was summoned by it has its effects negated till the End Phase. I set a card and end my turn. At this moment Timefrozer Ghost can use its effect." I explained as the chains around my monster broke and disappeared.

"Eh? No Synchro Summon?" Yuya asked; feeling slightly disappointed.

"Yeah. Well, it's just my first turn and I can't attack so I'm going to hold the big guns for now." I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"I get it. Anyways, my turn!" Yuya exclaimed as he drew a card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [** **Yuya** **] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Yuya threw his hands at the side and all the lights in the room focused on him. Favoritism pretty much?

"For today's main attraction I, using the Scale One, _Stargazer Magician_ , and the Scale Eight, _Timegazer Magician_ , set the Pendulum Scale!" Two columns of blue light appeared between Yuya; each one holding a Magician, with his respective scale number under him. They stopped in midair and a giant pendulum with Yuya's pendent appeared.

"With this, I can now summon monsters whose levels are between two and seven! Swing, pendulum of souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Appear now, my monsters!" Yuya chanted as three differently colored lights shot from the portal in the air and landed on Yuya's side of the field, taking the form of his monsters.

" _Performapal Spikeagle (Lvl.2 ATK: 900)_ , _Performapal Stamp Turtle (Lvl.4 DEF: 1800)_ , _Performapal Silver Claw (Lvl.4 ATK: 1800)_ and finally the wonderful dragon with dual colored eyes, _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lvl.7 ATK: 2500)_!" Yuya introduced his monsters.

So Pendulum Summon is a mechanic that allows a play by setting two cards in his Pendulum Zone to summon any number of monsters no matter their level? I don't know who from Konami approved this but I'm sure that they were on drugs when they did it. Now to the more important question: What are my chances to survive this turn?

"I activate Performapal Stamp Turtle's effect!" Yuya explained. "Once per turn I can increase the level of all monsters on the field by one!"

' _Ah I see, I see._ ' I nodded my head while looking at the cards on his field using my Duel Disk. ' _If Odd-Eyes battle a Level five or higher monster all damage is doubled and attacking my zero ATK Stream Supporter can finish me with a nasty OTK._ '

"Now all main stars are on the stage!" Yuya explained jumping on the back of his dragon. "Battle! I attack Stream Supporter with Odd-Eyes!" The dragon jumped into the air and fired a red flame beam at my monster. "And, if Odd-Eyes battles a level 5 or higher monster, battle damage is doubled! _Reaction Force_!"

"I don't think so! Trap activate! _ **Time Shift**_!" I shouted as the card flipped face-up, showing a group of soldiers fallen on their knees with a large clock floating behind them. "When an opponent monster attack a ChronoDevil monster on my field I can negate the attack and then change all monsters on the field with equal or less ATK from the attacking monster!"

All my monsters started to glow blue as a barrier formed around them blocking the attack.

* * *

 **Time Shift (** **Trap) Normal**

 **When your opponent declares an attack against a face-up "ChronoDevil" you control: Target that monster; negate the attack, then change to Defense Position all face-up monsters on the field with less than or equal ATK to the targeted monster's original ATK.**

* * *

"I activate Timegazer Magician's Pendulum Effect!" Yuya shouted raising his hand toward the Spellcaster. "When a Trap Card is activated that targets a Pendulum Monster I can negate the activation! _Inverse Gearwise_!"

"I expected no less." I smirked and moved beside my monsters. "I activate Timefrozer Ghost's effect! Once per turn I can target a card on the field and negate its effects till the End Phase! I choose Timegazer Magician!"

Timefrozer Ghost's chest opened and multiple ghostly gears flew toward Timegazer, passing right through the male Spellcaster freezing him on the spot, then his body turned grey. Yes, with that he cannot negate my trap!

The barrier that protected my monsters expanded all over the field forcing both my and Yuya's monsters to sit down and gain a blue aura as they were changed to Defense Position.

"There is nothing else I can do." Yuya sighed. "I expected you to go search for an Action Card when Timegazer was about to negate your trap."

"Search for an Action Card?" I titled my head to the side, dumbfound.

"Right, you don't know." Yuya laughed. "Those are cards scattered around the field that a player can use at their advantage during any time of the duel."

' _Ah, silly me. And I thought that Pendulum Summon was the most overpowered shit I will have to deal with for today._ ' I thought sweat-dropping.

"Anyway, at this time Timefrozer Ghost's effect ends and Timegazer Magician can use its effect." I explained before putting my hand on top of my deck. "My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **3** **[** **Evan** **] LP: 4000, Hand:** **3** **』**

I glanced at the card that I just drew. Perfect, if Yuya is the kind of duelist that I hope he is, then he will probably try using an Action Card to defend himself from my attacks. But the card I just drew is…

"This will be the last turn, Yuya!" I declared putting the card among the others in my hand. "The true power of my deck; I tune my Level Five Stream Supporter to the Level Two Gear Tuner!"

I raised my right arm toward the sky. Gear Tuner turned into two green rings that encircled around Stream Supporter which gained a yellow outline then turned into five orbs of light as a beam of light passed through the rings.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven!_ _ **ChronoDevil**_ _ **Mystic-Flare Dragon**_ _!_ "

A beam of light shot through the rings and a dragon flew out of it. The beast had a purple, slender body with its chest, arms and legs covered in golden armor and appearing to be artificial and made from the same material as its twin spiked long tail. The dragon had robotic wings and two long cannons sticking between them with long pipes connecting the weapons to the sides of its neck. The beast landed on its hind legs and I noticed the green cables attached to its limbs, generating its long claws. The same devices were placed and on its chest, connecting to the glowing orb in the center. Then its head, it had a long jaw filled with sharp teeth and had two falls of a clock gear attached to the side of its head like horns.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Mystic-Flare Dragon**

 **Level** **:** **7/Attribute:** **DARK** **/Type: Dragon** **/** **Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK:** **24** **00/DEF:** **17** **00**

 **Effect:** **If this card battles a monster whose ATK is equal to or less than the ATK of this card, you can destroy the monster immediately with this card's effect without applying damage calculation, and inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's ATK. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can add 1 Spell/Trap card from your Deck to your hand.**

* * *

 **General POV**

During the same time that Yuya and Evan's duel was happening many works were peacefully working inside LDS Headquarters. That's until the alarm suddenly went off and everyone forsook their current tasks.

A man with silver hair and glasses was sitting onto a chair, looking down at his employers work. That was the president of Leo Corporation, Akaba Reiji and just like he expected the sensors around the city detected an anomaly for the second time today.

"Could you find what it is this time?" He asked.

"It seems we have detected a strong Summoning method." One of the workers replied.

"Analyzing the Summoning method!" came another voice.

"We have the results!"

A bar appeared on the screen and started rising until it reached 100%, then it revealed that the summoning was…

"It's a Synchro Summon!" the second worker said.

"Anything else?" Reiji asked.

"Yes, sir! It seems to be transmitting some kind of data on a frequency that our system cannot decode!"

"It transmits data? Could you pin its location?"

Suddenly a tab appeared the screen reading error, followed by another one and another…

"It's causing the system to crash! More detailed analyze isn't possible!"

"Something like that to happen now…" Reiji leaned back and looked at the screen filled with tabs showing the word 'Error'. "Right after that anomaly. It's highly possible for them to be connected, but…"

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"A real Synchro Monster!" Yuya looked up at Mystic-Flare Dragon, amazed by it.

"That was a good duel, Yuya." I said; a serious expression coming onto my face. "But now it's time to end this show!" I took a card in my hand and put it in the slot of my Duel Disk. "I activate the Spell Card, _**Timeline Overlap**_!"

The card had a green merging with blue background and showed two almost identical outlines of a monster, with the right one being orange while the left one is white and both of them were charging toward while mirroring each other.

"Targeting ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon for Timeline Overlap's effect I tribute Timefrozer Ghost and give half of its attack points to Mystic-Flare Dragon!" Timefrozer Ghost turned into sparks which were then absorbed in Mystic-Flare Dragon and raised its attack to 3050.

* * *

 **Timeline Overlap** **(Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 DARK monster on the field, then Tribute 1 other monster you control; that target gains ATK equal to half of the ATK the tribute monster had on the field, until the end of this turn, and if it do, the targeted monster can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn.**

* * *

"Its ATK surpasses Odd-Eyes'!" the kids cried out in alert.

"But all of Yuya's monsters are in defense." Yuzu reminded them.

"I wonder about that." Sora said.

Yuya smirked and dashed toward the forest, grabbing a card from one of the trees. So that's where Action Cards are, huh? And by his look it seems that the card he got is a good one too. What a shame.

"Now to prepare the stage!" I took the card that I have drawn and inserted it into my Duel Disk. "I play the Spell Card, **Stream Stun**!" The card showed a silver lock being hit by a blue thunder. "Now neither player can play Spell Cards for the rest of this turn!"

* * *

 **Stream Stun** **(Spell) Normal**

 **Negate all Spell Card effects on the field this turn. Also, neither player can activate Spell Cards or their effects for the rest of this turn.**

* * *

Yuya's eyes widened. "That means that Action Cards are…"

"Invalid!" I smirked and pointed toward his dragon. "Battle! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Electro Storm!"

My dragon leaned toward and aimed its cannons which started to charge green energy beams. Then it released the attack toward Odd-Eyes which in turn prepared for the impact.

"At this moment I activate ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon's effect! If it battles a monster with lower or equal ATK I can automatically destroy that monster without Damage Calculation and inflict its ATK as damage! Time Nullify!"

"I take all of Odd-Eyes' attack points!" Yuya's eyes widened as the beam hit Odd-Eyes destroying it and reaching to Yuya who jumped to the side dodging the attack, but still took the damage.

 **『** **Yuya's** **LP: 4000** **\- 2500** → **1500** **』**

"Due to Time Overlap's other effect my monster can attack twice this turn!" I explained, already knowing who is going to be my next target. "ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon attack Performapal Silver Claw and end this duel!"

My monster fired another beam vaporizing the wolf in and instance and ending the duel.

 **『** **Yuya's** **LP:** **15** **00** **\- 1800** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

"That was a nice warm-up." I sighed as the field and all our monsters vanished. I then walked to Yuya. "Are you ok?"

"Yes I am and that's one cool deck you got there!" Yuya complimented.

"Same can be said about yours." No, it can't.

"Thanks. Still, it's a pity that you won't sign up for our school." I could hear the sadness in Yuya's voice.

"What makes you think that?" I asked him. He looked up at me, curiously.

"Wait! You will?"

"It's true that I don't like School, but this is a Duel school we were talking about; not a normal, boring one." I then smiled, with Yuya doing so in return.

"Follow me!" Yuya said excitedly as he took me to the others in order to fill out the registration papers.

* * *

 **Update 24/12/2018: Fixed a lot of mistakes in the chapter. Small changes in the dialogue.**

* * *

 **A/N: And chapter 2 is out! As you see, I changed the writing style for the duels as I think it would be far easier if the cards' effects are close to the cards, so you could learn everything without the need to scroll all the WAY to down here.**

 **What do you think of the this next Gen blank cards? You no longer need to draw them during a duel in order for them to become useful! Just feed them two times a day, walk them and give them a lot of affection for your blank cards to grow into big and healthy trading cards! And yes, in a limited time offer if - you order now - get a free copy of 'How to Raise Your Cardboard'!**

 **No Refunds! Diabolic Tracer takes no responsibility if your cards remain blank...**

 **Moving on...**

 **Now both Elizabeth and Evan's decks have been revealed and some of you may wonder why ChronoDevil instead of Chroneality and it's pretty simple why. ChronoDevil is easier to pronounce and you don't need to guess what it stands for...**

 **Also, we know what both Evan and Elizabeth's decks are, so could you guys figure out the themes behind Avice's? Spoilers: Just like with Evan (Time and Demons) there are two themes for hers. There won't be any prize or something like that (I can't provide such things) so just for the fun? I will probably put the names of those who were right on top before the next chapter's title.**

 **Next, the reviews...**

 **Scal, what the actual fuck? I have no problem with jokes, even shit posts, but this... was actually expected. Yeah, for some reason I knew that this time people with notice the random Summon Skull I threw in, although that didn't happen in the original. But that doesn't make what you wrote any less weird.**

 **Other than that I don't have anything else to say. Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed. You guys are awesome!**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	3. Chapter 3

Guardian of Dimensions

 **General POV**

"The results of the samples from the affected area are absolutely unbelievable!" Said a man in a NBC suit as he moved aside to show a blue leaf stem that's kept behind a glass. "Everything that was near the phenomenon seems to have mutated into something that has the attributes of both plants and machines."

"Could you discover what the cause for that mutation is?" Reiji asked fixing his glasses. "Or what's this blue substance that covers it?"

"Unfortunately we found it too difficult to identify the source or how it caused this." The man said lowering his head. "In fact, it would be dangerous for us to touch it without the suits. All I can say for now is that the matter we found on the plants and in the soil around the area is both very poisonous and is a material that isn't found on this world."

"That's indeed something interesting." Reiji exclaimed. "Please, continue your research and inform me for everything new that you find out about it, no matter what it is. Understood?"

"Yes." The man nodded and the screen turned off. In turn, Reiji leaned back against his seat as a man in a grey business suit with black hair and blue glasses stood beside him.

"Does the other team have any progress with the data from yesterday's duel?" The president of LDS asked.

The man in turn, shook his head. "Almost all of the data gathered at that time has been lost or is damaged. We were able to retrieve only location from where the energy signature has been detected. It came from… You Show Duel School."

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

It was the day after my brother's duel with Yuya and us joining that weird Duel School. It was around eleven in the morning and all of us have woken up. Both I and my brother were in the living room, sitting on the sofa, waiting for Elizabeth to come out of the bathroom while playing online chess on our tablets.

Actually, everything has gotten better for us since we got those guys to help us out with a lot of things, even giving us a lot of useful information about this world. It turned out that in this world not everyone had access to Extra Deck monsters, and in fact, only a few, selected elite students, hadthe honor of learning one of these methods. It was a very rare attraction and because of that they all got on our heads, questioning my brother how he learned Synchro and if we knew how to use it too.

Not missing this chance to boast about our skills in the game I told them that we have mastered all three of the summoning methods and that my brother had simply chosen to main Synchro because he felt like it (He used a DARK Synchro deck before) while I prefer Fusion (Masked HERO) and my older sister is good at Xyz (Mermail are overpowered). Basically, this way I announced our place as the Aces of this Duel School and everyone loved it.

That of course raised a lot of more questions about us but I and my brother dealt easily with those by saying that we watched a lot of duels and followed closely every step, effectively learning everything by ourselves. Technically that wasn't a total lie, since we had to read the rulebook for the goddamn game by ourselves. The only problem that we had during the entire day was when we had to fill the sign-up papers, since we also needed a parent's signature. My brother of course smoothly covered this up by saying that our parents work aboard on different places and that they sent us to this city because we didn't want to separate from each other. Again, not a complete lie.

The principal of the school – who turned out to be Yuzu's father of all the possibilities – was the most existed of them all about us enrolling in that third rate Duel School. The reason for that was partially and the fact that a tournament known as Miami Championship was happening soon and you know, the more and the stronger participants, the better chances to win it.

We, in turn, told them that we knew nothing about it, much to everyone's surprise. The kids then explained to us what that tournament was about and what the requirements to enter it were. Of course none of us was crazy enough to try and get fifty duels, so instead we cunningly asked them to help us with the six consecutive wins

After that they all started to chat and tell us stories about how amazing Yuya – not that amazing now because he lost to my brother even with that cheat called Pendulum Summon – until sunset came and everyone had to go back home. Then we reminded them that we have just moved into the city and asked Yuya to help us find where our apartment was.

And that pretty much summarizes how we got here. If we ignore the fact that we were stuck in an anime world and no longer had to go to school – a big plus by the way – nothing has changed that drastically for us. Even when we lived in the house left to us by our parents, it was always just the three of us supporting each other. Yes, my sister disliked brother and often yelled at him but I'm sure that deep inside she did it because she cared about him.

Anyway, we were still waiting for Elizabeth to get ready - I was starting to wonder what was causing her to take so long. We actually got bored from chess and started playing one of those puzzle solving games when…

"So, how exactly would joining You Show Duel School help us escape this world?" Elizabeth suddenly came in the room asking the most obvious question.

I glanced at my brother with a blank expression that he returned. We both then turned toward our sister and shook our heads in disappointment. Like really, wasn't the answer obvious by now? Did she need to be given an explanation like a little child?

"It won't." my brother answered simply. See?! He explained it with two damn words! How much of an idiot must you be to not understand something that simple!

"Then why did you do it?" Before I realized it, in her anger she threw her Duel Disk toward my brother's head!

"That violence was really uncalled for." My brother answered drily holding the item with one hand - Heh, he caught it. He then set the Duel Disk on the table in front of the sofa and turned back to Elizabeth with a dark expression on his face. "Do you really thing that if you just wish about going back it would actually happen? Talk about being naïve."

"Why you," my sister gritted her teeth. Damn, if there was one thing on the world that she hatted the most if was when someone insulted her intelligence. It seems that our brother is hitting all the right buttons.

"I'm with him on this one." I agreed leaning my head on brother's shoulder. "One should put their own survival before anything else. Those kids obviously don't hold the key to going back, but they know this world and have information that would be good for advancing toward."

"Advancing toward?" Our sister asked completely lost in our schemes.

"The Miami Championship." I and brother answered in unison, raising our index fingers toward the ceiling. "Our first goal is to win the tournament and make everyone know about us!"

"What is the point in doing that?" Ah, sister really is bad when it comes to seeing the big picture.

"You will see," Brother answered simply and stood up putting both hands in his pockets. "Eventually."

* * *

After our conversation the three of us had breakfast, with what we found in the fridge, and then we went to You Show Duel School. Since we joined by our own free will it would leave a bad impression.

It has also been awhile since Elizabeth had her last duel and all of our decks were new ones that we didn't know anything about, so I guess having a duel with her wouldn't hurt that much. It would also be cool to try out those Action Duels, as I like the idea of being able to run around with your monsters instead of just standing on one place.

"You two know that it's still early in the day, right?" Our sister exclaimed. "The others are probably still at school."

"That's why we are going there so early." My brother answered.

"Would you for once explain yourself?" Elizabeth groaned in irritation. "Stop withholding information from me, damn it!"

"I would if there was a way to make sure that you won't try to hit me again."

"Oh come-on!" sister hit him on the shoulder. "We are sibling I would never try to hurt you. Badly. But ok, if you won't talk then I will ask Avice instead. You are on my side, right?"

I stopped and looked up at sister. Mind you, she was the one always scrolling me for playing instead of doing my homework and was the one who always made me clean after I broke something by an accident. How do you think, would I join forces with such a boring entity like her?

"Are you delusional or something?" I asked her before walking away.

"Oh come on!" I heard her whining from behind but ignored her. She was just trying to make me feel guilty and tell her everything. How old does she think I am to fall for that? Twelve? Oh right…

* * *

We walked into the You Show Duel School building. Just as we suspected no one of the other kids has gotten there yet and we had the Duel Field all for us. All that's left now was to find the principal and ask him to help us set the Action Field.

"Evan! Elizabeth! Avice!" We all turned to the side and saw the principal walking toward us. "You three are early. What happened with school?"

"Don't worry about it." My brother reassured him. "We are getting our education through a special homeschooling system so it's ok. We study outside the usual schooling hours."

"Well, if you put it that way I guess its ok." The principal nodded in agreement. "But classes won't start until the others are here, so is there anything you would like to do in the mean time?"

"Actually, there is something that comes to mind." My brother nodded putting a hand under his chin, making it look like he was thinking hardly about it, but the truth was that we had already planned it all out. "It has been a while since any of us dueled and we have absolutely no experience handling an Action Duel so a training duel would be a good thing to do, don't you think so, teach?"

"A training duel?" the principal said a bit surprised by the idea but then his surprise turned into excitement. "That's an amazing idea! I'm sure that it's going to be a really hot-blooded duel!"

"I'm out then." Our sister said turning to leave.

"Actually, I was thinking that you could duel Avice." My brother said with a smirk, causing our sister to stop in her tracks and turn around.

"Why me?"

"Well, you will definitely need to duel if you want to get in the tournament and out of us all you are the most inexperienced duelist." My brother explained putting both hands behind his head. "Since I have already dueled against Yuya I thought it would be only fair if you two are next, right Avice?"

"Indeed." I agreed. "And since we are equally inexperienced dueling in such environment, it would be a fair game. That's unless Eliz is too scared from losing of course."

"I'm not scared!" My sister shouted back, visible offended by this statement.

Ah, she is so easy to trick into playing along. Just tell her that she is stupid, weak or scared and our sister would do anything to prove you wrong. She was such an easy target for mind games that it wasn't even funny to mess with her. Well, sometimes it wasn't but today it was one of the more amusing times.

"So I guess it's all decided." Evan said clapping his hands together. "The duel will be between Elizabeth and Avice."

"SO HOT-BLOODED!" The principal shouted pumping his fist high into the air and ran out toward the control room.

"Good luck out there." My brother told us with a smile before turning toward sister. "And be sure to survive out there."

"What a great humor." She remarked rolling her eyes.

"I'm not joking." Brother deadpanned.

"Let's go Eliz." I said grabbing sister's hand while grinning darkly. "Let's not make the principal wait for us!"

Remember when I mentioned how my sister used to scroll me and punished me for my mischiefs despite not having such authority? Oh, now it was time for a sweet, sweet payback.

* * *

I and my sister walked into the Duel Field and stared at each other while brother was watching us from the window. I glanced at him and nodded; although kicking my older sister's ass was a nice revenge that still wasn't the main reason for this duel. Just like brother said, this was to teach us how Action Duels worked, however, it was also so we could rate Elizabeth's dueling skills and how good her dueling style synergies with the deck that she used.

"It's just like before." Our sister exclaimed as the edges of her lips raised and a small smile formed for the first time since we arrived here. "In the past we always used to play against one other."

"I'm happy that you remember it." I told her with a smile on my own. "It has been a long time since we last had competed with one another."

"Action Duel on! Field Spell, Frontier Fang Castle, activate!" the principal's voice echoed through the room as the field changed turning into a large castle surrounded by a lake and a forest, with both of us standing on the castle with activated Duel Disks. Mine was white with a green blade in the form of two wings while sister's was dark blue with a rounder aqua blade.

"Action Duel!" We both yelled.

 **『** **Avice** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS)** **Elizabeth** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will go first!" I declared taking the turn. "First I Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Ersten Speer**_!" An orange core appeared on the field.

A moment later multiple white armor pieces camo together covering the core away from my view. The monster that was formed from the armor had a humanoid appearance but with a single triangle in place of legs. It had two arms with the right one being bigger and heavier that the left one. A golden mask shaped like a star with three eye holes in the middle merged with the chest plate and three orange eyes started to glow. Two golden rings slid around the lower region of the monster and a golden spear with an orange energy blade formed in its left hand.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Ersten Speer**

 **Level: 4/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Fairy** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **6** **00/DEF:** **12** **00**

 **Effect:** **All LIGHT monster you control gain 400 ATK and DEF, also they cannot be destroyed by card effects. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, add 1 "Fusion" Spell Card from your deck to the hand, except "Diffusion Wave-Motion".**

* * *

"Next I activate _Photon Lead_!" I shouted as the Spell Card appeared in front of me. "By its effect I Special Summon a Level Four or lower LIGHT monster from my hand! Come out, _**Astral Angel Star Frieden**_!" A large yellow right appeared before me and started rotating, opening a pink portal. Then an energy core that looked like the previous but now blue appeared on the field.

Just like before, a white armor with golden lining formed out of nowhere and covered the sphere, but this time there was a small hole in the chest area that allowed to see the sphere. What surprised me was that this monster didn't have any limbs or a head-like structure. Two small golden rings landed on its shoulders. Then a blue cape formed from the items, showing stars and comets inside of it, like if it was one with the universe.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Star Frieden**

 **Level:** **2/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Thunder** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **6** **00/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn, when an opponent's monster declares an attack against a LIGHT monster: You can target the attacking monster; banish this card, and if you do, halve that monster's ATK until the end of this turn. During the End Phase: Special Summon this card banished by this effect.**

* * *

"Ersten Speer's effect raises the attack of all LIGHT monsters by four hundred!" I explained as Ersten Speer and Star Frieden's ATKs raised to 2000 and 1000 respectively. "I set a card and end my turn!" I declared as the card appeared for a moment before disappearing and then jumped off the castle.

"Avice!" Sister shouted but just then my two monsters appeared beside me and gently grabbed my hands. Together we landed on the lower section of the castle and they let me go.

"Thanks a lot you two." I thanked them to which they just nodded.

"Hey, that was too dangerous!" Sister shouted from the top before drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [** **Elizabeth** **] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I Normal Summon **O _racle Sister of Spirits – Ein_**!" A young woman with blue eyes and long green hair formed on sister's field. She was wearing a long brown robe with a hood and a large green ribbon on her back. Underneath she had a dark dress with a white collar and a green gem. The Spellcaster also wore green high heel shoes and was holding a large metal staff with three green magic circles rotating around it and while the tip had the shape of a hawk with outspread wings.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein**

 **Level:** **4/** **Attribute:** **WIND** **/Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1000** **/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Normal Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand or Deck, but its effects are negated, also it cannot be used as a Synchro Material.**

* * *

"Now I use Ein's effect to Special Summon _**Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade**_ from my deck! _**Ein's Ritual**_!" Ein closed her head and held the staff closer to her body as she leaned toward and touched it with her forehead. A green circle formed on the ground beside her and another woman came out of it.

She had red eyes and her black hair was tied into a ponytail with a red ribbon showing up. Just like Ein the new monster was wearing a long brown robe with a hood, but the difference time time was the belt full with ammunition. Underneath she also wore long, elegant light red dress with a white collar and a short red tie with frills emanating from the bottom and the sleeves of her dress. Her weapon was a large sword with a gun attacked to it and orange runes glowing on the blade.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade**

 **Level:** **4** **/Attribute:** **FIRE** **/Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1500** **/DEF:** **5** **00**

 **Effect:** **Spellcaster-Type monsters on your side of the field cannot be targeted by Spell effects. When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack, while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard, then end the Battle Phase. If this card is Special Summoned with this effect, banish it when it leaves the field.**

* * *

"Now I overlay my two level four monsters!" sister's two monsters turned into streams of energy. Jade was red, while Ein was green. The monsters shot up in the sky as a galaxy-like portal appeared before me; the two monsters went inside of it.

" _Magicians with various tricks! Gather right here and bring the flames of life! Xyz Summon! Rank Four! Magician dancing through the flames! **Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda**!_ "

A column of fire raised into the air as a figure flew out of it. A woman with long light blue hair and crimson eyes. Unlike the previous monsters however she was wearing a pretty revealing outfit that consisted of a single red vest, separate sleeves and a short skirt. Oh, also did I forget that her clothes were similar to those of a nun and had a red veil with a golden fire-shaped element on it. She also wore long black socks that reached to her thighs and black heel boots with a golden cross on the ankles. The woman was also holding, in each hand, a white saber with red magic circles around the handle.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda**

 **Rank** **:** **4/Attribute: FIRE/** **Type: Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK:** **20** **00/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **2 Level 4 Spellcaster-Type monsters**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 Spellcaster-Type monster you control; this turn, that monster can attack your opponent directly, also other monsters cannot attack. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can add 1 "Ancient Artifact"** **card** **from your Deck to your hand.**

* * *

"That's one kinky monster." I mumbled to myself.

"I activate Miranda's effect!" Sister shouted as she raised her hand high into the air. "By using a Xyz Material it allows one of my monsters to attack you directly! Miranda's Ritual!" The Spellcaster absorbed one of her Overlay units into the staff and then fired a large fireball toward me.

"Whoah!" I exclaimed in surprise jumping to the side and dodging the attack. Then something completely unexpected happened and the fireball turned around hitting the ground behind me creating an explosion. "Kyyyaaahh!" I cried out as I got launched into the air and toward the lake.

 **『** **Avice** **LP: 4000** **\- 2000** **Hand:** **1** **』**

I closed my eyes bracing for the impact, but instead I felt something grabbing me by the hood and pulling me back. I opened my eyes to see what's happening and saw that Ersten Speer was holding me in his free hand.

"You are a life saver." I sighed in relief getting another node in response. After that I turned toward my sister who was watching from one of the towers. "Oi! That was fucking dangerous!"

"I didn't expect something like this to happen!" The defended waving with both hands in front of herself.

"Jeez." I jumped on the ground and brushed off my clothes. "That's why we need to train more about how to perform Action Duels. The Fields and the monsters aren't the only thing that is affected by the Solid Vision, but the attacks too."

"I will try to hold back from now on then." Sister nodded and put a card in her Duel Disk. "I set a card and end my turn."

"My turn, draw!" I declared and looked at the card. That's perfect, just the card that I needed.

 **『** **Turn** **3** **[** **Avice** **] LP:** **2** **000, Hand:** **2** **』**

"Hey sis, I want to ask you something." I started crossing my arms. "Did you look through your deck before the duel?"

"No, why?" I grinned at her response.

That's a truly amateurs mistake for any player. If she hasn't looked at her deck then that means that she doesn't know how it works and what combos it has.

"Oh nothing." I answered dryly. "I just expected you to be a bit more of a challenged, but it seems that I was expecting too much. Your moves so far were mediocre at best."

"What are you saying? That was just my first turn!"

"My point exactly." I told her darkly. "That was your first turn, the time to build up your field and you wasted it. Now watch! I activate the Spell Card – _**Selig Transform**_! By its effect I tribute Astral Angel Star Frieden to Transformation Summon!" The card flipped showing a man in a white robe surrounded by spheres that glow in different colors.

* * *

 **Selig Transform** **(Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 monster you control; send it to the Graveyard, also, after that, if it left the field by this effect, Special Summon 1 LIGHT Fusion monster from your Extra Deck whose Summoning Conditions are met by this card's effect.**

* * *

"Transformation Summon?" My sister shouted surprised and I can't blame her; not many people know how about this summoning method.

"That's right!" I shouted back with a smirk. "Transformation summon is a specific type of summon using a specific card, and without the need of any Fusion Material Monsters! Let's go, Astral Angel Star Frieden! Transform!" Star Frieden's body opened and disappeared leaving only the blue energy sphere as a white mist flew toward it and started building a new suit.

" _The holy guardian of starts! Transform into a whirloop of light and Transcende beyond the limits of the Universe! Transformation Summon! Level Four!Sacred protector if Heavens! **Astral Angel Golden Knight**!_ "

A new golden armor with silver elements and two starts on its chest covered the sphere. The new body had the form of a knight in heavy armor with silver gloves. Two mechanical pieces stuck out of its back with yellow electricity connecting them to the multiple silver plates that floated behind the monster forming wings. After that a golden helmet landed on its shoulders as a green glow came from within it, bringing the entire body to life. Finally a large white broadsword with a green fuller and wings-shaped handle appeared in the monster's hands.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Golden Knight**

 **Level** **:** **4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Warrior/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 1800** **/** **DEF:** **20** **00**

 **Effect:** **Must be Special Summoned with** **a** **"** **Selig Transform** **"** **card by Tributing a Level 1 or 2 LIGHT monster** **and cannot be Special Summoned** **from the Extra Deck** **by other ways. This card gains 500 ATK for each face-up** **LIGHT** **monster on the field, except** **itself** **. When this card leaves the field: Destroy all monsters your opponent controls.**

* * *

"Now, due to its own effect and Astral Angel Ersten Speer, Golden Knight gains nine hundred more attck!" I exclaimed as my monster gained a yellow aura and its attack raised to 2700. "Battle! Golden Knight, attack Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda! Divine Slash Ragnarok!"

The knight raised its sword high into the air and the gem on it stared to glow. A column of light then fell from the sky, hitting the weapon and forming two large golden wings on its sides. The knight then swung its sword vertically, creating a yellow laser which cut Miranda in the before destroying her.

 **『** **Elizabeth** **LP: 4000** **\- 3300** **Hand:** **4** **』**

"That was a nice one." My sister praised me. "But since Miranda got destroyed I can add an Ancient Artifact from my deck to the hand."

"I'm not done yet!" I shouted back pushing my fist toward. "I attack directly with Astral Angel Ersten Speer!" My second monster raised its spear toward the air and it gained golden wings. Ersten Speer then fired a blue spear-like projective toward my sister.

"At this moment I activate Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade's effect! **_Jade's Ritual_**!" My sister shouted back as a black portal opened in front of her and the girl flew out of it, blocking the attack. "When I'm targeted for a direct attack I can Special Summon Jade from the graveyard and end the Battle Phase!"

"Tch." I clicked my tongue annoyed. So she figured as much as to prepare a counter for my attacks.

"And now I activate my Trap Card!" sister continued as a card I was familiar with appeared on her field. "I activate Xyz Reborn to Special Summon Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda that you just destroyed!" The aforementioned magician appeared on sister's right side and the trap turned into a red orb that orbited around her. "I outsmarted you this time!"

"If you won't fall by the sword then you should burn down." I deadpanned before playing the last card in my hand. "I tribute Astral Angel Golden Knight to Special Summon _**Astral Angel Hawking Turret**_!" Golden Knight's body started to glow and disappeared, transforming into a floating blue cube.

Then multiple white armor pieces camo together covering the core from view. A gigantic metal golem raised in front of me with a large golden ring merging to its back and two more rings connecting to its shoulders. At the very end blue flames emerged from the armor creating its head.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Hawking Turret**

 **Level:** **5** **/Attribute:** **Light** **/Type:** **Rock** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **10** **00/DEF:** **12** **00**

 **Effect:** **You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by Tributing 1** **LIGHT** **monster, and if you do, it gains ATK equal to the Tributed monster's original ATK.** **If this card is Special Summoned by its own effect you can inflict damage to your opponent equal to the original ATK of the Tributed monster.**

* * *

"When Astral Angel Hawking Turret is Summoned Tributing a LIGHT monster its attack raises by the tribute monster's attack and you take damage equal to that monster's!" I shouted as my monster fired the blue fireballs from the rings on its shoulder, knocking my sister of her feet while Hawking Turret's ATK became 2800.

 **『** **Elizabeth** **LP:** **33** **00** **\- 1500** **Hand:** **4** **』**

"Next Golden Knight's effect activates! When this card leave the field all monster you control are destroyed! _**Holy Punishment Der Erste**_!" I continued

"W-what?" sister's eyes widened and suddenly the space around her monsters started to crack and suddenly they all exploded.

"Counter Trap open!" I pumped my fist toward. " _ **Neutron Star Explosion**_! Since you monsters have been destroyed by a card effect you take half of their combined attacks as damage!" The card showed as a very small purple star emitted a faint pink pulse that destroyed a planet.

 **Neutron Star Explosion** **Trap (** **Counter** **)**

 **If an effect is activated that destroys monster(s) on the field, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half the combined ATK of the destroyed monsters.**

A small yellow ball formed in front of sister and started to slowly grow bigger, then when it reached the size of two feet it exploded, launching her into the air.

 **『** **Elizabeth** **LP:** **15** **00** **\- 0** **Hand:** **4** **』**

 **『** **Winner:** **Avice** **』**

I jumped on top of Hawking Turret and it flew toward sister, grabbing her in its arms before she could fall on the hard ground. It's not like she could get hurt from the fall but she would surely grumble a lot after that.

"I guess that much is enough for today." I sighed in disappointment. Don't get me wrong. It was funny to beat sister but it was too easy and unsatisfying. "You should put more spirit in it. Next time make sure to read the effects of all your cards. And if you still aren't sure in your skills there is nothing humiliating in using Action Cards if you need them."

"Thanks teacher." Sister answered sarcastically. I simply rolled my eyes and clapped my hands twice to which Hawking Turret dropped her on the ground. What? She deserved that.

The field around us started to vanish and I jumped off my monsters right before they turned into sparkles and disappeared. I then crossed both of my arms behind my back and turned toward the exit.

The door then opened and brother walked inside while clapping. "Awesome duel both of you!" He said with a smirk and put a hand on my head to stroke me.

"He-he-he~" I couldn't hold back my giggle. He was happy with me!

"Just what are you trying to get from this?" sister suddenly asked, but I didn't pay her much attention. "Making your sisters duel and everything else…"

"It's all for good. It's all for good." He told her back and moved away raising his arms to the side. "As said, I just wanted you two to warm up, that's all. After all, the fun part is just ahead of us."

* * *

 **Update 24/12/2018: Fixed a lot of mistakes in the chapter. Small changes in the dialogue and the backstory of the characters to fit better with what I'm going for.**

* * *

 **A/N: Hey! Guess who is back! Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed!**

 **It was really hard for me to decide how to end this duel. Originally I planned a three way duel between Evan, Avice and Elizabeth. Then I was thinking about making it a draw before finally setting with a victory for Avice.**

 **That reminds me, what do you think of Avice's deck: Astral Angel? The opposite of Evan's ChronoDevil. Also, Transformation Summon isn't something I came up with. I'm not sure if you guys know, but the Masked HERO monsters don't get Fusion Summoned, instead in the manga they are Transformation Summoned and in the official game are simply Special Summoned.**

 **But now that the main cast's decks are all shown I'm going to move to the "fun part" as Evan would like to say it. (Is it me or this time he is kinda... insane? Seriously, I don't know why but every time I see his name I get reminded about the FNAF song "** **I'm The Purple Guy** **") Also, I choose not to add it but Elizabeth and Avice's Summonings from the Extra Deck made the alarms of Leo Corporation go nuts just like how Evan's did.**

 **Now, to the reviews:**

 **ScalchopWarrior: Ah, I'm happy that atleast one person remembers the original Avice. And to be honest, you were 50% right about her deck theme...**

 **Ventus Kurosaki: Thanks! I'm trying to learn from the mistakes I made in Arc-Twins. Also althought Elizabeth tried to hit Evan with her Duel Disk this chapter I can tell you that she won't be so violent toward him as she used to be in the original.**

 **Guest: That's a really big problem. I really want to make the cards visible, but I don't have any art to use for this. I suck at drawing monsters and I tried to find images on the internet after I got your review, but... failed. I was unable to find anything close to what ChronoDevils are supposted to look like.**

 **D3lph0xL0v3r: I never noticed that there has been a Magician theme in Oracle Sisters. Nice job! But about Avice... 1) That's a girl not a boy 2) in the original version (Arc-Twins) Avice was the Fusion Counterpart of BOTH Yuksel and Hema.**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	4. Chapter 4

A Simple Day

 **Avice's POV**

"Synchro Summon is a summoning method where you summon from the Extra Deck." Our teacher started explaining to the class. "First the Duelist has to declare the action and then select the Synchro Monster in their Extra Deck that they intend to Synchro Summon. Following this, they send the requisite Synchro Materials they control to the Graveyard, as listed on the Synchro Monster itself, typically that include one Tuner and at least one or more non-Tuner monsters, provided the total combined Levels of those monsters exactly matches the Level of that Synchro Monster. After that, the Synchro Monster is taken from the Extra Deck and placed on the field in face-up Attack or Defense Position."

I leaned back on my desk and turned to look at the other people in the class. Yuzu, Yuya, and pretty much everyone else in the room, expect a few special individuals like Elizabeth, were staring at the board as if it was some holy relict. I can understand why they were so interested in it, but as someone that already knew everything about this summoning mechanic, it didn't seem that interesting to me.

"I perform Fusion Summoning with Vanilla Ice Cream and Liquid Chocolate!" As for Sora he seemed to prefer sticking with Fusion Summoning and… stomachache I guess?

"Come forth, two painful hours in the toilet." I whispered to myself with a grin and then turned back to our teacher.

"So, all in all, Synchro Summon is very close to both Ritual Summon and Fusion Summon but with less restrictions as most Synchro Monsters are generic and could be summoned with any Tuner and non-tuner monster as long as the sum of their levels equals that of the Synchro Monster."

"Does that mean that monsters summoned through other Summoning methods could be used as materials?" The boy with blue hair – Tatsuya I guess – asked.

"Yes, that's accepted for the other summoning methods as well." The teacher nodded their head. "Only monsters without levels can't be used as materials. Such are the Xyz Monsters who have a Rank instead of Level. So can I ask a question as well?"

"What is it?" Yuya was the first to ask and I already knew where this was going. I mean it would have been the same thing for me if I was in this situation…

"Why must I play the role of a teacher!? I hate dealing with kids!" My brother roared will flames burning in his eyes as he turned toward Mr. Hiiragi who was sitting on one of the desks like a student. "I thought I came here to be a student not some kind of rare attraction!"

"He-he, you see, since you are the only ones that knows how the mechanic works I thought…" The man started nervously and I rolled my eyes.

It all had a simple explanation and my brother has already figured out that things could turn out like this; he asked that only to humiliate the principal and remind him about this school's current status. I mean, just look at it!

This school lacked students, having only nine and because of that was most likely struggling financially. In this situation, if someone, with the knowledge that only top Duel schools can afford, walked in and said that they wanted to become a student anyone with half a brain would figure out the best way to use this in their favor. If you use those new students as teacher replacements that would not only garner more students, but also you won't need to pay them for the service because they are, again, your students.

"Ok then." My brother said faking a sigh of defeat and crossed his hands. "Anyway, I was wondering, do you keep replays from old duels?"

"Replays?" The principal asked and everyone else looked at my brother confused.

"Yeah, replays." He confirmed leaning against the wall behind him. "I figured that it would be far easier to teach if the students could see what I'm talking about. We could also analyze past duels and talk about mistakes, or misplays that are often made which in turn could teach our young duelists how to avoid such situations."

"Actually, I never thought about it." The principal admitted. I guess he also wasn't thinking when he made this school but whatever. "Yes, that way the lessons would both be interesting and helpful. All Action Duels that happen here are being automatically saved in our Arc-System's computer."

"But didn't it break?" Yuya asked. "I mean, Yuzu break the old one so…"

"Hey, that wasn't my fault!" Yuzu shouted back. "If you played more serious in that duel I won't get angry and accidentally hit it."

' _She can pass anything for an accident if she did it in anger, can't she?_ ' I thought covering my face with a hand.

"But there are duel replays saved and on the new one, right?" My brother asked raising an eyebrow. "I will only need the more recent ones."

"Yeah, everything after Yuya created Pendulum Summoning is saved in the memory." The principal confirmed and I had to hide my smirk. "We could also impute them in your Duel Disk for easier access."

"That would be a good thing to do." My brother accepted the offer and turned toward the rest of us. "Ok, that's it for today. Class is dismissed."

We nodded and everyone left the classroom. Brother and the principal went to download the replays onto the Duel Disk while the rest of us got to do our own stuff. Well, it wasn't like I or Elizabeth had anything that needed to be done. We weren't going to school or work and we still weren't that familiar with the city, so the only thing left was to follow the others from You Show Duel School.

"While he is trying to not show it, Evan seems to be really enthusiastic about teaching us how Synchro Summoning works." Yuya said out of nowhere.

"Yeah and the idea of using the replays as a way to teach us. He is born for a teacher." Yuzu nodded in agreement

Oh, if they only knew how wrong those statements were. It wasn't that my brother liked doing it, but he needed to do it in order for us to get direct access to the school's data. There were things we couldn't just ask Yuzu, Yuya or Sora, so instead both me and my brother came up with the idea of present our request as a plan for a studying system.

Of course I moved behind my brother's back by giving the principal the idea of making my brother and sister to teach the students about Synchro and Xyz, but that's a secret.

"Trust me, you have no idea about it." I giggled putting my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

"What about you, Avice?" Ayu asked. "When will you teach us about Transformation Summon?"

"Eh?" I looked back at the younger girl, surprised.

"Yeah, I never knew that such kind of summoning existed!" Tatsuya added. "It was so amazing!"

"It gave me the shivers!" Futoshi – the weirdest one of the three – finished.

' _Damn, my prank backfired!_ ' I sighed in defeat and lowered my head.

"So, what are the plans for today, Yuya?" Elizabeth asked. Whoa, she was so silent lately that I forgot she was here! Also, why was she asking Yuya like he was the leader here or something?

"Well, today I need to meet with my manager about my next duel." Yuya answered back. "Also, I'm trying to get him to arrange six duels for you three."

"Do you need our help with anything?"

"No, but thanks." Yuya said with a smile and waved goodbye.

"What about the rest of you?" I asked the others. The main one left but there were five other people that I could play with. "Do you have any plans?"

"No…" Ayu answered.

"Not really…" Tatsuya continued.

"I'm actually pretty hungry…" I don't even need to name him, do I?

' _Damn, those three are so simple._ ' I thought to myself.

"I'm going to teach Yuzu how to Fusion Summon." Sora spoke next. "Since both you and your sister said to know about how Fusion Summon works would you two like to come and help out as well?"

"It would be my pleasure to help a friend." I nodded. "What about your, sis?"

"You are asking me as if I have made any plans about today." She replied and so the four of us walked out together.

* * *

After we left You Show Sora lead us to the docks where he was teaching Yuzu about Fusion Summoning. According to him the reason why they were doing it there was because people usually didin't come there, so it was the best place for this, as nobody would see what new strategies they were trying out. It was a good reasoning but for some reason I felt like it was just a half-assed excuse for something completely different. I didn't know why but I really didn't like Sora, though he was cool sometimes that was nothing compared to how annoying he was during the rest of the time I have spent around him.

"Enchanting melodies bloom in splendid glory and play for us a new harmony!" Yuzu started chanting as two of her monster flew into a colorful whirlpool. "Fusion Summon!"

 ***BEEP!***

The beeping sound that meant there was an error came from her Duel Disk and Yuzu panicked. I spent around half an hour watching her fail this damn thing again and again. And the worst part of this was that first time she failed to Fusion Summon was was because she put the goddamn Fusion Monster in her Main Deck. And that happened after we had a talk about why she is trying to learn an Extra Deck Summoning. Was I too smart or were the people in this Universe too stupid?

"Why did it fail this time?" Yuzu asked confused while looking at her Duel Disk. "I put the monster in the Extra Deck this time, I'm sure of it!"

"Did you use the proper Fusion Materials?" Sora asked.

"The proper Fusion Materials?" Yuzu repeated before lowering her head. Are you kidding me?!

Ok, watching Yuzu fail something so simple so many times is irritating. Fusion was the very first Extra Deck Summoning method that the game introduced. Because of that it was made to be the easiest to understand for the players back in the starting steps of the game. Falling something so simple so many fucking times was absolutely irritating to me! And it seemed that my sister had a hard time handing this idiocy as well.

"Maybe we should take a break." Sora said deactivating his Duel Disk. "You are getting better but your mind isn't in the Duel again, is it?"

' _What did he mean by that?_ ' I turned toward Yuzu and she looked down, ashamed. Did something bad happened and no one told us about it?

"Avice, Elizabeth!" Sora waved his hands at us. "Me and Yuzu will move to talk for a bit, you don't mind, right?"

"Go ahead." My sister replied giving them a thumb up and the two Duelists left.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked.

"So that's where you guys were hiding." I turned looked up and saw brother sitting on a shipping container with the hood of his jacket on, showing the cat ears. Actually, the silent way he used to sneaked in and how he always chose the weirdest places to sit or sleep he was like a real cat!

"How did you found us?" Elizabeth asked.

Evan just shrugged in response and jumped down, landing between us. "I figured that you would be somewhere where people wouldn't watch so I checked a few places."'

"So he hasn't lying about that?" I mumbled to myself and looked back toward brother. "So, did it work out? Is the data in you?"

"It's all here." He confirmed and took out his Duel Disk. "I watched the duels You Show had before we joined and there was something interesting." Brother touched the screen of his Duel Disk and a replay started playing. "I couldn't figure what they were saying because sound isn't recorded, but I got the principal to tell me a bit more and it turns out that Leo Duel School had challenged You Show on a duel and if LID were to win they would have acquire this school."

"Why would they even want to have anything to do with this failure of an education building?" Elizabeth asked. "From whatever angle you look at it that would be a bad business move."

"I completely agree with that." Evan nodded. "Thought there are advertisements about it all over the City and everyone says how prestigious it is, the duelists from that school are a big disappointment. Althought they think of themselves as unbeatable professionals that first guy who uses a Synchro Deck obviously doesn't know what Mirror Force is. The second, a Xyz user has so many openings in his plays that it wasn't even funny to watch. Then there is that… ahem, sexy, Fusion Duelist with, average skills at best. While she seems to be closer to the Earth that the other two she still appears to have an equally big ego as them."

"So you are saying that for what they are worth, all duelists in this world are shit?" I asked him.

"Use a Magic Cylinder and you out their entire decks. How does that sound?" My brother then turned to a different replay. "But, as bad as those duelists are, I think I found a pearl amongst the swine. That guy you see here is Akaba Reiji, the head of Leo Corporation. He must be a pretty strong individual as his deck is capable of using Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and even Pendulum."

"A big shot." Elizabeth mumbled in thought.

Yeah, that Akaba Reiji is probably far better than the average garbage his school offers. In this world, Extra Deck summoning are something only the best of the best are allowed to learn and it wasn't that easy for them either. Not only that, but Pendulum was supposed to be something only Yuya had. Well we had Pendulum cards too, but we didn't originate from this world, so that didn't count.

Reiji on the other hand probably originates from this Universe and was able to acquire this power as well. How exactly? If I had learned something from watching Yu-Gi-Oh it would be that badass and strong characters tend to be important for the plot and I'm one hundred percent sure Akaba Reiji was the strongest Duelist of this world, simply because he wasn't a noob like the rest.

"Evan came too?" We heard Yuzu's voice and turned to look as the two duelists came back from their break. Yuzu was looking nervous and Sora like he could care less.

"Yeah, when I finished my work at You Show I messaged Elizabeth where she and Avice were so I could come and help with whatever I can." My brother explained. I don't see why he needed to lie, but whatever.

"Everything is going ok." Sora said without removing the lollipop from his mouth. "Yuzu is learning Fusion very fast actually."

I rolled my eyes. You are calling that fast? Bitch, please.

"I see…" My brother said, obviously not buying that. "Then I will go look around the area."

"Don't go alone!" Yuzu said, no, warned my brother. She then put a hand on her chest and continued. "It may not be safe. Please, be careful."

"Yuzu…" my brother ran a hand through his hair (still wearing the hood) and looked at her, worriedly. "What is wrong? You seem to be worried about something. I know, we meet just yesterday and you probably don't trust us that much, but we are friends. You can tell us anything."

"I didn't mean it that way." Yuzu shock her head furiously. "I trust you three! We trust you! It's just that…"

"If you keep your problems just for you then you would end up only hurting yourself." How clever. Brother was using the friendship ticket to make her talk.

"I don't like this topic!" Sora whined. "Let's talk about something else!"

Evan clicked his tongue and retreated back. Whatever Yuzu was hiding Sora didn't want us to find out about it either. Damn, hanging around those two suddenly became interesting.

"I guess there is nothing else I could be helpful with." My brother sighed and turned to leave. "Good luck with your training and if you need a hand just call."

I guess there was no point for me and my sister to stay there anymore. So we waved them a goodbye and followed closely after our bigger brother.

"Guys…" I heard Yuzu mumbling behind us but ignored it. She could have trusted us, but she chose to not.

* * *

"So, what now?" Elizabeth asked.

"We will just act as nothing happened." My brother answered. "If something is really going on then we will find out about it sooner or later."

"Hey, should we have lunch outside?" I asked them. It was getting close to lunchtime and my belly was starting to hurt.

"I would like to." Elizabeth nodded. "But how are we going to find a restaurant?"

"We will look around the city. That way we will also learn our way in it and maybe have some fun while at it. What do you say, brother?"

Evan nodded and looked at the distance. I followed his eyes, but where his eyes were staring was nothing expect buildings. After a few moments he turned toward me with an interesting expression on his face. I immediately understood what my brother mean and nodded.

"So it's decided." I said clapping my hands together. "We are having lunch out, yay!"

My older siblings both smiled and we continued walking together. I, however, looked back to where my brother was staring once again and saw a black cat standing there and licking its palms.

' _I still got the best black cat for myself._ ' I thought with a grin before grabbing the hands of both my siblings. Things are getting better with every passing moment.

* * *

 **Update 24/12/2018: Fixed a lot of mistakes in the chapter.**

* * *

 **A/N: Whooohooo! My school semester ended today and I'm free! FREE! Just to explain things, this chapter takes place a few hours after Chapter 3 (how much happened during that time, right?). I'm sorry that there hasn't been a duel in this chapter; I originally wanted to add one, but went against it because it would come out of nowhere so I'm going to save it for later.**

 **To be honest I began working on the next chapter before this one and I don't want to give spoilers but it's going to take a big turn from this. Also, a "certain" someone is going to make their appearance next time, so look forward to it!**

 **Once again, thanks to everyone for the fav/follow and the kind reviews. Talking about reviews there are some things I want to cover there.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Well, the duel was mean to be fast with Elizabeth getting her ass thoroughly kicked. It was the same in her duels against her brother. Evan and Avice are on a far higher skill level than her.**

D3lph0xL0v3r **: A shame since Avice is a female name, lol. Actually I already explained that Yuksel and Hema won't be in this fic, but I got something else in mind... I hope that you guys (and girls) will like.**

Ventus Kurosaki **: Oh, fucking yes! I wanted to make an omake but wasn't sure if it would be reasonable. If you want sent your ideas and I will credit you when I post them.**

 **So that's all about it.**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	5. Chapter 5

Performer of Underworld

 **Elizabeth's POV**

" _Avice!_ " I heard someone yelling as the echo of the name remained long after. The voice was so familiar, it belonged to Evan…

Groaning I slowly opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the white floor that I was lying on. There was nothing else here expect the echo of someone crying and the cold feeling of the ground against my skin.

" _Look at me Avic#!_ "

Gathering the strength in my legs and arms I get up into a sitting position to look around. There was no sun and everything was completely black, expect the stage on which I was standing. Then, the darkness moved aside like a curtain revealing the rest of this place. There were stairs which leaded to another stage with two men wearing white knight armors lying in a pool of their out blood. Over the stage was floating a large broken blue crystal with only the top of it remaining. Although it's current condition I could assume that it originally was with the size of a human. And right in front of the broken crystal Eva# was sitting with his back turned toward me; but there was something different with him. His hair was no longer white and was now matching the blackness of the rest of this world.

" _Why? It's all my fault!_ "

I noticed that Ev##'s shoulders were shaking, like he was crying. Gathering all of my strength I stood up and walked toward him. The moment I took the first step I felt my body becoming heavier. I took a second and it became worse. At the fourth I could barely muster the strength to raise my legs. I felt like someone was purposely trying to stop me from getting up there. The weight I felt on my shoulders was unbearable but I didn't give up. Taking a step…

And another one…

I finally made it on the top. The weight disappeared and I felt on my knees taking deep breaths and trying to regain my strength. I looked toward E### once again and this time saw that he was holding someone in his arms. I also noticed that the closer I was getting the quitter his cries were getting. Like, the closer I was getting to him psychically, the larger the gap between our souls was becoming.

" _I couldn't protect you._ " ####'s cries were now quit as a whisper. " _I'm so sorry_ _#_ _#_ _###!_ "

Getting myself I raised on my feet once again and walked around the stage, while making sure to not step on the pieces of the broken crystal that were lying around. I stopped in front of the boy and looked down at the girl he was holding. She was young, twelve years old and everything about her was white. The dress she was wearing and her skin were snow white in color with her pale blue hair being just a few shades away from the same color. Her eyes were closed, like the girl was sleeping peacefully, dreaming a sweet and innocent childish dream. Don't cry, your sister will wake up, right?

…Right? She wasn't dead. She was just sleeping! She was alive!

No, that was the end. She won't come back. Her white dress was stained by the bloody hands of the boy who was holding her. Not only that, his clothes and face were covered by the red liquid as well. He must have been the one who killed those other men in order to reach her. I didn't know why but this made me feel sad. I guess it was because right now on this stage, a tragedy was being played.

I couldn't explain why but I felt the urge to interfere, to hug the boy and tell him that it's all fine, and unconsciously I tried to do just that. Without realizing it myself I put a hand on his shoulder. I felt chills down my back, I felt dread, terror was filling my whole being. Without being able to understand what was happening or why I moved by instinct and turned my head to the right.

" _HHHYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!_ " Something that I could only describe as a decaying body screamed at my face and swung its blue blade toward my neck.

 **Splasssssh!**

"Kyyyaaaaaahhhh!" I yelled and jumped up in a sitting position on my bed.

I reached to turn the night lamp on; after that nightmare I really didn't feel like staying alone in a dark room. What the heck did I just saw anyway? I'm starting to get really paranoid inside this world, if I have started to dream about the demise of my own siblings. Or were the ones from the nightmare really Evan and Avice? The names I heard and thought about weren't theirs, it was like I knew that they were someone else, but couldn't muster the courage the think about their true names and because of that it all felt so strange.

I shook my head and looked toward the clock, it was just 3 A.M, but after all this I'm not sure I could fall asleep anytime soon. Instead I stood up and walked out of my room, then headed toward Avice's bedroom. I needed to see her to be sure everything is ok, I'm sure that once I do my mind will relax.

Soon I reached my destination and slowly opened the door, trying my best to not cause too much noise. I turned on the lights and saw that the bed was empty with the blanket throw at the side. Normally I would panic, but knowing Avice there was no need to get scared or anything.

"I guess she did it again." I said to no one in particular and left the room.

After that I turned and opened the door opposite of Avice's room and just like I expected, she was there; Avice had sneaked in Evan's bed and was peacefully sleeping with him. That wasn't the first time she did that, actually back in our world she did it any other night getting either in mine or brother's bed. She said that it was more comfortable for her to have someone close to her. Thought I was a bit jealous that Avice got got more often in Evan's bed than in mine.

I closed the door, trying my best to not make any sound and turned around, returning back to my room for some sleep. Hopefully no nightmares this time.

* * *

A few hours later the sun has risen and all three of us were making our way toward You Show. Evan and Avice were chatting, but I wasn't listening to whatever they were saying. I simply, didn't care about they crazy plans and so on, all I wanted was to just get back home. Mother, father, my friends, I had so much precious things I had to return back to. This world, the people I met here, it was all just temporally so I was doing my best to not bond too much with Yuya and co, as it would just make it more painful when our time to leave come.

I looked toward Evan and Avice, they were both laughing and looking happy of being here, and I couldn't understand that. How comes that they prefer this universe instead of our home one? It certainly wasn't for the 3D holograms or the card game, they were better than that.

"So what do you think, sis?" Evan suddenly turned toward me and asked.

"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow; maybe I should have listened to their talk.

"You weren't listening, were you?" Strangely, I couldn't feel offence in Evan's voice

"Sorry." I apologized rubbing the back of my head. "What were you talking about?"

"Forget it. It's nothing important." Evan answered back and turned away from me. I bent my head, well, now I feel a bit bad for ignoring my siblings.

The rest of our journey went in a similar manner with Evan and Avice talking to each other, thought this time I listened more carefully and was able to understand that they were talking about their plans on how to make us famous in this world and how to make connections with Akaba Reiji, who, according to them, could be very useful to have as a a link with, due the fact that he was the director of the company that created the Solid Vision and because all of the security cameras around the city were his.

Wait? There were cameras all over the place? How comes I didn't notice such a thing? Well, guess now I knew about them.

Soon the three of us got to You Show. Yuya, Yuzu and the rest were all there already waiting for us and for some reason they seemed quite excited.

"You three are just in time!" Yuya spoke first.

"Um, did something happened?" Avice asked, just as confused as me and Evan.

"We are getting another student joined our school from today! Hot-blooded!" the principal explained to us, sounding quite excited.

"Dad!" Yuzu shouted hitting him with a paper fan. "Get yourself together! If you do that in front of the new student you make scare them!"

"I wonder what the new student will be like." Tatsuya said.

"I bet they are someone awesome." Ayu exclaimed.

"I hope that they are a strong duelist." Sora added. "And that they like Fusion Summoning."

"Are you trying to hint something?" Evan asked crossing his hands.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked with a smug smirk. "I just want to be a friend with a duelist that I'm compatible with."

"Is this You Show Duel School?" came a voice. I turned toward the door and saw a little girl with a large suitcase standing at the door of the school.

She was ten years old at best with long pale-pink hair tied into pigtails that reach her lower back and her eyes were of the same color. She was wearing a light purple jacket with yellow smiling face on the left side and high collar that reached her cheeks, also the large sleeves this cloth had totally didn't match her small body. Underneath that she wore a black shirt and blue shorts with a black belt over it. The girl also wore black sneakers over pink and purple stripped socks that almost reached her shorts. If I had to summarize her appearance in just two words then they would be: super cute!

"Yes, that's You Show." Yuzu confirmed the girl's question.

"My name is Oni Hakuryù." The girl bowed. "Please take care of me."

I felt a strong wind blow by my side and suddenly both Evan and Avice were hugging and caressing our guest as if she was some kind of animal.

"Your hair is so fluffy." Avice commented.

"Why don't you play with us for a bit? Don't worry about a thing, I'm just a pervert." Evan added.

"You guys..." I sighed before face-palming.

Yuzu stepped toward and raised her paper fan. "Didn't you listen when I said to cut the nonsenses?!"

 **SLAP! SLAP!**

A few moments later I was holding my siblings by the ears while Yuzu and Yuya were trying to cover up and explain the 'incident' as a small prank from Evan and Avice. Really, my brother and sister were such troublemakers at times I felt like I was the only mature one of us.

"Why did Yuzu had to hit us?" Avice complained while holding her head.

"You two were sexually harassing a ten years old!" I snapped at them.

"We just petted her." Evan tried to correct me. Like anyone here believed that bullshit!

"Oni actually liked that." Oni said crossing hands behind her back as a light blush appeared on her cheeks. "Nobody has done that to me before."

' _You are too innocent for this world!_ ' I mentally screamed.

Avice turned and whispered in Evan's ear. "You know, she kind of reminds me of a character from that h*ntai game we played."

"The Yuri one?" Evan whispered back.

"Yeah. They both have pigtails."

"Yeah but the hair and eye colors are different."

"What are you talking about? What are you two doing behind my back?!" I snapped at my siblings.

"So, if it isn't a secret why are you carrying such a big suitcase?" Yuzu asked the young girl, reminding me about it.

"Oni just came in the city." Oni answered. "After arriving on the train station Oni first came here and had no time to look for a place to stay yet."

Wait, a ten years old girl came from god knows where with a train, on her own, without a reserved place to stay or anything? How moronic were her parents to let that happen? More over, why would one go look for a Duel School before finding a place to stay? I know that this was Yu-Gi-Oh, where card games were more important than eating and sleeping, but come on! Try to be a bit more realistic here people, you acted like idiots this time!

"Don't worry we will help you find a place to stay." Evan said patting Oni on the head. Wait, when did he escape my hold?

"Yeah, you joined the school so that makes us instant friends." Avice agreed standing beside Evan. How do you two keep doing that?

"Just like Evan and Avice said." Yuzu nodded. "We will help you. Actually, how about you stay at our place until we find a better place? Do you agree with the idea, dad?"

"Yes, that's a very hot-blooded idea!" The principal agreed, shouting.

For the first time since we got in this world I noticed what a bunch of weird people we were. The little kids aside, Yuya is obsessed with entertainment, Yuzu had a really short temper, and Sora loved sweet things a bit too much, the principal needed to tune-down a lot and then my siblings…

Let's better not talk about my sblings.

"Everyone here would be more than happy to help our little princess." Evan said following with a laugh.

"Thanks a lot." Oni nodded then looked Evan in the eyes. "Can I call you Onii-chan?"

"But of course!" He exclaimed happily and Oni hugged him. Or at least hugged his waist since she was so small.

"But he is my Onii-chan!" Avice hugged Evan tightly from behind. Was Avice... jealous?

"But Oni wants him to be Onii-chan!" Oni hugged him tighter.

"Eh?" Evan stared confused as both of the girls tried to pull him toward themselves. Was that what a love triangle looked like? It actually looked pathetic with my brother in the middle of it.

"Heh, it seems that Evan is very popular among kids." Yuya commented from the side and everyone else nodded awkwardly.

There was a question that was still bothering me so I moved closer to Yuzu and, well, asked her. "So, when did all of this happened? You know, Oni's joining the school and so on?"

"A day before you three joined her parents called to ask whenever we are accepting new students and so we got her aboard I guess. They also boasted about how she was able to register for the Maiami Championship."

"She will participate in the tournament?" I was taken aback. "Isn't then like an age limit or something?"

"There are three divisions. Youth – for the youngest participates in which Tatsuya, Futoshi, Ayu and Oni will be; Junior Youth – this is where I, Yuya, Sora and Avice are; Senior – that's for the oldest ones, or in other words that's where you and Evan are going to be."

"You are actually very optimistic about it when the three of us don't even have a single victory yet." I reminded her.

"Don't worry." Yuzu gave me a trump up. "We believe in you three."

Those words triggered something in me and for the first time since I came in this world I smiled genuinely. I couldn't help it, I was starting to look up to Yuzu. It was yesterday that we saw how worried and fragile she was, but today she acted like nothing happened. She was hiding her problems from others and acting strong to not worry her friends. Seeing how much she worked to make others happy and always musters the power to keep smiling made me feel a strong respect toward her.

"Ok then." Avice finally spoke. "It seems we won't solve anything this way so let's duel!"

"Oni accepts the challenge." The little girl nodded with determination in her eyes. "If Oni wins then she can call Onii-chan, Onii-chan."

"And if I win…" Avice suddenly became quite and closer her eyes, thinking. "Hmm… if I win… Aha! If I win then you will acknowledge that I have greater rights over MY brother and you will call me Nee-chan."

"Why are you saying it like you own me?!" Evan protested. "Am I a pet cat or something?"

"Is that it?" Oni asked a little confused. "I already recognize Avice-neechan as Nee-chan."

"Aww~! You are so cute when you call me Nee-chan!" Avice hugged the little girl once again.

"This is turning into a badly written comedy scene." I mumbled to myself, but no one else seemed affected by what was happening. Were they just used to it?

"Well, that doesn't sound like a bad idea." Yuya agreed.

"That could be Oni's 'Welcome Duel' for joining the school." Sora suggested.

"Yes, let's do that!" The principal shouted and ran out. He was ok with anything as long as it was profitable, wasn't he?

* * *

Avice and Oni walked onto the duel field while the rest of us went into the spectator room to watch them. It was visible that both girls were pretty enthusiastic to duel and each of them wanted to win.

"None of them is going to hold back in this duel, huh?" Sora said interested.

"They both duel for something very important." Yuzu replied and everyone's eyes turned to my brother.

He noticed the gazes sent his way and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you all staring at me like I have done something?"

"These two girls are going to duel for you!" Yuzu shouted. "Isn't anything that you have to say?!"

"Not really. Avice just looked for a reason to challenge her on a duel." My brother answered waving it off. "She didn't want to just say 'Hey let's duel' so she used the whole Niichan thing as an excuse for that."

"Ooooooohhhh!" Everyone nodded in understanding. That's very clever from Avice's side. And immature. But still clever.

"For a truly Entertaining Duel the Action Field I choose is Amuse World!" the principal's voice said from the loudspeaker.

Momently, the field around Avice and Oni started to change while the girls stared at each other. A Carousel, train ride and, well, anything one could expect to see in an amusement park formed around them.

"I like it." Oni said with a big smile before activating her Duel Disk.

"Let's do it!" Avice grinned activating her own Duel Disk

"Action Duel!" They both shouted in unison.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Oni LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will go first!" Avice ran toward and jumped on a popcorn stand and then to the statue of a planet before taking a card from her hand. "I Summon **_Astral Angel Silver Ring_**!"

A glowing blue cube appeared on the field with a ring rotating around it. Suddenly two silver wing accessories attached themselves to it, creating the allusion that her monster has folded its own wings.

* * *

 **Astral Angel** **Silver Ring**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Machine** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **4** **00/DEF: 1** **0** **00**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower LIGHT monster from your deck to the hand. While this card is on the field monsters your opponent controls cannot target face-up LIGHT monsters for attacks, except this one.**

* * *

"I activate Silver Ring's effect!" Avice announced as the ring started to rotate around its core. "When this card is summoned I can add a Level 4 or lower LIGHT monster to my hand!"

"I activate the effect of _**Performallusion** **Ghost-n-Hat**_ in my hand!" Oni countered. "By discarding this card I negate the activation of a monster's effect and shuffle it back into the deck!"

* * *

 **Performallusion** **Ghost-n-Hat**

 **Level: 4** **/** **Attribute:** **WATER/** **Type:** **Zombie** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 1** **5** **00**

 **Effect:** **During either player's turn, when a monster on the field activates its effect: You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard; negate the activation, and if you do, shuffle that card into the deck. When you Ritual Summon a monster, you can banish this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon.**

* * *

"What?" Avice turned toward her monster. A ghostly top hat fell from the sky and covered Silver Ring before disappearing into a pink cloud. Avice gritted her teeth before putting the card back into her deck. "That was a pretty strong hand trap you have there."

"Wait for a bit." My brother said. "Oni is using a Performa deck?"

We all turned to look at Yuya who quickly backed. "It must be a coincidence, really!"

"Since I already used my Normal Summon this turn I'm going to set a card and end things there." Avice said as a card materialized in front of her.

"My move, draw!" Oni declared.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Oni] LP: 4000, Hand: 5** **』**

"I Normal Summon _**Performallusion** **Tomb Singer**_!" The little girl raised her arm forward.

A wooden coffin with starts and smiling faces painted on it appeared on the field. Slowly it opened and a skeleton stepped out of it. The monster had dark human eyes inside its eye sockets with a star drawing under the left one and appeared to be smiling. Funny enough, the skeleton was wearing a pink ribbon with yellow stripes a dark blue top hat and was wielding a microphone with its right hand.

* * *

 **Performallusion** **Tomb Singer**

 **Level:** **3** **/Attribute:** **DARK** **/Type:** **Zombie** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1000** **/DEF: 0**

 **Effect:** **After you Normal Summon this card, you can Normal Summon or Set 1 monster in addition to your Normal Summon or Set that turn. This card can be treated as 2 Tributes for the Tribute Summon of a "** **Performallusion** **" monster.**

* * *

"I activate Tomb Singer's effect!" Oni continued and her monster disappeared from the field as mist formed in its place. "I can Normal Summon an additional time this turn and also, Tomb Singer can be treated as two tributes for the Tribute Summon of a Performallusion monster! Come forth! The greatest dancer of the Underworld! **Performallusion** **Wind Spirit**!"

The mist reshaped and took a ballerina with a pink tutu decorated with golden bells around her waist. Thought it was supposed to be a ghost, the monster had the appearance of a girl with orange hair, hallow eyes, rosy red cheeks and matching lipstick. She had thin, long neck and her body had a round, oblong shape, thin waist, rounded hands that feature four spindly fingers each. Her legs were tapered to a point so there were no feet.

* * *

 **Performallusion** **Wind Spirit**

 **Level:** **8** **/Attribute:** **WIND** **/Type:** **Zombie** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **2000** **/DEF:** **200** **0**

 **Effect: Once per turn, target up to 2 "Performallusion" monsters in your Graveyard; shuffle those cards into the Deck, also, after that, shuffle cards your opponent controls into the Deck, up to the number of "Performallusion" cards returned. If this face-up card leaves the field: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it.**

* * *

"Oni brought a Level Eight on her first turn!" Ayu said surprised.

"She is a strong duelist." Tatsuya continued.

"Her dueling gives me the shivers!" Futoshi exlaimed duing moves that I'm not sure someone with a spine could do.

I turned back to the field. Thought it was a Level 8 monster Wind Spirit's attack wasn't going to take out all of Avice's life points. Knowing my sister and her play style with the card that she set last turn things could turn around in an instant.

"I activate Wind Spirit's effect!" Oni announced as her monster put her hands together and a little ghost appeared in it. "I can return up to two Performallusion monsters from my Graveyard to the decks to shuffle the sane number of cards the opponent controls to the deck! I choose to return Tomb Singer and your set card!"

Wind Spirit threw her arms forward and Tomb Singer flew out of it, hitting Avice's set card and they both spun in the air for a few moments before disappearing from the field.

"Battle!" Oni announced, throwing her hands to the sides. "Performallusion Wind Spirit attack Avice directly! _Piercing Typhoon_!"

Wind Spirit started to spin on place gathering the wind and transforming into a giant Typhoon with two green eyes and a grin. The monster then flew toward Avice and she tried to reach for the Action Card beside her. The wind however, blow it away before she could reach it, leaving my sister completely defenseless against the attack.

* * *

 **Update 24/12/2018: Fixed a lot of mistakes in the chapter.**

* * *

 **A/N: Well, since I had started this BEFORE the previous chapter finishing this was pretty fast. Also that nightmare Elizabeth had was the most interesting part for me to write as I** **borrowed some of the ideas from actual nightmares that I had.**

 **As I said last chapter a "certain someone" appeared in this chapter and that was my second favorite OC from the original version of this story, Oni, who also joined the band, so yay!**

 **Also, I'm not sure if you guys noticed but the chapters so far were all mini-arcs. With Chapters 1 and 2 focusing on Evan, 3 and 4 on Avice while 5-6 will focus on Oni (though from Elizabeth's respective).**

 **So, to the reviews:**

D3lph0xL0v3r **: I'm not sure how I could be offended that you like the original version more that the reboot. And thought Yuksel and Hema won't appear I can say that there are going to be other interesting characters this time. But no spoilers.**

Guest (Ventus Kurosaki?) **: The Omake ideas aren't bad, but I will refine from using the idea for now because I want to** **adjusted it a bit more. Also I want to note that though it wasn't used all that much, the original version of this story was supposed to focus more on alternative Timelines than on Dimensions. And that's something that I want to focus on in this story as well, so I wouldn't mind feature other people's characters (as long as I don't get spammed by those). Though I would please ask you to sent them as PM rather than in a review (if PMing me is possible of course.)**

ScalchopWarrior **: Actually, the idea about a cat hoodie was in the air since chapter 17 of the original story, so... Also, if you think that the idea was taken from my Avi, you are somehow right because the characters on it are Alex and the original version of Avice (My very first and most liked OCs).**

 **Lastly, I want to thank to everyone who left a** **fav/follow or a reviews.**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Evan: Hey what's that? Three chapters in three days?**

 **Elizabeth: Woah, so the Author isn't an lazy piece of shit anymore?**

 **Me: JusT goTTA FInisH this lAsT tEXt**

 **Avice: You need help...**

* * *

The Seraph of Dreams

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"Battle!" Oni announced, throwing her hands to the sides. "Performallusion Wind Spirit attack Avice directly! Piercing Typhoon!"

Wind Spirit started to spin on place gathering the wind and transforming into a giant Typhoon with two green eyes and a grin. The monster then flew toward Avice and she tried to reach for the Action Card beside her. The wind however, blow it away before she could reach it.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 2000** → **2000** **』**

Avice tried to jump aside and dodge, but the typhoon hit her in the back, sending her flying. My sister then did a flip in the air and gracefully landed on top of the train ride. Wind Spirit took Oni in her hands and flew after the train, putting the little girl on the train cart behind Avice. My sister and her opponent locked eyes and nodded as small smiles formed on their faces. What the heck? They are actually enjoying this!

"Your dueling is actually pretty tough to counter." Avice commended crossing her hands. "I really like it!"

"Oni is happy to hear that!" Oni replied. "Oni wants to learn Entertainment Dueling so Oni could bring smiles with her duels!"

"It's important to have fun while playing." Avice agreed before clenching her fist. "But for me winning is more important!"

"I see… Oni sets a card and ends her turn." Oni announced.

"Strength yourself, it's my turn! Draw!" Avice pulled a card from her Duel Disk.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 2000, Hand:** **4** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my field I can Normal Summon this monster from my hand!" Avice put a card on her Duel Disk and a portal opened over her head. "Come forth! **Astral Angel Magnificus Lion**!"

A green triangle core flew out of the portal after which came and a white and red armor which covered it. The beast had four legs and a long tail, its mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth and it had only one circular eye in the middle of its face. A golden chest plate attached to its front while four spikes were added to the side of its limps and chin.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Magnificus Lion**

 **Level:** **6** **/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Beast** **/** **Pendulum/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 2**

 **ATK:** **21** **00/DEF:** **12** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect: If a LIGHT monster you control attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

 **Effect:** **if there are no monsters on your side of the field** **, you can** **Normal** **Summon this card** **without Tributing** **.** **If this card battles a non-LIGHT monster, this card gains 1000 ATK during the Damage Step only.**

* * *

"Battle! Astral Angel Magnificus Lion attack Performallusion Wind Spirit! And now by its ability when Magnificus Lion battles a non-LIGHT monster it gains 1000 attack!"

"Not so fast!" Oni countered as Wind Spirit turned into mist and disappeared from the field. "I activate the ability of **Performallusion Pally Dolly** that's in my hand! When a Performallusion monster is chosen as an attack target I can return it to the hand and Special Summon Pally Dolly along with a friend!"

The mist reformed into two new monsters. The first was a little doll with beautiful long red hair and bandage tied around her left eye. She was wearing a worm out black dress with different in size pink dots all over it and a bear badge on the left side of her chest. The doll also had a large pink ribbon on her back.

The second monster was completely black in appearance, expect it's hallow white eyes and the large smile-shaped which was glowing the same color as its eyes. The creature didn't have legs, instead it was floating in the air wearing only an orange and green top hand on its head and large metal gloves with rusty, broken chains hanging from them. Both monsters put their arms in front of themselves with a blue aura forming around them to indicate that they are in Defense Position.

* * *

 **Performallusion** **Pally Dolly**

 **Level:** **3** **/Attribute:** **WATER** **/Type:** **Zombie** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **600** **/DEF:** **300**

 **Effect:** **When a monster your opponent controls declare an attack against a "Performallusion" monster you control, while this card is in your hand, you can reveal this card: Negate the attack, then return the attack target to your hand and Special Summon this card and 1 other "Performallusion" monster in your hand.**

* * *

 **Performallusion** **Fancy Gloves**

 **Level:** **3** **/Attribute:** **EARTH** **/Type:** **Zombie** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **100** **/DEF:** **1900**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn, you can shuffle 1 "Performallusion" monster from your hand into the Deck; add 1 "Performallusion" with a different name than the returned monster. When you Ritual Summon a monster, you can banish this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon.**

* * *

"And since Performallusion Wind Spirit left the field I activate her effect to destroy your monster!" Oni continued as her monster reappeared on the field and flew toward Magnificus Lion. There weren't any Action Cards around for Avice to use, was that really the end?

"It seems thing are going to get interesting from here on." Evan commented from beside me. Indeed, until now no one expect him has been able to be a match for Avice, but that field that her opponent has built still worries me.

"You are really underestimating my Astral Angel deck, Oni! I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Selig Transform!" At those words Avice's Magnificus Lion fell apart, and its core started to glow. "By its effect, using Magnificus Lion as the material I Transformation Summon!"

" _Furious beast created from the light! Change into a whirlpool of light and master the secrets of the ancient moon! Transformation Summon! Level 8! Great Master of Illusions! **Astral Angel** **Moonstone Magician**!_ "

The core became red in color and new pieces of grey armor covered it up. First was the main body which had the curves of a woman, then came the arms and legs, both of which were slender and long. Finally the head appeared as well, opened to show that it was completely empty inside, before attaching itself as the core flew inside and it closed, giving us a view to its face which was that of a woman but without mouth, with glowing red eyes and two lines descending from her eyes to the chin, giving out a dollish appearance. The monster also had long black hair that extends down to her ankles. Finally, the doll reached out with one hand and a long golden staff formed in front of it with three rings attaching themselves to the tip.

* * *

 **Astral Angel** **Moonstone Magician**

 **Level:** **8** **/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Rock** **/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK:** **27** **00/DEF: 2000**

 **Effect:** **Must be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing a Level 5 or 6 LIGHT monster and cannot be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by other ways.** **This card cannot be destroyed, also its unaffected by the effects of Level 7 or lower monsters that would make it leave the field. Once per turn: You can turn 2 face-up LIGHT monsters in your Banished Zone face-down: Negate the effects of all Special Summon monsters your opponent controls, also their ATK and DEF become 0 until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"Avice Transform Summoned again!" Avice exclaimed in awe. "And this time it's a Level 8 monster as well! That's so amazing!"

"Yeah, she not only dodged the destruction effect of Wind Spirit but on top of that Summoned a stronger monster on her field." Sora commented next and took a bite from his chocolate. "Now I really want to have a duel with her as well."

"So that's a Transformation Summoning?" I turned back to the Duel and saw Oni staring at Avice's monster in pure amazement. "It looks so cool!"

"And it's only getting cooler! Since it's still my Battle Phase Moonstone Magician attack Performallusion Pally Dolly!"

Moonstone Magician raised its staff and three orbs of yellow energy formed at the tip, forming a triangle. They started to rotate as the Spellcaster threw them toward, cutting through the poor doll like a saw.

"Although you were able to destroy Pally Dolly since she was in defense mode I take no damage from the battle." Oni reminded.

"With this move I end my turn." Avice said with Moonstone Magician standing beside her.

"She didn't set anything." I noticed.

"Yeah, I know that." Evan nodded looking toward. "It's a risky move, but if she were to set anything then Oni would just shuffle it into the deck next turn."

"Yeah, but that means that now she is going to shuffle Moonstone Magician and leave her wide open for a direct attack!" Yuya replied.

Indeed, if Oni use Wind Spirit's effect to return Avice's monster into the hand that would leave her with just 2000 Life Points and absolutely nothing to protect herself with, unless she is planning to use Action Cards in order to survive this turn.

"My turn!" Oni shouted drawing her card.

 **『** **Turn** **4** **[Oni] LP: 4000, Hand:** **2** **』**

"I activate Fancy Gloves's effect!" Oni declared as the spirit started to move its hands in circles. "Once per turn I can return a Performallusion monster from my hand into the deck and add another one! The monster I return is Wind Spirit!"

"Eh? Why is Oni returning her Level 8 monster to the deck?" Futoshi voiced out everyone's confusion.

"She probably can't provide the two Tributes needed to summon it." Yuzu guessed.

"Or maybe is preparing something else." Evan leaned against the wall behind us.

Indeed that is another possibility but I can't think of what else could be more useful that Wind Spirit in this situation. But whatever it is, I just hope that Avice will be able to overcome it and win. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like Oni, but Avice is my sister so it's just natural to roof for her.

"And now the monster I add is, Performallusion Grand Specter Numu!" Oni showed the card and it was blue in color.

If I remember about the game is still correct then that was the color Ritual monsters, which in turn means that Oni is a Ritual User!

"Furthermore, while in the Graveyard Ghost-n-Hat can be used as a tribute for a Ritual Summon!" Oni explained further.

"Then that means you can summon a Ritual monster with Level up to 7!" Avice shouted in disbelief.

"That's right! I activate the Ritual Spell, _**Night Parade of Souls**_ , using Fancy Gloves and Ghost-n-Hat as the tributes!" Oni declared and a black portal opened in front of her. After that a large coffin locked with rusted chains appeared on the field.

* * *

 **Night Parade of Souls (Spell) Ritual**

 **This card can be used to Ritual Summon any Zombie-Type Ritual Monster from your hand or Graveyard. You must also Tribute** **"Performallusion"** **Monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. If a Ritual you control is returned to the hand you can return this card from your Graveyard to the hand.**

* * *

" _Millennium spirit of the sleeping souls, wake from your slumber and be revived! The omniscient priest of the Spirit Realm! Ritual Summon, Level 7! **Performallusion Grand Specter Numu**!_ "

The chains break apart and fell on the ground as the coffin opened and something figured stepped out of it. The coffin then sank into the ground once again, giving full view to the monster itself, which was a young woman. She had ghostly white skin with ashed black hair tied into twin tails while her eyes were glowing a dim blue. The monster itself had small bat wings on her back and a small broken crown on her head. She was wearing a frilly dark blue dress with white front and six buttons, black starts and a white bat symbol design cross from the front to the back. Underneath the monster had black shorts and black pony heel boots. She was also holding a staff with outspreaded bat wings and a blade at the tip, giving it the appearance of a spear.

* * *

 **Performallusion Grand Specter Numu**

 **Level:** **7** **/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type: Zombie/** **Ritual/** **Effect**

 **ATK: 2** **4** **00/DEF: 2** **1** **00**

 **Effect:** **You can Ritual Summon this card with "Night Parade of Souls". Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. If this card is Ritual Summoned: You can shuffle a number of cards opponent controls into the Deck, up to the number of monsters used as Tributes for this card's Ritual Summon. You can Tribute this card to negate the activation of an Effect Monster's effect, and shuffle that card in the deck, and if you do, Special Summon 2 "Spectral Tokens" (Zombie-Type/Dark/Level 4/ATK 0/DEF 2000).**

* * *

"I activate Grand Specter Numu's effect to return Moonstone Magician into the Deck!" Oni pointed toward and Numu crossed her staff in front of her chest. A large blue magical circle formed behind the Specter and a large thunder blasted toward Moonstone Magician.

"Moonstone Magician's effect! It cannot leave the field by the effects of monsters whose Level is 7 or below!" Avice shouted back and her monster put its staff in front of itself, absorbing the thunder.

"I attack Astral Angel Moonstone Magician with Grand Specter Numu!" Oni's monster leaped into the air swing its staff before firing four balls of energy, each in the shape of a smiling face.

Avice clicked her tongue and both girls jumped off the train ride, landing on the ground and dashing toward the carousel in the middle of the field. Oni reached in first and leaped onto a horse, grabbing the Action Card that was resting on its chin.

"I activate the Action Card, Bi-Attack and double Grand Specter Numu's attack! With 4800 attack points versus 2700 that's 2100 damage for you and the end of this duel!"

"Oh come on!" Avice groaned and looked around.

My sister then ran of toward a hotdog stand. She opened it and took a deep breath before closing her eyes and putting her arm inside of it. What the heck is she doing? While she played with the hotdog stand Grand Specter Numu's attack was getting closer and closer, until it hit Moonstone Magician, blowing it up with a purple smoke covering the arena. That was it, Avice lost the duel.

"Phew, that was a close one!" I heard Avice's voice and the smoke blew away, revealing her monster still intact. My sister then stepped toward with crossed hands while an Action Card was glowing beside her. "If I was just a moment late grabbing that Action Card I was going to lose this. Anyway, thanks to this dear Action Card called Miracle – a pretty fitting name – The destruction of Moonstone Magician has been negated and the damage I took is halved."

 **『** **Avice LP: 2000 - 1150** → **950** **』**

"There was an Action Card?" Oni titled her head to the side. "But how did Avice-neechan figured that out?"

"I didn't." Avice answered with pride. "I was just so desperate that I was ready to even put my hand inside a hotdog stand and lucky enough there was a hidden Action Card in it."

"Oh." Oni replied a bit disappointed. "I end my turn. Your move, nee-chan."

"Here I go, Oni!" Avice shouted before drawing a card; she looked at it and her lips lifted into a hardly noticeable smile.

 **『** **Turn** **5** **[Avice] LP:** **95** **0, Hand:** **3** **』**

"I activate **Pot of Wishes** to draw 2 cards and banish the top 5 cards of my deck face-up!" A card whose left half had the appearance of Pot of Greed and the right was a smiling dark face (Pot of Avidity) appeared in front of my sister for a moment before disappearing once again.

* * *

 **Pot of Wishes** **(Spell) Normal**

 **Draw 2 cards; banish the top 5 cards of your Deck face-up.**

* * *

Avice then took two cards from her hand and inserted them into her Duel Disk. "Next I activate the Continuous Spells, _**Astral Angel Der Erste**_ and _**Astral Angel Das Letzte**_!"

The artwork of the first card showed a golden mask in front of the sun while the second showed a silver mask surrounded by comets and planets. A large ring made from the same material as the mask on its respective card appeared around them.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Der Erste (Spell) Continuous**

 **Pendulum Scale: 1**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, during your Main Phase 2, target 1 LIGHT monster you control: That target can declare an attack.**

 **When this card is activated add 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your deck to the hand. Once per turn, you can place this card in your Pendulum Zone.**

* * *

 **Astral Angel Das Letzte (Spell) Continuous**

 **Pendulum Scale: 9**

 **Pendulum Effect: Target 1 LIGHT monster on the field, then Tribute 1 other monster you control; that target gains ATK equal to half of the ATK the tribute monster had on the field, until the end of this turn (This is a Quick effect).**

 **When this card is activated target a number of face-up cards your opponent controls, up to the number of face-up Continuous Spells on your side of the field; negate the effects of the targeted cards until the end of this turn. Once per turn, you can place this card in your Pendulum Zone.**

* * *

"I activate the effect of Der Erste! When this card is activated I can add 1 Astral Angel monster from my deck to the hand!" A card popped from Avice's deck and she took it. "Next I activate the effect of Das Letzte to negate the effects of Performallusion Grand Specter Numu!"

"But even if she attack now, Oni would still have life points left." Yuzu commented while Evan just smirked and title his head to the side.

"I wonder about that."

"Hey, why does Avice's spells look like Pendulum cards?" Sora asked, causing everyone expect my brother to stick their faces into the window.

"Next I activate the second effect of both Der Erste and Das Letzte!" Avice shouted pointing toward the sky. "Once per turn, I can move them into the Pendulum Zones!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH?!" I and my brother had to cover our ears to avoid getting deaf from the others' screaming.

"Here goes nothing!" Avice shouted as her cards turned into the actual masks and flew into the air.

Two blue columns of green light appeared on each side of my sister as her monsters levitated into the air, with the numbers '1' and '9' glowing beneath them. A giant green pentagram swung between the two masks ominously and thunders started to fall from it.

"With this I can Special Summon monsters whose level is in-between the pendulum scales! In other words I can Special Summon monsters from level two to eight!" Avice explained before crossing her arms over her chest. "Swing, pendulum of balance, arise within my soul and become a path of light! Pendulum Summon! Arise before me, my monsters!"

A multicolored portal appeared between the columns and a single beam of light flew from it and onto the field, revealing a floating green pendulum.

" _Appear, holy warrior of light and dreams! The light of my soul! **Sola Starlit** **the** **Pendulum Seraph**!_ "

A pair of glowing eyes appearance within the pendulum and it started to crack until it break into pieces and a human girl appeared from inside. She was shorter than a regular humanoid monster, with her size being closer to that of a fifteen years old. Her eyes were blue with white starts in them while her hair was white and reached the ground while also floating to the side, leaving her back exploded. She wore a white and black one piece suit which while covering the most of the top, including her hands and neck seems to have left out her back and the lower part, as it covered only her private parts, while left her thighs completely revealed to the audience. There were also several blue energy lines across her suit with glowing orbs on to the shoulders, chest and wrists. A green halo was floating over her head while six large blade-like structures made from energy of the same color were projected near to her back like wings.

 **Sola Starlit** **the** **Pendulum Seraph**

 **Level:** **6** **/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Fairy/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum S** **cale:** **1**

 **ATK: 2500** **DEF:** **18** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn, if your opponent activated a card or effect this turn that targeted exactly 1 Pendulum Monster you controlled (and no other cards) while this card is in your Pendulum Zone: Negate the activation of that effect, then Special Summon this card, and if you do, place the targeted monster in your Pendulum Zone. (This Special Summon is treated as a Pendulum Summon.)**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Pendulum Summoned: You can target 1 Pendulum monster you control; this turn, it cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. At the start of the damage step, if this card battles an opponent's monster, you can reveal 1 LIGHT monster in your hand; this card gains 500 ATK until the next End Phase.**

"Next I activate the effects of Sola and Moonstone Magician!" Avice continued. "Sola's monster effect allows me to make her indestructible to battle or card effects until the end of the turn she was summoned! Then Moonstone Magician's effect, I turn two of my banished LIGHT monsters face-down to reduce the attack and defense of Grand Specter Nomo to 0! _**Full Moon Circle**_!"

Moonstone Magician raised its staff toward Oni's monster and fired a red beam, turning it into a statue.

"That's amazing!" the little said in disbelief. "Because of the effects of your cards now my monster's effects and attack power are sealed!"

"Now battle!" Avice pumped her fist toward. "I attack Performallusion Grand Specter Nomo with Moonstone Magician! _**Magic Wave Edge**_!"

Moonstone Magician raised its staff and the three orbs of yellow energy formed at the tip again, before shooting toward like a saw.

"Trap activate, _ **Performallusion Six Feet Party**_!" Oni countered as a card flipped up, its art showing various ghosts and zombies playing together inside a Graveyard. "This card can be activated when my opponent declare an attack against a Performallusion monster; its effect ends the Battle Phase and then inflicts 800 points of damage to your for each monster that you control!"

* * *

 **Performallusion Six Feet Party (Trap) Normal**

 **When an opponent's monster declares an attack, targeting a "Performallusion" monster you control; negate the attack, then end the Battle Phase, and if you do, inflict 800 damage to your opponent for each monster they control.**

* * *

Five phantom swords appeared around Avice's monsters as Moonstone Magician's attack has been canceled. Blue flames formed on the tips of the blades that surrounded my sister and suddenly they all exploded. Oni sighed and lowered her Duel Disk, the winner has been decided.

"You almost got me there." Came Avice's voice from within the cloud of smoke. Suddenly it all got smoked inside a small white furry ball with black starts and comets in it as if there was a reversed universe inside of it. Lastly there those cute, large star-shaped golden eyes.

 **『** **Avice LP: 425 Hand: 1** **』**

"You were able to counter all of my moves so far, but that ends now!" Avice said triumphantly and turned toward the white furry ball. "Thanks Kuriray!"

The little monster nodded its head and then turned toward Oni's field, ready to fight.

* * *

 **Kuriray**

 **Level:** **1** **/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Fairy/Effect**

 **ATK:** **?** **DEF: ?**

 **Effect: During either player's turn: If you would take effect damage you can reveal this card from your hand and pay half your Life Points; that effect damage becomes 0, then Special Summon this card, and if you do, it's ATK and DEF become equal to half the original damage that you would have taken.**

* * *

"How?" Oni asked dumbfound.

"It's very simple." Avice answered. "Kuriray's ability allowed me to pay half of my life points to negate the damage and then it gains power from that damage!"

Indeed, like Avice said the white furry ball had 800 attack and it seemed ready to fight along with her other monsters. However, why did she summon it in Attack Position? Due to Six Feet Party's effect Avice's Battle Phase is over and she can't attack any more.

"Oni! I'm going to bet everything on one attack!" Avice declared with determination. "I activate Astral Angel Der Erste's Pendulum Effect! Once per turn I can target one monster on my field and let it attack again outside of the Battle Phase! Of course I choose Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph!"

A beam of yellow light shot from the golden mask and raised into the air before hitting Sola and giving her an aura of the same color.

"Furthermore I activate Astral Angel Das Letzte's Pendulum Effect! I tribute Moonstone Magician and give half of its attack to Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph!" A white beam shot from the silver mask, hitting both monsters. Moonstone Magician turned into sparks which were then absorbed by Sola giving her a white aura and raising her ATK to 3850.

"Battle!" Avice shouted. "I attack Performallusion Great Specter Nomo with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph! _**Linear Ray Artillery**_!"

Avice's monster leaped into the air and threw her arms to the sides, a blue energy blast formed in both of her palms as she brought them together firing a combined beam toward Performallusion Great Specter Nomo.

"And before you say that you will still have Life Points left after this I activate Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph's effect to reveal Astral Angel Star Frieden in my hand, and since it's a LIGHT monster Sola gains 500 extra attack! _**Photon Reactor**_!"

The attack hit Oni's performer who at first was able to withstand it, but suddenly the attack power began to raise and the energy beam became stronger, turning into a homing beam. The monster couldn't block it any longer and the laser went right through its chest, causing it to scream as it got shattered to pieces. Oni covered her eyes but the force of the energy was too strong and caused her to fly backward.

 **『** **Oni LP: 4000 - 0 Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

Avice sighed and turned toward us, giving a trump up. I smiled back at her, but my brother put a hand on my shoulder and leaned toward to whisper into my ear. I could swear I froze for a moment because his words caused me to realize something very important.

"Tell the others that I have gone out to buy ice cream to celebrate Oni's joining our school. Now that Avice fucked up and used Pendulum Summoning the others will start to ask questions and I don't feel like dealing with those."

Yes, he was right, Yuya was the founder of Pendulum Summoning and so far one of the only two people who are supposed to be able to ultimate that summoning method. The sudden appearance of a third and possible fifth and six user of Pendulum could cause a lot of questions from the kids. But why should I and Avice be the one to deal with them alone? I turned to tell him this, but it was already late, Evan has already left the room.

'Just what are you planning of doing now?' I wondered. Honestly at times he acts like a street cat.

* * *

 **A/N: Keep the cat jokes! Keep them coming! I'm sorry guys I can't stop them!**

 **Also I ended up turning a whole chapter in a single duel? Whoopshy! But what do you guys and girls think of the idea about Spell Pendulums? Too fanficy? Also, you may have noticed by now, but the whole 'Monster is inside of Pendulum' thing was taken from the Arc-V Manga, though note that here this kind of Summoning is applied only for the aces of each sibling (Like Sola) but not for the rest of their monsters (kind of to match the fact that they have Pendulum in their names).**

 **Also a response to** ScalchopWarrior **: I had ideas of making a series of oneshots about what the siblings do outside the story but if I do that it will probably be rated 'M' for smut but no** **incest pals!**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	7. Chapter 7

Run From Trouble, Find Trouble

 **General POV**

Inside a large office, sitting behind a battle and enjoying the view of the ocean trough the large window was a young man with grey hair and glasses. His name was Akaba Reiji, the director of Leo Corporation and a genius duelist who has mastered all four summoning methods, but there was a mystery that even his intelligence couldn't solve.

A few days ago a strange energy reading has been detected in the City, followed from the discovery of a strange matter that can infuse with living beings. The only problem however was – and that's what worried Reiji the most - that its origins have yet to be discovered. The specialists that worked for Leo Corporations were able to figure out that this matter, whatever it was, didn't originate from this world, or from any of the other three Dimensions. But if it wasn't from there then from where did it came?

And then there were those strange data transmitting Summons which caused the computers to get corrupted whenever they try to decode them and the sudden appearance of this new and unique 'Transformation Summon'. Because of the anomalies those summons caused the science team named them 'Outer'. Outer Synchro, Outer Xyz and even Outer Transformation, just who was the cause behind all of this?

"Sir, may I come in?" a voice called and Reiji turned his chair toward the door of his office before nodding as Nakajima, his right hand man came in.

"What is it?" Reiji asked.

The man walked inside the office and put a tablet-like device in front of the president of Leo Corporation before retreating and putting his hands behind his back.

"The Control Room detected a summoning reaction from You Show; it was a Pendulum Summon." Nakajima answered.

"I see, were there any changes in it?"

"Yes, there were. Actually, this time the Summon showed the same traits as the other phenomenons we recorded recently. They called it Outer Pendulum."

"And Outer Pendulum?" Reiji's eyes widened at the information before he regained his composure. "I see, is that all about it?"

"We couldn't be sure but according to the data this Pendulum Summon seems to have been conducted without the use of monsters in the Pendulum Zone."

"A Pendulum Summon completely different from that of Sakaki Yuya's?" Reiji mumbled in thought and then returned the tablet device to Nakajima. "I want you to check in the data if anyone has joined You Show Duel School in the period after we detected the Dimension Distortion from three days ago and if they are any new students, I want you to find anything you can about them."

"Understood." Nakajima nodded and left the room as fast as possible.

Reiji then turned stood up and walked closed to the window, looking down at the City below him. There was something hiding in it for sure, but the question now was whenever that something was an ally or an enemy?

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

I walked around Maiami City, alone. It wasn't bad, the weather was nice and it was quite peaceful, a nice change from the dynamic of my life in the last couple of days. Oh, I can imagine what a disastrous experience my sisters are experiencing back at You Show right now, but it's their own fault. I specially warned them when we found how rare Pendulum is, but Avice still ignored my words. But at least because of that now I can enjoy a bit of the silence and serenity that was denied to me lately.

As I kept walking through the streets of the city I looked at the people that passed me and noticed that they all seemed happy and pleased by their lives; it was hard to not share such a happy mood. It was also a bit strange for me to feel this way, I'm not like Yuya or the rest of You Show, other people's happiness and entertainment doesn't interest me in the slightest. I'm not a good person like them. I have my own wishes and dreams which are more important for me that those of other peoples.

I know what you think, that I'm too cold and heartless, that I'm thinking like a true villain. But is a life in which you only try to satisfy others really worth the effort? I don't think it is.

Anyway, let's move to another topic.

I kept walking through the city, looking for something to do, because as you guys may have figured out, the whole 'buying ice cream' thing was just an excuse to get out and look around. Thought I, Avice and Eli all spent yesterday mostly exploring we barely covered a fourth of the territory. I must say, this city was at least six times bigger that my town, though that isn't much of a surprise given that my hometown was a really small place, but finding this out is still amazing in its own way. Thinking about all those amazing places we have yet to discover and such excites me.

Then it appeared before me, the largest building in the whole city, shaped like an hourglass towering over the rest like it was trying to show off how mighty and worthy it is compared to the rest. If you haven't understood by now, I'm talking about the headquarters of Leo Corporation, the residence of Akaba Reiji. Really, the replay from his duel against Yuya is still playing in my head and I can't help but admire how strong that guy is. He wasn't like those worthless scums that called themselves Elites, no, he was far different from them. Unlike those small flies Reiji seemed to be a true duelist, he doesn't taunt his opponents and keeps his calm and collected personality, not giving a single opening during the whole duel.

Oh, now I'm really fired up and want to duel him. That guy is going to be a strong opponent and could possible give me a run for my money, something that hasn't happened in a long while. If I have learned something from the YGO anime that is that the protagonist and his rival always compete in the same tournament. Since Yuya is the protagonist and there is no one better for the title of rival that Reiji I'm sure that he will be at the Maiami Championship as well.

Just way you guys, I will definitely beat this tournament and earn the right to challenge him!

That out of the way I also had to find a way to make a connection with him first. This guy is obviously a smartass and he owns the company which owns the most important and probably only-of-its-kind technology in the city and even has cameras all over the damn place. Those things would all come in handy in figuring and planning things in a later stage of this 'game'.

But as I already said, those were just plans, and I had to yet figure out a way to actually get any near to fulfilling them. Certainly, I couldn't just burst in the building and start yelling: 'The other world arrived fuckers!' so I'm just going to way for the company to come looking for me. How I know that such a thing is going to happen? Well, those guys from LDS, aka the school supported and owned by Leo Corporation, seem to be the only ones who offer course of Fusion, Synchro and Xyz, and they are very interested in Yuya's Pendulum.

So who am I in this picture? A Synchro user who doesn't attend their school and also owns Pendulum cards that, once again, aren't created by them. Also let's not forget the possibility that I don't exist in the data archives of the city or this world in general. But why am I saying 'the possibility' instead of 'certainty' you may ask? Well, I have read some fan fiction in which when a character get trapped within a story like this sometimes by some magic or something they turn out to have the documents.

Of course it's silly to make such predictions based on fan fictions written by silly people, but it's still something that could happen and here, so I will take this possibility into account as well. After all, there is nothing absolute, there is a gasp in anything. It all comes to just whenever you are skilled enough to exploit this gasp for your benefit and to be prepared to take the risks.

I sighed and continued on my own way to, wherever. I don't honestly know where I'm going and it's not that I care all that much either. Right now I simply needed something that would take me away from the usual problems. How to put it, I wanted to not thing about all those complicated things and all the question that pop into my head out of nowhere, like:

Are we the only ones that were sent to this world? Are there other people out there who share the same fate as me and my sisters? If there are others from our world are they hostile? What exactly is our purpose for being here? How comes Avice's Pendulum was green when Yuya and Reiji's were both blue?

AHH! So much things are on my head that I'm getting a headache from all this!

And just then it was that something caught my interest. Someone was passing around me ad long locks of black hair appeared before my eyes followed by smooth dark skin and momently I recognized who it was; the girl from the replay of Yuzu's duel.

"The Fusion chick?" Without realizing it myself, I ended up saying what was on my mind out loud. Thankfully there weren't any other passers but she still heard me and turned back with a face that showed both confusion and embarrassment.

Right now she was probably hoping that I didn't mean her by this nickname, but at the same time she must have come to the realization – or her pride is making her think – that there aren't any other Fusion users around here, which is both correct and wrong since I'm capable of using it too.

The 'Fusion chick' seemed to kept staring at me in shock for a good minute until she came back to her senses and pointed a finger toward me, like I'm some kind of criminal – a pretty rude gesture indeed.

"W-what did you said?" She asked me, her voice cracking from embarrassment.

"I called you 'Fusion chick'. What, isn't that right in a way? After all, you are a Fusion user and you are also a chick. A very fitting nickname if you ask me." I answered her casually, trying to play it out cool for now.

"Who are you?" The girl asked me and suddenly her voice became cold and somewhat confident. Her expression became hostile as well, but that was to be expected given how I just called her.

"You don't really care what my name is, do you?" I asked her with a playful voice. That was going to be a lot of fun for me, but I just hope that I won't end with a mark of a palm on my face. "I bet that for you I'm just an annoying peasant. You just want to know how someone like me knows you, correct?"

"Drop the smug face. And yes, that's what I want to know. I haven't seen you before and you don't have the LDS badge either." Ah, 'Fusion chick' is talking to me with such a cold tone, how did I deserve such treatment?

"You were with those guys who tried to take over You Show. I joined that Duel School recently and just by a chance I found the replay of your duel with Yuzu Hiiragi. I'm not a stalker or something and it just so happened that we met here."

"You Show, huh? Well, I'm not sure what I should have expected." 'Fusion chick' said, obviously looking down at me. Well, I'm stuck in a junk that calls itself a school so I guess she has somehow the right to think that I suck.

I started to laugh at her comment, oh how wrong she was about a lot of things. My reaction seems to have caught her off guard as 'Fusion chick' took a step back. But I couldn't help myself, it was so funny to hear this coming from her mouth. First of all, judging my dueling skills by merely where I'm 'learning' and then for believing that she, or any other from that damn school, has the right to think themselves for better than the rest.

"Ah, you, you are so funny!" I replied trying to hold back from laughing any further. I then looked at the 'Fusion chick' and put on the creepiest smirk I could muster. "Don't underestimate me just because I attend that shit hole of a Duel School. I have seen all of your duels and couldn't say that you from LDS are any better than those noobs. Your Special Summoning aren't anything 'special' either so don't embarrass yourself by trying to compare with me, 'Fusion chick'."

Following my reply 'Fusion chick's face became red with anger, though it was a bit hard to notice due to skin color and all. She must have taken my words for a big insult, and they actually were. Now it was only a matter of time before she exploded and did something stupid like

"Duel me!" She shouted at me drawing out her Duel Disk. Oh, it seems I hit a nerve with this one. "LDS is the strongest! Right now! I will show you just how strong LDS's Fusion is and will make sure that you will never forget it!"

"And I don't have anything better to do than dueling a 'Fusion chick' like you because?" I asked her, I really didn't have anything else to do, but accepting her challenge felt like a waste of time.

"Stop calling me that! My name is Masumi!" Oh, such a short temper she has.

"Nah, I like 'Fusion chick' better. Also, you realize that you just gave your name to a complete stranger?" I asked back watching how her expression turned from anger to confusion and finally to an embarrassed anger. Oh, pushing her buttons is so much funnier and healthier that to Yuzu or Eli.

"Then what is your name?!" She asked and I stared at her dumbfound. Does she really think that I will fall for that? Those guys are ass enough that I could get in big trouble for harassing an LDS student.

"So what are you doing here?"

"DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE TOPIC!"

"Whatever, ok I will accept your challenge, but where are we going to duel?" I asked her trying to change the topic. "I don't think that the streets are the best place so how about in an alley or something?"

"So you could ambush me?" I stared at her dumbfound once again. What kind of ambush was she referring to? The YGO kind of ambush or the mature one? Because if it's the second then, damn, she can read minds?

"Listen, I have been in this… City, for not more than three days. So I don't understand what you are trying to refer to." I gave her an honest answer.

"And how can I be sure that what you say is true?" 'Fusion chick' asked me send a cold glare my way. I simply shrugged and moved behind her. Or at least tried to, but her eyes refused to move away from me; I feel so loved right now.

"There is no way for me to prove that." I answered her. How was I supposed to prove my own non-existence three days ago without making it look suspiciously? "But I would really like to know why you suddenly came out with this idea. Honestly, really strange things are happening here and everyone refuses to tell me what they know about it."

"Strange things? What do you mean by that?" I can't say why but I feel like I'm on an interrogation right now.

"I can't explain those either, but I would like to know more as well." I told her. "There was a reason why LDS attack You Show wasn't it? From over there they told me that it was so you could acquire our school, but my intuition tells me there is more to the story, right? I mean, that place isn't worth a thing and the structure? Ugly."

The 'Fusion chick' sighed and finally lowered her Duel Disk. She was probably disappointed from my lack of Intel, but at least so I can use her on my benefit without her expecting the same thing in return.

"It was in retaliation with Sawatari Shingo's claim that Sakaki Yuya attacked him using Xyz Summon." Wait, she is really telling me this? Isn't it like a top hidden secret or something?

"And the Xyz Summon specification is because?" I asked, but she just turned away. I guess that now was a secret. What the heck is wrong with those people? "But you aren't trying to get him in jail anymore so I guess that the real culprit has been found, right?"

The 'Fusion chick' didn't answer again and this time it started to irritate me. Either they were told to keep the identity a secret or the more realistic option; they haven't caught the attacker yet.

"Too bad." I sighed and looked away. "But since my school is involved I would like to help figuring out what's going on, so such incidents don't happen again."

"I'm trying to find the culprit as well." The 'Fusion chick' replied. "So, if you hear or see something suspicious I would like you to tell me about it."

So it seems I'm about to get myself helping a LDS, not the worst thing that could happen to someone, but if what I saw until now is anything to judge by, this is going to be the beginning of an annoying and somewhat insulting partnership. That's unless I decline her offer and go my own way.

"Ok, so give me your phone number!" I told her. What? Such a chance comes once in a lifetime.

* * *

So, after my small confrontation with the 'Fusin chick' I got another contact added in my Duel Disk (Those things can be used as phones, how cool is that?!) and was a step closer to achieving my goal. I must say, that girl was a pretty calm and collected individual, as she took all of my insults without batting an eye, until I mentioned her school, calling it weak. That was a bit too cruel on my part but it was all just business, nothing personal.

And before anyone start with how I should apologize and such I already know that but I can't do it, call it me being stubborn or whatever but my pride won't allow me to say something like 'Sorry' to anyone other than my sisters. They are the only ones that I care enough about to say such a humiliating thing.

 **BEEP! BEEP!**

I froze on the spot. Something just beeped and the source of the sound was very close to my body. I reached back with my right arm and took my Duel Disk which was attached to the back of my belt. The device was the one making the weird sound as its screen was glowing like a GPS. What the heck is that thing doing right now? Certainly that wasn't how it was supposed to work, but I could only guess what was wrong with it.

Suddenly a small map of the city appeared on the screen with a glowing red and blue point marked on it. Ok that was getting weirder by the second. I'm supposed to go where my Duel Disk is showing me to? That wouldn't be so bad if the location wasn't inside an empty alley. You know, like the ones in which clueless idiots tend to normally get killed by some psychopath, or sent to the Shadow Real if you guys feel better with the Yu-Gi-Oh terming for this kind of stuff.

"What the hell is a Duel Disk supposed to detect?" I asked myself irritated. This isn't how a Duel Disk is supposed to work but I guess I could try following it while trying not to get myself killed. Here goes nothing.

I glanced around to make sure no one is looked and then walked into the alley. As I was making my way in that scary place, the beeping sound that my Duel Disk was making started becoming more frequent. There was certainly something that this damn device wanted to find, but the question was whenever that something is safe or not. But it's not like Duel Disk-kun would let me turned around and leave if it was something dangerous.

Actually, how exactly did that person who attacked this Shingo guy choose and eliminated their targets? Since it this is a Yu-Gi-Oh series I would beat my head that it's through a duel, but how do they find their victims in the first place? I just hope that it isn't through Duel Disk hacking, because I would be really screwed if it was that.

I reached the end of the alley and suddenly the beeping stop. Well, that thing certainly made me lost my ti-! Oh, no. I looked up and there was a young man standing in front of us with his arms crossed and an activated yellow Duel Disk. He had spiky black and green hair, and seemed to be around Yuya's age. The boy was wearing a grey shirt with a red tie, green pants and the same jacket as the one the tomato heard always wore as a cape. Strangely, there were blue lines on his neck which were similar to a circuit.

"Um, hi there" I greeted him with and awkward smile, trying to not show how scared I'm, but the boy didn't answer. It seemed like he wasn't paying attention to me at all. "Um, just to be sure you haven't attacked anyone from LDS recently, did you?"

Once again, he didn't answer my question and just kept staring at me with those, empty of any emotion, eyes. It was a really creepy sight and the fact that he stood at one place like a statue just added to that feeling. Oh, there was also a card on his Duel Disk. Wait, a Pendulum monster?! But where is the mons-!

"Oh, Divine shit!" I shouted as I noticed large spaceship floating into the sky and charging three beams toward me. Suddenly the boy in front of us started to chuckle and then broke into a mad laughed as his monster fired everything it got toward me. DUEL DISK-KUN BETRAYED ME!

"Why does that always happen in Yu-Gi-Oh?!" I shouted and started to run as fast as my legs could withstand. The beams fell at the sides, missing me, but then the third one landed right behind, creating an explosion that threw my body into the air. I shielded my face with both hands as I fell back on the ground, hitting my back. Damn! That hurt a lot!

I tried to get back up, but instead just rolled on my chest and looked forward. The boy's eyes were glowing red with similar blue lines within his sclera. But who cares about this, that boy is trying to murder me right now! I gritted my teeth in irritation and stop back up, just to felt a pain in my left shoulder, I think that it's bruised, but that much of a damage isn't anything that could stop or slow down my movement, it was just going to make it more annoying for me.

"Nihility detected. Initiating Power Mode: Diablo!" Wait, what? My Duel Disk spoke again and then it opened up, revealing purplish-red energy flowing inside of it as the back part became longer and the touch screen transformed into a hemispherical display.

But the insanity didn't end there. After my Duel Disk, transformed, so to speak, it activated by itself and multiple crystal fragments of different size and shape started to come together creating a very irregular and broken-looking purplish-red blade.

"Now that's one strange looking Duel Disk." I said to myself. Did it broke or something? 'Cause if it did I'm not going to pay for it.

"So you finally came!" I turned toward the boy and saw him grinning with the glow in his eyes becoming stronger. Also, call me lazy but those circuit lines on his neck are now occupying more territory.

"Who the hell are you dude?" I asked him.

"Names don't matter for an executor!" he shouted back, pointing at me. "You came to hunt me down, but we are stronger this time! Because we got this timeline's ultimate power!"

"Fancy introduction." I told him. "But you don't seem to be yourself, so how about we stop this before someone gets hurt, and by someone I mean you. So let's calm down at-"

"Duel Mode: On!" My Duel Disk interrupted me declaring the beginning of a Duel. What the heck is that piece of metal doing?! Also, that guy's name is Anshi? And that appearance too, he reminds of a bit of a Tag Force Special character.

"I really got no idea what is going on here." I sighed. Getting attacked at an abandoned place and then forced to Duel, I'm starting to get 5D's flashbacks. I swear if that guy turned out to be a Dark Singer or something…

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Anshi LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

* * *

 **A/N: I ended with the character introduction so I'm not going to waste anyone's time and just move to the plot already. Also, before you guys ask why the other two from LDS weren't with Masumi, it's because I noticed that during most, if not all of the time during which she** **investigated the attacks, those two were never there. Like, she did everything alone and they just appeared when she finally found Shut just for him to Triple-OTK all of them... Great job LDS, you really are the best of the best! You ugly piece of shi-**

 **Also, Anshi really is a Tag Force Special character, but is using a different deck (I'm sure that most of you have already figured out what deck he uses). But why did I change his deck? Well, because I couldn't be assed to do proper research, so I just grabbed the first character I found from the YGO Wiki and gave him the deck I wanted. Don't judge!**

 **So... What was that with the blue circuit lines on that guy's neck and why did he called Evan an Executor? Well, I guess we will have to find out next time because that's all for now!**

 **To wrap things up, a reponse to** ScalchopWarrior **(again): Answer to the the first question about Oni: I'm not telling;**

 **The second question about Performa decks: Shitting on the game is Konami's job not mine;**

 **About Pot of Green: Pot of Greed is Green and Pot of Green is Greedy. I misspell at times as well! On the same note why don't you go back and carefully read all my chapters till now, also take a shot for every misspell or gramatic error you find. If you survive pass chapter 4 then you are already a man.**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Me: YeS i DId iT!%( aNoTHeR CHaptEr IS dOnE**

 **Avice, on the phone: Hello? Is it the Asylum?**

* * *

Pendulum Here, Pendulum There

 **Evan's POV**

Hello, my name is Evan, a sixteen years old shut-in who out of the blue got teleported along with my two sisters into the world of Yu-Gi-Oh. Of course, that's information that most of you already know, but just a few moments ago I also learned a lot of other stuff like, that my Duel Disk can both talk and transform, as well as that I'm some kind of Executor sent to kill out random people since the guy that's currently trying to kill me with card games said so. And only when I start to think how different my life could have been if I just stood away from this game. Sometimes the things we love can bring us great nonsensical situations.

I and my opponent stood against each other with our Duel Disks activated and waiting for someone to make the first move. This is the moment to share that there was something off with all this. Since my Duel Disk took that new form I feel like I'm on fire, it was like my chest was burning and at the same time I felt stronger that before, like my body was getting new energy from somewhere. Maybe it was because of my Dueling equipment and to be honest at this moment I'm ready to believe that such shit is possible.

Only question remaining is what those blue things on the boy's body are. It somewhat reminds me of how in 5D's the Dark Singers used some trick with to possess others and used them to duel the protagonists. Well, that guy already acts like a marionette so I'm going to bet on this theory for now. Kind of lucky that I watched 5D's until the end of the Dark Singer's Arc and not so lucky that I choose to skip the rest of this series.

"Are you too afraid to take the first move?!" My opponent asked in a taunting voice. But wasn't he waiting until just now too? "Then I'm going to make the first step toward your downfall, Executor."

Here is that fancy title again. Do I really look all that scary?

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Anshi LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"There I go!" the boy shouted taking a card from his hand. "First I put the Scale 9, _Qliphort Scout [EARTH/Level 5/P.S: 9/ATK: 1000/DEF: 2800]_ in my Pendulum Zone!"

The column of light appeared beside the boy and a large white and golden spaceship rose into the air with the number '9' glowing beneath it. Well, that's what worried me the most, although Pendulum was supposed to be a trademark this nobody has gotten his hands on such cards and the worst part, with this scale he could Pendulum Summon level 8 monsters. But why did he set only one Pendulum card?

"Now, I activate the Pendulum effect of _Qliphort Scout_! Once per turn I can pay 600 life points to add a Qli card from my deck to the hand! The card I choose is _Qliphort Disk_!" My opponent said as a card popped from his Duel Disk and he put it along the other cards in his hand.

 **『** **Anshi LP: 4000 - 3400 Hand: 5** **』**

Well, at least he isn't using a non-existing deck like mine, which means that in this duel I'm going to have the advantage since real archetypes tends to have far less bullshit into their card effects.

"Next I activate the Field-Spell, Laser Qlip!" The ground and walls around us started to glow and soon disappeared leaving the two of us standing on a single platform floating in a purple sky. Also, I'm not going to try it, but it seems that if I fell from here I'm really going to die. No escaping now I guess.

"By the effect of Laser Qlip I now can Normal Summon twice per turn!" The boy said putting two more cards on his Duel Disk. "Come forth, _Qliphort Shell_ _[EARTH/Level 8/P.S: 9/ATK: 2800/DEF: 1000]_ and _Qliphort Cephalopod_ _[EARTH/Level 7/P.S: 9/ATK: 2800/DEF: 1000]_!"

The ground between me and my opponent suddenly started shaking and the distance between the two of us became larger. The ground has opened and two ships flew out of it. The first was white and green with spikes while the second had the same color scheme but a different shape along with red glowing parts.

"Normally, I would need to tribute to monsters to Normal Summon cards of such a high level, but my Qliphort monsters have the special ability that they can be Normal Summon without the need of a tribute at the cost of becoming level 4 and their attack power dropping to 1800 each." My opponent explained, though I already knew how those annoying things work and if my experience at battling those things is anything to go by, my objective right now would be to stop him from gaining three tributes.

"Next I set two cards and end my turn." The boy said with an evil smirk. "Now come on, Mr. Executor. Let's see what you are worth. You aren't going to get alive out of here so let's have some fun before it all end!"

Damn, this is the first time I see a Qli player who plays the Field Spell or back row. Maybe my experience with those decks isn't as extensively as I was thinking it is. My hand isn't all that great either, but if I don't give my best right now I'm a goner. No stress, I just need a good card.

"My turn." I declared drawing a card and looking at it. Damn, that's not what I need right now!

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Now that your turn has started I activate my Continuous Trap, Re-qliate!" The boy declared as another large spaceship appeared on his field, but this time emitted a purple energy which created an energy bubble around us. "While Re-qliate is on the field if you Normal Summon a level 4 or lower monster it's effects are negated until the end of this turn!"

'Damn, that outs the idea I had.' I thought looking at my cards. But even if this idea failed I still had to play something and try to protect myself and probably deal some damage while I'm on it.

"That won't stop me! I Normal Summon the Tuner monster, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_ _[DARK/Level 3/P.S: 5/ATK: 1300/DEF: 300]_!" I said as the familiar ghost monster materialized in front of me. Its body started to shake and then it feel on the ground as purple mist started to come out from underneath its armor.

"But with its effects gone the monster you summoned is worth as much as a useless level three Normal monster!" The boy started to laugh again.

I rolled my eyes at the comment; why does everyone think that only because they can negate stuff they are so cool and all powerful? Yeah, my monster can't use its effect until his turn, but that doesn't make it worthless. People like this one should be never allowed to touch this card game in the first place. I'm so irritated right now that I want to beat something. You know what? That's it, I'm going all out starting now!

"I activate the Normal Spell, **Convert Darkness**!" I declared putting the said card into my Duel Disk. It then appeared in front of me, showing a black mist with a single red eye glowing sinisterly from inside it.

 **Convert Darkness** (Spell) Normal

 **Pay 1000 LP; Special Summon 1 Level 6 or lower DARK monster from your hand, Deck or Graveyard. You can banish this card along with 1 other Spell Card from you Graveyard: Add 1 Spell Card from your Deck to the hand.**

"Now I pay 1000 life points to get the ability to Special Summon a single Level 6 or lower DARK monster from my hand or deck! Come forth, **ChronoDevil Time Psycher**!" I shouted as the dark mist came out of the Spell Card and transformed into a monster.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 - 3000, Hand: 4** **』**

The monster had mechanical limps and was wearing a black body suit covered with glowing orange lines going down his body. It had pipes of the same color coming from its elbows and going into its back. The monster wore a completely black, helmet with no features or visor with only its long green hair that floated upward for some reason.

 **ChronoDevil** **Time Psycher**

 **Level:** **3** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Psychic** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **3** **00/DEF:** **3** **00**

 **Effect:** **If this card is Special Summoned you can activate the following effects in order:**

 **You can draw cards equal to the number of "ChronoDevil" monsters currently on your side of the field.**

 **You can target 1 face-up monster on the field; change its Level to anything between 1 and 6.**

"Since Time Psycher has been Special Summoned it bypasses your Trap and I can activate his abilities!" I declared with a smirk. "First, I draw cards equal to the number of ChronoDevil monsters on my field. That's two so I draw two cards. Next, I target one monster on the field and change its Level to anything between 1 and 6! I choose Timefrozer Ghost and change its level from 3 to 4! And now, since Timefrozer Ghost is a tuner you know what is coming next!"

Both monsters turned back to look at me and nodded, Time Psycher jumped into the air and Timefrozer Ghost's chest place opened as four green rings flew out of it before the monster's body vanished, the rings then encircled the other monster as it turned into three orbs of light and a beam passed through them.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon_ _[DARK/Level 7/ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700]_!" I chanted as my dragon flew out of the beam and landed in front of me, letting out a prideful cry.

"A Synchro using executor? Interesting! But now Re-qliate's effect activates! When a Level 5 or higher monster is Special Summoned its effects are negated until the end of this turn." My opponent shouted and my monster flew on its knees, with the green light illuminating its body dying down. Damn, with Mystic-Flare's effect I would have been able to deal 1800 damage, but now even that isn't possible.

"Even with its effects negated Mystic-Flare can still attack you!" I shouted pointing toward his monsters. "And with its 2400 ATK it's far stronger than both of your monsters! Go, _Mystic-Flare Dragon_ , destroy _Qliphort Shell_ with Electro Storm!"

At this moment, the weapons on my dragon's back started to glow again, as if my order brought them back to life. Mystic-Flare put its arms on the sides and leaned toward as its cannons and mouth both started to charge green energy beams. It then released the blasts and they were so strong that I had to grab my monster's tail to solely avoid getting thrown back. The attack impaled _Qliphort Shell_ , creating a large hole in its body after which the large spaceship exploded, knocking my opponent on his back.

 **『** **Anshi LP: 3400 - 2800 Hand: 5** **』**

"Destroyed Pendulum Monsters go to the Extra Deck instead of the Graveyard." My opponent said as he put the cards back into his Duel Disk with a satisfied smirk on his face, that couldn't be good for me.

I looked at the cards in my hand, and most of them were useless right now, but there was one card that could still be useful in this situation. If next turn my opponent was to Normal or Special Summon a Qli monster then the effect of his trap would negate their effects and give them back their original Levels and attack points. All of the monsters he currently has on his field and in the Extra Deck all have 2800 attack, which is higher than Mystic-Flare's…

"I set one card and end my turn." I declared. This entire duel and my survival are all bet into this card now. "At this moment the effect of Re-qliate ends and Mystic-Flare's effects return!"

"Too bad that you won't have the chance to use it! My turn!" My opponent shouted drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Anshi] LP: 2800, Hand: 1** **』**

"I activate the Pendulum effect of _Qliphort Scout_ once again! I pay 600 more Life Points to add _Qliphort Carrier_!" My opponent showed the card. That was a Scale 1 monster which means that he now can Special Summon monsters with a level from 2 to 8 all at once.

 **『** **Anshi LP: 2800 - 2200 Hand: 2** **』**

"You seem to know what is going to happen now, Mr. Executor! Using this newfound power I set the scale 1, _Qliphort Carrier_ _[EARTH/Level 6/P.S: 1/ATK: 2400/DEF: 1000]_ to complete the Pendulum Scale! With this, I can Summon monsters with Levels 2 through 8! Appear before me, monsters! Pendulum Summon!" A large white and yellow spaceship flew into his other Pendulum Zone with the number '1' written underneath it. Damn, he actually managed to pull it out!

The Pendulum portal opened into the sky and a single beam of light fell from it, hitting the ground below as _Qliphort Shell_ flew out of it and floated beside his other spaceship. And since his trap is still in play the effects of the monster are negated, meaning that it remains at the large 2800 attack points.

I looked down toward my opponent once again and what I saw caught me by surprise, the blue lines on his neck has gotten larger and were now covering his face. It seemed almost like an infection that spreads when the infected is dueling. A crazy thought I know, but if anyone has a better idea of what in the love of Ra is happening here right now then it's a shame they aren't here to tell me about it.

* * *

 **General POV**

At the same time inside the Control Room of Leo Corporation the computers had detected an 'Outer Synchro' Summon close to one of a security camera and were monitoring the Duel since. It would be lightly to say that everyone was shocked to see a Pendulum Summoning.

"What are the energy readings on this Pendulum Summon?" Akaba Reiji asked the workers with a calm voice.

"They are way weaker than those of Sakaki Yuya's!" One of the workers said.

"So it's a fake one." Reiji said.

"A fake Pendulum Summon?" Nakajima asked in disbelieve. "Is something like this possible?"

"You are seeing it with your own eyes." Reiji answered leaning back against his chair. "But the question we should ask is how that kid acquired those cards in the first place when even we don't have a stable version of the Pendulum Cards."

"Should I sent a squad to the location?"

"It won't be needed. But what worries me more is the opponent." Reiji said turning his focus on the second boy on the screen, Evan.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"I'm not done yet!" My opponent laughed. "I activate my other Trap, _Qlife's End_ , Special Summoning it on my field as a monster."

I looked up toward the sky again as a third, black spaceship with golden plating formed beside _Qliphort Shell_ and _Qliphort Cephalopod_ , but was visible a lot smaller and lighter than the aforementioned two. Probably that was because it was naturally a level 4 with 1800 attack while in the case of the others it was their own effects that limited them. Also, he now had three monsters and still hasn't used this turn's Normal Summon.

" _Qlife's End_ 's effect allows me to treat it as three Tributes for the Tribute Summon of an Apoqliphort monster! So I tribute my _Qlife's End_ to Tribute Summon _Apoqliphort Skybase_ _[EARTH/Level 9/ATK: 2900/DEF: 2500]_!" The little spaceship disappeared and the ground shook once again, but this time so strong that it made me fall on my rear.

I looked up and it was already there, covered in white and silver platting, appearing like a stadium with a large city-like structure in the middle of it. The spaceship also seemed to have two hangar, each located on the side of the monstrous machine. It had such a majestic appearance that compared to this, the rest of the Qli monsters looked like nothing but small ants.

"Since _Apoqliphort Skybase_ was Tribute Summoned and is a Level 9 monster my trap won't affect it. Not that anything would have been able to since my monster is unaffected by Spells and Traps and their effects! It seems that you fate has already been sealed Executor, my monster cannot be activated affected by Spell, Traps or Monsters! Furthermore I activate _Apoqliphort Skybase_ 's effect! Once per turn I can target a monster and take control of it until the End Phase! You have only one monster so it's over now!"

"Mystic-Flare won't fall to you cheap tricks! Trap Open!" I countered as my face-down card showed again and flipped face up showing a white feather getting burn by a dark flame. "Because of the Continuous Trap, **Shadow Curtain** while its face-up on the field DARK monsters cannot be targeted by effects!"

 **Shadow Curtain** (Trap) Continuous

 **Your opponent cannot target DARK monsters on the field with Spell/Trap or monster effects. During the End Phase, if there are no DARK monsters on your side of the field, this card is destroyed. If this card leave the field its controller's LP are halved.**

Shadow mist came out of the card and surrounded both me and my monster, hiding both of us from my opponent's view and if he can't see us then he can't use effects.

"So you still intend to fight, huh? Very well then, I won't have any mercy! Battle! _Apoqliphort Skybase_ attack _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon_!" My opponent declared and his monster's body opened, revealing a large cannon which fired a yellow energy beam that evaporate my dragon, leaving nothing but smoke at the place where my mighty beast was once standing. The heat of the attack hit me as well and I feel on my knees, grabbing my chest. What the heck was that? Why did I felt that monster's attack even through this isn't an Action Duel?

 **『** **Evan LP: 3000 - 2500, Hand: 5** **』**

"Why didn't my monster's effect activate?" I asked looking at my Duel Disk. When Mystic-Flare Dragon is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard its effect should add a Spell to my hand, but it got sent to the banished instead.

"You probably don't know, but due to the effect of the Continuous Trap, _Re-qliate_ , when a Special Summoned Level 5 or higher monster is destroyed they get sent to the banished zone instead." My opponent explained. Oh right, well as I said, that's the first time I battle against a Qli player who uses the archetype's support cards. Even I don't have perfect knowledge about all cards out there.

"Due to _Qliphort Carrier_ 's Pendulum Effect all Qli monsters I control gain 300 ATK. Since _Apoqliphort Skybase_ 's effect blocks Spells and Traps from affecting it, there was no change in its attack, but the same doesn't apply for the rest of my monsters! I use the 2100 ATK _Qliphort Cephalopod_ to attack you directly!"

The monster fired five red beams all toward me and I crossed my arms in front of my face, knowing that this won't protect me, but it was the best move I could think of at the moment. The beams all fell around me as in the process they grazed my right shoulder along with the the left side of my waist and the leg. I thought that this was the worst, but I was wrong, after the blasts hit the ground, they exploded, laughing me into the air.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2500 - 400, Hand: 5** **』**

I fell on my back and coughed, damn, I took a real beating from that guy. The pain was strong and my body was feeling numb. I could barely move and my wounds felt like they were burning, which was probably correct since I got hit by lasers and you know how hot those things can be. Actually it was a miracle that the beams didn't hit any vital organs, but I guess that's because we are talking about Yu-Gi-Oh after all.

Still, that guy spent most of this Duel beating me and making me look like a complete weakling. I hate that, I wanted to get him back for all this pain. And I was going to do it, I will show him what _darkness_ looks like.

"Next is a direct attack from _Qliphort Shell_! Finish him off!" My opponent ordered as the space around the ship started to distort and it fared another beam toward me. I guess that was it, my adventure in this world will end before it began.

Just kidding folks.

"I activate the effect of **ChronoDevil Steam Maiden** in my hand!" I shouted revealing the monster in my hand. "When my opponent declare a direct attack I can negate the attack and Special Summon this card in Attack Position! Protect my life, ChronoDevil Steam Maiden!"

A large clock gear formed in front of me and started spinning, blocking the beam and making it reflect into the ground between me and my opponent. After that a girl with long orange hair with a hat, wearing a baby blue ribbon bow tie over a white shirt, a matching short skirt and pink boots appeared on the field. She looked back at me and nodded before stretching her arm toward, commanding the gear to return, and so it did, turning smaller in size and securing itself around her wrist as a bracelet.

 **ChronoDevil Steam Maiden**

 **Level:** **4** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Warrior** **/** **Pendulum/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 6**

 **ATK:** **10** **00/DEF:** **15** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect: Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation of the effects of "ChronoDevil" monsters.**

 **Effect:** **When an opponent monster declare an attack you can negate that attack, then Special Summon this card from your hand. During either player's turn, when your opponent activates a card or effect that would inflict damage: You can banish this card from your Graveyard or Extra Deck, and if you do, for the rest of this turn any effect that would inflict damage to you makes you gain that much LP, instead.**

"It's over." I told my opponent and Steam Maiden nodded in agreement. Now all of his monsters have attacked and there were no cards remaining in his hand. "You had your chance and you blew it. Now it's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 400, Hand: 5** **』**

I looked at the card and drew. Perfect! I can already see the combo, the final piece that I needed in order to win. "I activate the card I drew, the Quick-Play Spell, Twin Twister! I discard a card from my hand to destroy two spell or traps on the field! The ones I choose to destroy are _Re-qliate_ and _Qliphort Carrier_! Also because _Qliphort Carrier_ is no longer on the field the attacks of _Qliphort Cephalopod_ and _Qliphort Shell_ fall the 1800 and 2800 respectively!"

My opponent took a step back but quickly regained his confidence. "But even so, they are still more powerful that-"

"Not for long!" I cut him off and took two cards from my hand. It was my time to use those cards. "You aren't the only one who can Pendulum Summon! With the scale 1, **ChronoDevil** **Wild Tamer Foxy** and the scale 8, **ChronoDevil** **Wild Tamer Wolfy** , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Energy burst from the sides of my field, shaping into red columns. Two animal girls levitated inside of the columns, raising above my head. A giant red pentagram swung between my two monsters ominously and crimsons thunders started to fall from it.

Wild Tamer Foxy was a fox girl that had yellow eyes and orange hair tied into a ponytail with a large white ribbon, two fox ears on top of her head and a fluffy orange tail. Her outfit consisted of white gloves with golden claws and a bracelet in the form of clock gears on each of her wrist, along with a short pale yellow jacket over a brown sleeveless shirt, white shorts and mechanical yellow-brown boots. The girl was also holding a large harmer which a clock symbol on the sides of it.

Wild Tamer Wolfy was a bit shorter wolf girl with the same yellow eyes and short grey hair with wolf ears and a grey tail. She wears large, mechanical in appearance hair clips on the sides of her head, short, sleeveless, cardinal red dress with silver buttons that reach a bit under her tights, grey shorts and red slip-on shoes with a silver clock gear tied around her left ankle. The girl's weapon was a whip with two clock arrows on the handle.

 **ChronoDevil** **Wild Tamer Foxy**

 **Level:** **4** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Beast-Warrior** **/** **Pendulum/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 1**

 **ATK:** **7** **00** **DEF:** **14** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn: You can target 1 monster you control; it cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects for the rest of this turn, also all Battle Damage you take from battles involving that monster is halved.**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn, you can make all monsters currently on your side of the field gain ATK equal to the combined Levels of all monsters you currently control x 100, until the end of this turn.**

 **ChronoDevil** **Wild Tamer Wolfy**

 **Level:** **3** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Beast-Warrior** **/** **Pendulum/Tuner/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 8**

 **ATK:** **7** **00** **DEF:** **14** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn: You can target 1 Spell/Trap Card you control; it cannot be destroyed by card effects for the rest of this turn, also all Effect Damage you take for the rest of this turn is halved.**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn, if a DARK monster you control declare an attack you can switch the ATK and DEF of the opponent's monster that it's battling until the end of the Damage Step.**

"With this I can Pendulum Summon monster from Level 2 to 7!" I declared throwing my right arm toward the sky. "Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_! Next from my hand, the cursed wandered of darkness, the devil reborn! Awake, ancient Darkness within my soul! **Chrono** **Phantom** **us the** **Pendulum** **Slayer**!"

Two red thunders stuck the field and my monsters appeared on the field, the ghost hiding in armor and a large dark red pendulum which floated in front of me.

A pair of sinister glowing eyes appearance within the pendulum and it started to crack until it break into pieces and a human male appeared from inside. His eyes were red and emotionless, white hair whose upper layer juts upward while the lower layer arches down similar to both Yusei Fudo and Timegazer Magician and a large black and red horn pointing from the right side of his head while a red scarf hide most of his face. The monster's outfit looked similar to Yuya's Spellcaster as well, wearing an open black trench coat with armor covering the side and half-clock mechanisms on both his arms and legs with wheels attached to the sides of his robotic boots. The monster also spotted golden arced blade-like frames which were wrapped around its waist like a belt. There was also a pair of jets attached to its back, similar to those of Junk Warrior.

 **Chrono** **Phantom** **us the** **Pendulum** **Slayer**

 **Level: 6|Attribute: Dark|Type: Fiend/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 8**

 **ATK: 2500 DEF: 1800**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **During either player's turn, when your opponent activates a card or effect that would destroy a Pendulum card(s) on the field: You can banish this card until the End Phase; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card (this is a Quick Effect).**

 **Effect:** **If this card is Pendulum Summoned:** **all face-up monsters your opponent controls lose 500 ATK and DEF.** **Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up monster in your Extra Deck; until the end of this turn, replace this effect with that monster's original effects.**

* * *

 **General POV**

"Another Pendulum Summon?" the workers inside of LDS started to mumble among themselves as they watched the Duel on the screen.

"Its energy readings are higher than those of Sakaki Yuya's Pendulum Summon!" A voice shouted from somewhere inside the room.

"It's twice that strong!" Another voice replied.

Out of everyone in the room only Akaba Reiji wasn't surprised. The director looked carefully at the Pendulum Scales shown on the screen, concerned about why they were red instead of blue.

"Sir, we are detecting a data transmission coming from the Summoning!" One of the workers said.

"So it was him." The director of Leo Corporation mumbled and turned to his workers. "Don't try to decode it! I don't want another system crash to happen! For now we will only observe from the security cameras."

"Understood!"

Akaba Reiji looked toward Evan once again. Just who was this person? Did he came from the Synchro Dimension… or somewhere else?

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"Next, I activate the effect of **ChronoDevil Protector Golem** that I discarded to activate Twin Twister. Once per turn, if it rests in my Graveyard and all monsters I control are DARK attribute I can Special it on my field. Come back to us, my servant!"

 **ChronoDevil** **Protector Golem**

 **Level:** **3** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Rock** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **12** **00/DEF:** **20** **00**

 **Effect:** **If all monsters you control are DARK monsters (min. 1) while this card is in your Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card. You can only use this effect of "** **ChronoDevil** **Protector Golem" once per turn.**

A portal opened and a large yellow golem appeared on the field with a golden clock attached to its back, holding two clock arrows in its arms like swords. It then kneeled and crossed its weapons as a blue aura surrounded it to show that it's in Defense Position.

"Next I tune my Level Three Protector Golem to the Level Three Timefrozer Ghost! Malefic soul trapped in the cursed prison of metallic demise! Unleash your nightmarish aggressiveness! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Six! **ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast**!"

A beam of light shot through the rings and a combination of a lion and wolf jumped out of it letting out a furious roar. The beast was a bulky build with six long tails that looked to whips, while there rest of its body was completely covered in greenish armor with cables filled green liquid connecting its limbs and head to the main body and specially, the glowing orb in the center of its chest. Its chin was large and filled with razor sharp teeth, its eyes glow a dim green and there were two clock arrows on the center of its head

 **ChronoDevil** **Paradox-Claw Beast**

 **Level:** **6** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Beast** **/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2** **0** **00/DEF: 1** **3** **00**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn, you can return any number of cards you control to the owner's hand. For each card returned to the owner's hand by this effect, all face-up monsters your opponent controls lose 500 ATK and DEF until the End Phase. Once per turn, during either player's turn, when a monster effect is activated that would destroy a "ChronoDevil" card(s) on the field: You can negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. Then inflict damage to your opponent equal to the either the ATK or DEF (whichever is higher) of the destroyed monster.**

"Since the Pendulum Summoned Timefrozer Ghost has been used as Synchro Material it's banished, but that doesn't matter since I activate Paradox-Claw Beast's ability! Once per turn I can target a number of cards on my field I return them to my hand to reduce your monsters attack by 500 for each. I choose to return Wild Tamer Foxy and Wolfy to reduce the attack of your monsters by 1000! _**Reversed Paradox**_!"

"Foolish move!" my opponent shouted back. "Due to the protective ability of my monsters they are unaffected by monsters with lower level than them! Your weak beasts will never reach my marvelous machines!"

"I already know about their effects." I sighed returning my two cards back to my hand. "My intension wasn't to weaken your monster, but to get mine back. And now I will Summon ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy! Next I activate Foxy's ability! Once per turn, I increase the attack of all my monsters by their combined levels times 100! Right now there are Wild Tamer Foxy - a level four, Paradox-Claw Beast - a level six. Steam Maiden – a level four and Chrono Phantomus – a level six again! Now if you make the math that's 2000 ATK for each of my monsters!"

Foxy raised her hammer and hit the ground with it, creating an explosion of light as smiling faces and starts flew in all sides, touching my monsters and giving them a golden aura as their attacks raised to 2700, 4000, 3000 and 4500 respectively. But that's barely half of the preparations, there was still one thing left to do for this grand final!

"Such attack points!" My opponent mumbled nervously.

"Lastly, I activate the effect of Convert Darkness that I played earlier in the duel! I banish it along with Twin Twister to add to add Timeline Overlap from my deck to the hand! Next I play it, targeting Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer for its effect! I tribute Paradox-Claw Beast to give half of its attack to Phantomus!"

Paradox-Claw's body started to burn in green flames and it let out a roar before turning into a stream of fire which flew toward Phantomus, hitting it in the chest and infusing with the monster's armor raising its attack power to 6500! Now everything was ready, all the actors were on the stage and the main star was ready to bring the finish.

"Battle!" I shouted pumping my fist toward. "Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, attack _Apoqliphort Skybase_! Double Void Slash!"

My monster leaned toward, taking a low start position. The jets on the warrior's back activated and it dashed toward before flying over _Apoqliphort Skybase_ and throwing its fists to the sides. The gloves that covered his arms opened up and two blades shot out. Chrono then turned toward _Apoqliphort Skybase_ and slashed it with its blades. At first there was no visible damage, but then two giant red lines crossed the spaceship's body and it exploded.

 **『** **Anshi LP: 2200 - 0 Hand: 0** **』**

My opponent looked toward me and gritted his teeth, then, before I could react Phantomus' blade slashed through his neck and a black aura shot form its body and inside my monster's before he feel limp on the ground and the duel ended. So my monster attack him directly without an order to do so? Wait, wasn't the damage don't in this duel real? OH SHIT!

I deactivated my Duel Disk and ran toward the collapsed body. What the heck happened? I looked down at it, the body was collapsed face-down so I couldn't see anything. Quickly thinking I kicked it, turning it onto its back. What? I'm not going to touch a corps!

Expect, that he wasn't death and there was no sign of any wound on his body. In fact even those blue lines that covered his face has disappeared and he looked like a normal human again. Did what I saw was just an illusion, created from the stress or something, no it couldn't be, I'm sure I saw my monster trying to behead this guy. I looked at the boy once again to make sure and my eyes widened, his body has started to fade. Then, it became white and completely disappeared.

"What the heck was that?" I said to myself and looked around to make sure there were no witnesses.

The alley was empty with only me standing in it. I took my deck from the Duel Disk and took Chrono Phantomus into my hand. What did that card just do? Did it kill the boy or only that presence which seemed to have possessed it? I absolutely don't know.

Oh that reminds me, I said that I'm going out to buy ice cream! Oh snap I must go back to You Show fronto! Actually I should first buy ice cream or those kids will whine on my head. But where in the hell am I going to find an ice cream shop? Oh boy!

* * *

 **General POV**

Back in LDS (once again) Akaba Reiji and, well, everyone else in the damn room were watching as the remaining boy quickly made a dash out of the alley and from the view of the camera.

"So, did you found if there are any new students in You Show?" The Director of Leo Corporation fixed his glasses and turned toward Nakajima.

"Yes, sir." The man nodded and another the screen changed to show four pictures.

The first was of a black and blue haired girl, the second of a white and green haired girl, the third of a white and red haired boy and the last of a pale-pink haired girl. Underneath them were written the names 'Elizabeth Greyson', 'Avice Greyson', 'Evan Greyson' and 'Oni Hakuryù' respectively.

"Out of those four we couldn't finish any data about the first three." Nakajima continued. "No place or birth, no parents or ID, only their names and age. What should we do with them, sir?"

Reiji looked at the four pictures in deep through for a few moments before nodding. "For now, we are just going to observe them. We need to gather as much information as we could about their Summoning methods."

"And the last one?"

"Is there anything that worries you about her?"

"No, it's nothing important, but, we noticed a bit of a more powerful Ritual Summon coming from You Show earlier today, so."

"She doesn't seem like a threat so for now we will leave her alone." Akaba Reiji said and stood up, turning to the other workers. "I want all information about this duel and those monsters by tomorrow."

* * *

 **A/N: Am I overdoing it? Definitely. My little break is about to end and I'm trying to do as much work as possible before my will to keep living get sucked out of my body once again. So expect further updates to be slower.**

 **I will also need to change my writting style a bit, because so much writting for just four turns? What the heck? That's** **calamity! What will happen when I write duels with 5 or more turns?**

 **But on a happy note, the waifus are back in the game or just Wolfy and Foxy for those who don't know them all that well and they are not alone! Phantom, the monster that used to be an ace in the original story is back too, but with a changed name. Now he is Phantomus because I noticed that if I makde card that support only him, then with his old name those card would turn out to also support 73 RL cards including several archetypes like Phantom Knights, Phantom Beast and Mecha Phantom Beast.**

 **And since I'm on the wave of talking about Arc-Twins. I find it ridiculously ironic how it still gets Favs and Follows a MONTH after I canceled it. WTF?!**

 **Well, thanks for supporting this story anyway and 'till next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer In!**

 **Or was it Out?**

 ***Author got hit by a hammer***

 **Avice and Co. Out!**


	9. Chapter 9

Deity of Life

 **Elizabeth's POV**

I sat down at the dining table in our apartment with crossed arms and waited for my siblings to finally get their lazy asses here. I mean, it was 10 AM already, how long were those two going to sleep? I swear, they weregetting lazier by the day, always leaving the work to me. Like, how yesterday when Avice used that Pendulum thingy and messed up everything Evan just told me to take care and ran off because he didn't feel like dealing with the kids.

Worst part was that I could tolerate being their maid or something, if my siblings at least listened to what I tell them. But they didn't do that either, and to prove that, let me just tell you that yesterday once our brother came back from his little walk in You Show we had a small conversation about Oni and where she will stay. As you probably guessed by now, Avice suggested that the girl could stay with us and that our apartment had enough place for her. Not only was that a complete lie as our place is made so that for only up to three people could live in it, but also, all three of us were unemployed with no actual income. So how were we going to be able to take care of a fourth person?

I tried to explain that to my siblings but they just told me that I'm worrying too much about insignificant stuff and, ignoring my protests, they took the girl. I just hope they weren't expecting me to look after her. I would kick them in the guts if that ass on their mind when they adopted her!

"Good morning Eliz-neechan!" Oni came in first, rubbing her eyes sleepily while wearing a light blue dress with flowers. I couldn't believe it, youngest of us woken upalready, but my siblings hadn't.

"Good morning to you too, Oni." I told her with a smile. Don't get me wrong, I was against the little girl living with us because we couldn't be able to look after her properly, not because I hated her.

"Niichan and Neechan haven't woken up yet." The girl told me while looking around the room. For all I know they are probably sleeping together once again, though, why did Oni's words sounded more like she was informing me about their laziness?

"Yeah, they haven't." I nodded and the little girl sat beside me. Maybe I could use this chance to ask her. "So, has Oni cheeked on my siblings before coming?"

"No." she shook her head and I gave her a confused look. "Oni knows because Oni is sleeping with Niichan and Neechan!"

…Oh, well that makes complete sense-! Wait what?!

"Ugh, it's so bright outside!" I head brother voice which sounded like he was really annoyed. Soon my siblings came into the room as well.

Both Evan and Avice were wearing the same clothes they do every day but without the animal hoodies. So, we were going to start the day with a half-hearted remark? That was too low for even for this jerk's standards. Evan opened the refrigerator and took a can of coffee, opening it and taking a slip before focusing his attention toward me. I feel like he was trying to say something with that serious expression on his face.

"Haven't you made breakfast yet?" He asked me casually. What the heck? Did I look like a maid to him?

"What's that supposed to mean! Make it yourself!" I hissed back at my brother. "I'm not obliged to serve to you! If you are that hungry then make something to eat by yourself!"

There was a moment of silence between us with Avice and Evan both staring at me with blank expressions on their faces. Yes, that ws right, I wasn't going to do what they want from me anymore! They must learn to be independent and to not leave everything to me.

Then, suddenly both of my siblings collapsed onto the ground and started rolling around while groaning. Stop that it's disgusting!

"But I'm so hungry!" Avice shouted while rolling. "Do something for once, sis!"

What? Oh, no, no, no you are the last person that has the right to call me lazy!

"Yeah, do you mind being a bit useful for once?" Evan asked me. I can barely keep myself from droving a fist into his face! "Me and Avice are doing everything here, the least you could do is take the household chores!"

"You are expecting too much from her." Avice said. What's that supposed to mean? "She probably doesn't even know how to cook or what a cooker is. After all, our sister right here is far too important to do such lowly things!"

"Hey, take that back!" I shouted back at her. She wants me to prove my cooking skills? Then I will show them what real food tastes like!

… I just feel into their mind games again, didn't I? Damn those two!

* * *

So, after I got tricked by my siblings and did all of the work by myself, like always, we all dressed and headed out. There was something very important that the three of us had to do, so we walked Oni to You Show and left her there. Kind of like parents leave their children in kindergarten. The thing we were going to do right now was somewhat dangerous and neither of us wanted to get the little girl involved in it.

So, should I try to explain what I'm talking about? Yeah, I should.

Last night after Oni feel asleep my brother told us about how some guy attacked him out of nowhere while calling him an 'Executor' and used Pendulum Monsters to fight; something he wasn't supposed to have. At first we thought that Evan just met some crazy guy, but then he also told us about how the attacked had strange blue markings over his body and about how the boy disappeared once he got beaten in the duel. To be honest, this story raised a lot of worrisome questions for us. First, according to our brother he was leaded to his attacker by his own Duel Disk which means that this probably has something to do with the reason why we got sent to this world.

Another thing that I couldn't help but wonder about it is if there are any other people who got pulled here from a different reality? The strange programing of our Duel Disk with data from our world input into them, the existence of other Pendulum cards, there were too many examples of strange things going on to be called coincidences. All those events must be linked to one another somehow, and it was our job to find out how.

"So, what are we going to do from here?" Avice asked crossing her arms. "We don't have any trail to follow and things are actually getting worse!"

"What do you mean by getting worst?" Evan asked and I suddenly remembered that there was something which happened yesterday that neither I nor Avice have told him about yet.

"We won't be able to participate in the Maiami Championship." I explained to him. "Yuya's manager has refused to help us because by now everyone must already have qualified for the tournament and organizing eighteen duels at this moment is pretty much impossible."

"I should have expected that." Evan replied clicking his tongue. From the way he was talking I could guess that he, in fact, expected for this to happen. "By now everyone must have had their fifty duels so it would be pointless for them to continue looking for challenges."

"Winning the Maiami Championship was a part of our plan." Avice replied, reminding us about the original idea of raising as champions in this world. "Discarding it would be unprofessional. We should find another way in."

"I already got a Plan B ready." Evan answered, his words don't surprise me, I expected atleast that much from him. "But for it to work we will need to focus a lot of attention on us, which could be pretty dangerous by itself."

Yeah, we had already become someone's targets so announcing our presence and becoming well known in this world would be like putting a large target on our backs and wait for someone to shot. The possible risk from this far exceeds the possible prize.

But even so…

"What exactly is your idea?" I couldn't keep my curiosity. Evan was someone who always plans far ahead, so when he say that he got an idea that meant that he has already calculated and taken in consideration all of the possible outcomes that his moves could direct to. He wasa person that never aimed for the pawn in a game and has his eyes on the king all of the time.

"The idea…." Evan raised a hand over his head and pointed toward the rest of the city. "My idea is to get the attention of LDS and use the director, Akaba Reiji to get a free pass. I know, it sounds like a crazy idea, but if he is half the person I expect him to be, then he wouldn't waste a chance to get some more data about Pendulum Summoning and possible even Avice's very own Transformation Summoning."

"And how exactly do you expect to success in doing that?" I asked him. Getting an entire company to work for our interests' sounds like a truly insane idea.

"I already got myself a contact with one of the LDS students, so I just need to make her trust me enough to help me get closer to Reiji. Maybe I could also have some fun with her while I'm at it." I couldn't believe it, he actually has gotten that far as to trick a girl into his little games? He, he is such a sick bastard!

"Do whatever you please with whoever you please, just make sure to get the work done." Avice replied. I can't believe my ears, they are talking about messing with others' lives as if they were playing a game.

"Ai, you have gotten a bit bossy lately." Evan replied and hugged her. "Maybe you spent too much time with Elizabeth. Or is it possible that are you are jealous, my little sister?"

"Why should I even be jealous? It's just a game of pretend, it's simple. We pretend that we are good and friendly and if our pretending is good enough we get the prize we wanted." No, that couldn't be right, even if those were imaginary people who have no connections to us, they still had feeling, using them as a mean to an end was just, cruel.

"What, don't you agree, Eliz?" Evan asked with a cold smile. "You are frowning, don't you agree with my idea? Is there a problem with it? A flaw you would like to mention."

I shook my head, there was no flaw in his plan, really, expect that it was morally wrong, it was probably going to be a success. But how was I supposed to tell them why I didn't agree with them and actually make them listen to me. What if they casted me aside because of that? If my own flesh and blood gave up on me who would I have left in this world? I didn't want to be alone; they haven't done anything bad so far but if they do so in the fufure, I would definitely tell them to stop. Yes, I definitely wdould stand against my siblings if I needed to.

I would do it…

My siblings suddenly stopped walking and looked to the side. I did the same thing and saw a dark silhouette hiding inside an alley, but I couldn't make out what the person looked like. Was it possible that to be another one of those weird people Evan mentioned last night? The ones that wanted to kill him and called him a strange name? But none of our Duel Disks seems to react so that must be just a random person.

"I think we just found something interesting." Evan said and headed toward the alley while signalizing us to follow him.

Me and Avice walked close behind him as the three of us entered the alley and started looking around for the suspicious person that we were trying to catch. Though, I wasn't sure why we were wasting our time with a stranger when we got our own problems to worry about. Maybe I should ask.

"Is there a particular reason why we are doing this?" I asked and my brother just shrugged.

"I heard that students and teachers from LDS were being attacked from some guy that uses Xyz Summoning." Evan answered simply. "I'm not sure how much it has anything to do with our condition but it's… let's just go, ok?!"

We soon reached the end of the alley and walked into another street that seemed to be just as lively as the previous one. There were huge crowds, it was practically impossible to locate the person among all those people.

"Just great, what are we going to do now?" I asked. Unless we went somewhere high I couldn't see a way to find anything.

"There!" Avice shouted pointing at another alley in the other end of the street.

A person that wore mostly black clothes with a cape and spiky black and purple hair. He was leaning against the wall of a building and once he noticed that we were watching him quickly hided inside the alley. Whoever that was, it seemed they were doing that on purpose, to make us follow them, probably to some less crowded place. It was one hundred percent a trap and we were going to walk in it.

We continued to follow the figure, passing a lot of alleys and streets until we reached an empty and seemingly abandoned warehouse. It was definitely a very good place for ambush, so let's not make them wait. We looked at each other and nodded before putting on our Duel Disk and our brother kicked the door open. The inside of the warehouse was completely empty with no sign of life or whatsoever. Still, that person seemed to be desperate to lead us here.

But that didn't change the fact that this place was completely abandoned.

"I don't know who you guys are and why you lead us here but if you aren't going to show up then I'm just going to leave!" Evan shouted and turned toward the exit.

They were there.

The exit was blocked by two strange looking people. The first one was the boy with the black and purple hair, who was wearing a dull green shirt with a dark tie and well, the black cape. More importantly was that his face was almost identical to that of Yuya with the exception that he had grey eyes.

As for the other person, it was a girl with blue eyes and pink hair with dark blue locks that swamp to the right. Most of her face was hidden behind a red scarf and her outfit consisted of a dark red shirt with a sleeveless brown cargo vest and black pants.

Both of them were also wearing dark Duel Disk whose body had a different shape than that of the other Duel Disks I have seen until now. It seems that they aren't planning to let us go and are ready use brute force if they have too. Too bad for them since I have both Evan and Avice with me and they are ten times stronger than any Duelist in this world.

"That was an amazing ambush, indeed!" Evan laughed putting his arms on his hips. "I guess you aren't here to give birthday presents, so let's just cut to the cake, shall we?"

"We don't have any interest in wasting any time either." The Yuya look-alike said then pointed toward us. "We know that you aren't from around here."

Does this mean that they know our real identities? If it's so then maybe we just found the answer of how to return back to our world.

"Well, I won't deny it." Evan shrugged, trying to play innocent. "We come from another country and it has been just a few days since we arrived here."

"Don't try lying to us!" the girl shouted stepping toward. "We were keeping close eye to the Academia spy and you! We know that either of you is really from this world so start talking or I will have to force the answers out of you!"

Academia spy? Another person that isn't from this world? What are those two actually talking about? I turned toward my siblings who were listening carefully to the girl's yelling. It seems they got interested in those words as well.

"I didn't understand anything that you just said." Avice sighed and looked to the side with a little smirk. "What is Academia and what do you want us to tell you. Why don't you try to explain it better?"

"Don't mock me!" the girl shouted squeezing her left hand into a fist. "We know that you are working with Academia! So, you can either tell us everything you know about it or I will have to make you speak!"

"To bad for you then." Evan said with what seemed to be a really irritated voice. He then pointed toward himself and a crazy smirk spreaded over his face. "The only one I work for is me and for me alone! I don't have any connection to Academia and have absolutely no idea what you are talking about."

"Stop lying to me!" the girl roared causing the Yuya look-alike to grab her shoulder and pull her back to restrain her from attacking us. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

"Stop it, Koharu." the boy said, with a somewhat calm voice. "We don't know from which Dimension they are; they could actually not know about what's happening. Don't let your hatred for Academia blind you!"

Ok, I guess that's our clue to leave. Those two seem to have enough problems to deal with, so we should disappeared before they focus their anger back on us once again. But really, was it needed for them to make us come here so they could play this theater in front of us. A bunch of weirdoes indeed.

"How can you say that?" the girl, Koharu, shouted again and glared at us. "You saw them too! They were with that Academia spy back then, they work with him!"

"You can't be sure about it. The girl that looks like Ruri has learned Fusion too, but she isn't working for Academia!" the Yuya look-alike replied back. What the heck are those two talking about?

"Then we will solve it with a duel!" Koharu said activating her Duel Disk. "We will use this to prove whenever those three are innocent or not! A duel should be enough of a proof for this, right?"

"If you insist." The boy sighed and stepped aside.

So we are going to Duel over a misunderstanding in order to prove that it's really a misunderstanding? This world is so fucked up that I don't have enough words to describe just how bad it is.

"It seems your chance to shine has come." Evan whispered in my ear. Wait, he wants me to duel her when I'm the less skilled one of us?

"What do you mean by that?" I protested crossing my arms before my chest in an 'X'. "I'm not going to duel her! You should do it instead!"

"Think about it for a bit." Evan whispered again. 'They said that Fusion is their enemy, so if Avice was to duel her that would cause the misunderstanding to grow. I have my reasons to suspect that those two are Xyz users, so wouldn't it be better for a fellow Xyz Duelist to try and convince them that we aren't the enemy rather than a Synchro user when we know nothing about their relation with that summoning method?"

I clicked my tongue, it tasted like shit to admit it, but Evan had a point there. The reason they choose to prove it through a duel was to learn about the dueling style and deck of their opponent. If those two were Xyz users who hate Fusion then there was a certain possibility for them to also be hostile toward Synchro as well. Right now my deck was the best one for carrying out a negotiation with those crazy fellows. It also helpsed that I was the most mature one of us, so beating my words into that girl's skull wouldn't be much of a problem for me.

"Ok, then I will accept the duel on behalf of my siblings!" I said activating my own Duel Disk. This won't be easy to win, so I need to concentrate. Thanks to Avice advices after our duel I tried hard to understand the play style of my deck and about the possible combos in it. All I have to do is stay level headed and not let my opponent to make any advantageous moves.

"Let's do it then!" Koharu said.

"I'm ready!"

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Elizabeth LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Only because you are the one who accepted my challenge that doesn't mean that I will give you any advantage!" Koharu shouted. "I will start this off by Normal Summoning _**Knight of Wishes**_!"

A beam of light fell in front of Koharu as a knight made of white light inside a golden armor with a long blue cape and holding two long swords in his hands.

* * *

 **Knight** **of Wishes**

 **Level: 4/Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **6** **00/DEF:** **9** **00**

 **Effect:** **If a "Wishes" you control attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

* * *

"Wishes Knight is just one Level four monster with 1600 attack, easy to get rid of right?" Koharu said mockingly. "Well, then just try it! I set two cards and end my turn!"

"My turn!" I shouted and drew my sixth card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Elizabeth] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Here it goes!" I shouted taking the cards from my hand and inserting them into my Duel Disk. "First I will set three cards, next, when there are no monster on my field I can Special Summon this card from my hand! Come forth, _**Oracle Sister of Echo – Risil**_!"

A young woman with dull purple eyes and short blue and green hair formed on my field. She was wearing a long brown robe with a hood, similar to most of my Main Deck monsters. Underneath she had a white school uniform with black shorts and white shoes. The Spellcaster was holding a small wooden magical wand with a small light blue ball on the tip.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: WIND/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1700** **/DEF:** **2** **00**

 **Effect:** **If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 "Oracle Sister" monster from your Deck to your hand.**

* * *

"Next, I Normal Summon _**Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo**_! And use its effect to Special Summon _**Oracle Sister of Hope – Raiji**_!"

The first monster had short crimson hair and eyes with a long crimson robe. She wears a uniform that consists of a plain, long sleeved, white shirt with crimson rimming across the collar and sides, with black and gold cuffs, a frilled black mini-skirt with a red line crossing it horizontally that is held in place by a small golden buckle. Her weapons were two rapiers, one with a golden guard and the other with a red one with runes all over the blades.

The second Spellcaster had a chibi appearance with a very small body. Her hair was made of ice that spiked upward behind her and had big pale blue eyes. She wore a large white robe with blue inscriptions and a big witch hat. Underneath it she had a sleeveless white shirt and blue shorts.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of** **Swordsmanship – Elevo**

 **Level: 4/Attribute:** **FIRE** **/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK:** **2100** **/DEF: 0**

 **Effect:** **Cannot attack while you have any cards in your hand. Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 "Oracle Sister" monster from your hand.**

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of** **Hope – Raisin**

 **Level: 4/Attribute:** **WATER** **/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK:** **300** **/DEF:** **20** **00**

 **Effect:** **If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent by a direct attack: Draw cards equal to the number of "Oracle Sister" monsters you control. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card attacked: You can change this card to Defense Position.**

* * *

"Three monsters at once, huh?" Koharu noted impressed. "Let's see how long it will last."

"Battle!" I ordered my monsters. "Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo attack Knight of Wishes!"

"Then I activate my trap card!" Koharu shouted as one of his cards flipped face-up. "Half Unbreakable! It stops my monster from being destroyed for the rest of the turn and halves all battle damage I take!"

"It won't work out for you so easy! I play a trap on my own, _**Magic Curse Vanish**_!" I countered activating one on my face-down cards. It flipped face-up showing two magicians panicking as a slime monster appeared from a magical circle they have drawn on the ground. "This card negates the activation of a Spell or Trap card and destroys it! Furthermore if I control an Oracle Sister monster it can be activated during the turn it was set!"

* * *

 **Magic Curse Vanish (Trap) Counter**

 **When a Spell/Trap Card is activated: Negate the activation, and if you do destroy it. If you control an "Oracle Sister" monster, you can activate this card the turn it was Set.**

* * *

A black magical circle appeared around my three monsters and absorbed Koharu's trap card before destroying it along with itself. After that Elevo charged toward and slayed her monsters in three, effectively destroying it.

 **『** **Koharu** **LP: 4000 - 500** → **35** **00** **』**

"Next, I attack directly with Oracle Sister of Hope – Raisin and Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein!" I shouted and my monsters fired their attacks, knocking Koharu off her feet. What the heck, it almost feel like the attack was real.

 **『** **Koharu** **LP:** **35** **00 – 1700** → **18** **00** **– 300** → **1500** **』**

"Now, Oracle Sister of Hope – Raisin's effect activates!" I continued. "When she inflict a damage to the opponent by a direct attack I draw cards up to the number of Oracle Sister monsters on my field! That's three, therefor I draw the cards and also, Raisin's other effect allows her to switch to defense position after battle!"

Nice, I did some serious damage, restored my hand and also build up a strong defense to protect me from Koharu's attacks next turn.

"Heh, guess I did underestimated you a bit." Koharu laughed while getting back up on her feet. "But I'm, going to fix that. Now, it's my turn! I draw!"

* * *

Update 24/12/2018: Fixed a lot of mistakes in the chapter. Small changes in the dialogue.

* * *

 **A/N: So yeah, I wanted to make the Resistance guys in Standard more important in this story, but I couldn't come up with a better way to do it than that, so, excuse me. Jokes aside, there is actually a legit reason why Yuto and Koharu tried to ambush the siblings, but I'm not going to reveal it just yet because of spoilers. Talking about Koharu I'm sure you guys already know after who she has been based.**

 **Also to say something before I forget it, like I did in the last three chapters... I would like to advertise a ZEXAL collab I and ScalchopWarrior made which is called** _Fractured_ **.**

 **Oh, by the way, a fun fact I came across a few days ago. You know that Phantomus, Evan's ace has 2500 ATK and 1800 DEF. So, I was interested in what ATK and DEF Phantomus would have if I added 700 more points to those stats. Then I looked at YGOPro for all monsters in the game with the same ATK and DEF stats and what I found surprised me.**

 **I would also like to share a story with you guys. Today, as I was writting this chapter I got bored opened some YGO sites to see if there are any news about sets and cards and so on. Some of you may know what I'm talking about and if there are some real YGO players among the readers they probably also share my pain from the revelation of the new Summoning method about the next YGO series and all the changes in rulling and field organization that Konami did.**

 **I myself torn between liking and hating those changes. I like them because YGO really needed a nerf in the Extra Deck department. I mean, has anyone played against Zoodiacs? That deck's Extra Deck swarming is disgusting! But at the same time, getting punished for prefering to use a deck that doesn't use Link monsters is a bit too much for me too take. Why? Why can't I Synchro, Xyz and Fusion Summon without first doing a Link Summon?**

 **That aside, I actually like those new monsters and depending of how the new YGO series will go I may actually write an OC story for it as well! Behold! Lunatic Phantomus the Link Slayer! Muahahaha!**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading this, please leave a review and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	10. Chapter 10

**So, here is the next chapter of Arc -Tracers. There isn't much I could say about it, expect that since the beginning of this story I wanted to make it a bit more lively and add something more to it. Then from reading Chapter 7 of ScalchopWarrior's fanfic Twin Pendulums as well as some other stories like Coral the Leviathan's Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V N' Nature which is an amazing story and you should totally check it out I thought why not adding my own Opening.**

 **I wanted my OP to me different so instead of using the YGO Openings I started googling and looking for something different and once I found it I choose to wait unitl Chapter 6 to introduce it because, well, it's a lucky number for me!**

 **Anyway, I don't own the song, its name is "This Game" the opening of an awesome anime that I like alot called No Game No Life.**

* * *

 _(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.  
** _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,  
** _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;**  
 _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.  
** _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win.**  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,**  
 _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.  
** _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

Card Games Pain Games

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"Heh, guess I did underestimated you a bit." Koharu laughed while getting back up on her feet. "But I'm, going to fix that. Now, it's my turn! I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Koharu] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"First I Normal Summon **Necromancer of Wishes**!" Koharu declared as a humanoid figure made of light wearing a white costume with a blue cape and holding a sword with a cross on the tip appeared on the field and threw its weapon on the ground and portal opened in front of itself. "Now I activate Necromancer's effect to Special Summon _Knight of Wishes_ from my Graveyard!"

 **Necromancer** **of Wishes**

 **Level: 4|Attribute: LIGHT|Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 500/DEF: 500**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Normal Summon you can target 1 "Wishes" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.**

So she was able to summon Knight of Wishes back on the field right after I destroyed it. What's worse, both of her monsters have the same level which would mean that she is going to summon a Rank four monster this turn. My traps should be enough to protect my monsters, so I could take out her monster next turn. What worries me right now is her set card that she still hasn't used.

"So that girl knew that Elizabeth would be able to take out her monsters." I heard Evan commenting from behind me. "Better be careful sis, those two don't seem to be like the amateurs from this world."

"You did some large damage to me last turn so let me reply with the same! I overlay my Level 4 Necromancer of Wishes and Knight of Wishes!" Koharu shouted raising her hands into the air. Both of her monsters then turned into yellow energies and a portal opened in front of her as the monsters flew into it. Putting a hand on her chest Koharu then started to chant.

" _All mighty warrior of light, with your golden blades cut down the roots of evil and descend! Xyz Summon, Rank 4,_ _ **Champion of Wishes**_!"

A large knight appeared on the field wearing a golden armor with silver plates around the waist and the shoulders. The monster's blue eyes were glowing from behind its helmet and two large swords were attached to its back. The knight had the characteristics of a strong warrior who fights for justice and to protect others.

 **Champion of Wishes**

 **Rank** **: 4|Attribute: LIGHT|Type:** **Warrior** **/** **Xyz/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **20** **00/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **2 Level 4 LIGHT monsters**

 **Effect:** **At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles a non-Light monster:** **You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; this card's ATK is doubled, until the end of the Battle Phase.**

"Is it me or does that monster remind you of Heroic Champion – Excalibur but with a different color scheme?" Avice asked.

"You have a point, but all of the cards that girl used until now seemed similar to those of Yuma from Zexal." Evan answered. "Could this actually be related to what's going on in some way?"

"Your sister is lucky." The Yuya look-alike commented from the other end of the room, causing Koharu to glare back at him. He however ignored this and continued. "This isn't Koharu's ace monster, she is trying to hold back from going all out."

Well, that's an insulting thing to hear. I'm giving my best trying to beat her and in return Koharu is holding back and doesn't duel me for real? Even if I'm not all that good as a duelist I still have pride and her current actions are harming me in such a way. Why are we even doing this then? We were dueling to prove that we don't work with Academia and so on. It's a duel in which both of us need to do our best, yes she is just playing around with me!

"There is no need for me to go all out against someone like her." Koharu said and I gritted my teeth. She was underestimating me. "Anyway, I enter my Battle Phase. Champion of Wishes, attack Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein!"

"How about your monster don't attack mine?!" I shouted back. "And I just got the card for this. I activate the Trap Card, Wonder Xyz! By its effect, I overlay the level four, Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein, Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo and Oracle Sister of Hope – Raisin!"

"A Xyz Summon during my turn?!" Koharu shouted shocked, making me smile a bit. "And during my Battle Phase as well!"

I didn't replied and instead just watched how my three monsters turned into different colored energies and flew into the air before falling into the galactic portal that formed in front of me. My Extra Deck opened and I looked through the Xyz Monsters I had, until I got the one I needed and before I realized my lips have started to speak out the chant for the monster.

" _Magicians master of illusions! Gather your souls at this stage and sing the song of mother Gaia! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Maiden of the unmoving stones!_ _ **Oracle Sister of Courage - Iris**_!"

The monster was feminine in appearance, wearing a long black robe with orange borders and purple stripes on the waist. A witch hat with a demonic eye and a small golden wand finished her outfit. She had spiked up brown hair with the bangs completely hide her eyes from view while a ring-like attachment around her head covered the rest of her face. I guess she prefers to stay an anonymous monster.

 **Oracle Sister of** **Courage** **–** **Iris**

 **Rank: 4|Attribute:** **Earth|** **Type: Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2** **4** **00/ DEF: 1** **6** **00**

 **3** **Level 4 Spellcaster-Type monsters**

 **Effect:** **This card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects during the turn it was Special Summoned. If this card battles an opponent monster you can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; this card cannot be destroyed by that battle, also, the Battle Damage you took from this battle is also inflicted to your opponent. Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; draw 1 card and reveal it. If it is a Spellcaster-Type monster, gain LP equal to its ATK, and if you do, Special Summon it. If the card you drew by this effect is a Spell/Trap Card, sent it to the Graveyard.**

"I can't believe it…" Koharu mumbled before shaking her head. She seemed to be hesitant about dueling me now that she saw my monster type. "No…-! Then I will just attack your Xyz monster instead! Go, Champion of Wishes! _**Heavy Sword Slash**_!"

She is still attacking even though her monster has lower attack power than mine? It must be some kind of effect that she has, probably even that set card of hers. Though, due to Iris' effect she can't be destroyed during the turn she has been summoned which gives me some back bone that would allow me to take on her attack head on without losing.

"Now, I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _**Advanced Swing**_ give 1000 more attack of my monster!" Koharu said as a card, whose art showed a knight slaying a dragon in the middle of a burning area, appeared onto her field. "At this moment I activate the effect of Champion of Wishes! When he battles a non-LIGHT monster I can detach an Overlay Unit to double its attack power! _**Double Heavy Slash**_!"

 **Advanced Swing** (Spells) Quick-Play

 **When a Xyz Monster declares an attack: Target 1 face-up Xyz Monster on the field; it gains 1000 ATK until the end of the Battle Phase, also, if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

The Knight absorbed one of its Overlay units into his chest and pulled out both of his swords, which started to burn with yellow flames as he swung them toward my monster. Due to the spell and Champion's effect Koharu's monster now had 6000 attack which was far higher than Iris' power. Forever, I still had my monster's indestructability and effect!

"At this moment I activate Iris' effect! If she is chosen as an attack target during the damage step I can detach 2 Overlay Units to inflict the damage I would have taken to both of us!" I countered as one of my monster's overlay units got absorbed into her hat and created a barrier around her. "With this both of us will take 3600 damage, or in other words: You lose!"

The barrier blocked Champion of Wishes' attack and then fired it back toward Koharu that was it, I won! But then, just as the attack was about to hit her and end it a trap appeared in front of her and protected her. What the heck? That's not fair!

"You really are nothing more than an amateur." Koharu sighed, no way, she actually had a counter for that? "I activate my Counter Trap, Xyz Block! I detach Champion of Wishes' remaining Overlay unit to negate your monster's effect and destroy it!"

"Oracle Sister of Courage – Iris' effect prevents its destruction during the turn it has been summoned!" I replied, gritting my teeth. My monster was safe from getting destroyed, but the attack is still going on and I will take all of the damage by myself.

And just as I said, Champion of Wishes slayed the barrier that protected my monster and swung his swords again. I head Iris crying out in pay as the attack made contact with her and suddenly a strong force hit my body as well. I tried to remain in balance but suddenly I felt a strong pain in my legs and the shockwave from Koharu's attack sent me flying backward. For a moment time seemed to slow down and I was looking toward the ceiling. Then, a sharp pain at the back of my head and everything became blurry.

 **『** **Elizabeth** **LP:** **40** **00 –** **4** **00 Hand:** **3** **』**

I heard voices yelling, but I couldn't make out who it was or what they were trying to say. Then, something appeared in front of my eyes, it seemed like humans I couldn't be sure, everything I could do was make out the colors white, red and green. I put a hand on my eyes and rubbed them a few times. My hearing and vision fixed and I could now see Evan and Avice standing over me with worried expressions.

I tried to stand back up but was stopped as a sharp pain rang trough my entire body. Damn it! Although Koharu has been holding back against me, she did so much damage to me with only one attack! Am I really so weak that I barely made it through?

"Hey, are you ok?" I turned my attention back to Evan who was looking down at me with pity. "Don't fall asleep, ok? We will fix you up soon."

"Don't worry about me." I mumbled, weakly. Why did I have to feel so weak, right now? "My whole body hurts, but I can still go on."

"What about your head?" Avice asked me worried. "Don't you feel anything?"

"My head?" What did she mean? I put a hand on my head and felt another wave of pain, I moved my hand away and saw that it was covered in blood. "Oh god! What happened?!"

"So you can use solid vision outside of Action Duels?" Evan asked, his tone sounded dark and somewhat angry. "You could have killed my sister with that attack! Is that what you wanted to do all along? Murder someone?! What sick reason could even justify that? Tell me! TELL ME!"

"Our reason?" Koharu asked and squeezed her fist. "You are asking about our reason after you invaded and destroyed our home?! After you killed our friends and families?!"

"Stop with those nonsenses!" My brother shouted back and I felt him put a hand on top of mine. I looked down and saw him taking off my Duel Disk.

"Don't." I tried to warn him, but it came out like a weak whispered. He still heard me and for a moment our eyes met, but then he put my Duel Disk on his arm and stepped toward.

"So you think we are your enemies because of what? I want to know, who told you all those lies?" Evan said with a forceful voice. "We said it once and I will say it again, we don't know anything about Academia and such! So tell me who accused us and then disappeared or else…"

"I think you should stop." The Yuya look-alike said to Koharu.

"Don't interfere, Yuto!" she yelled back at him and turned to face us. "You may be too soft, but I'm not. Our comrade told us about you three! How you are a part of Academia sent here to prepare another attack, and I believe in him!"

"A comrade?" Evan repeated. "And what would that comrade's name be?"

"I'm not going to tell anything to a Fusion scum like you!" Koharu shouted and inserted a card into her Duel Disk. "At the end of the Battle Phase the effects of Advanced Swing and Champion of Wishes ended, returning his attack back to 2000. I set a card and end my turn."

"So you will keep going." Evan commented before putting a hand on top of his deck. "Very well then. I will beat you for hurting my sister first and then I'm going to get the name of that person. I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Elizabeth/Evan] LP: 400, Hand: 4** **』** **(** **Well, I mean, it's Elizabeth's Duel Disk after all.** **)**

"Very well, first I activate the effect of Oracle Sister of Courage – Iris to use an overlay unit and draw a card. Then if the card is an "Oracle Sister" monster I can Special Summon it and gain LP equal to its ATK, but if it's anything else the card will be sent to the Graveyard!" Evan explained as my monster absorbed and the last material before raising her staff and putting it on top of the deck. "The card I drew is **Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword** , an Equip Spell, therefor it's sent to the graveyard."

 **Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword** (Spell) Equip

 **Equip only to an "Oracle Sister" monster. It gains 800 ATK. Once per turn: When a card of effect is activated that targets the monster equipped with this card, you can change the target to another monster on the field (even if the new target is not an appropriate target). If the monster equipped with this card destroy an opponent monster by battle, you can draw a card.**

Damn it! With this Evan's chance to regain some of the life points I lost has been blown. Could this be because he's using a different deck? Actually, because of that he is on an even bigger disadvantage because he doesn't know how my Oracle Sisters work.

"It seems you blew your chance for recovery." Koharu said crossing her arms.

"Actually I just realized that I was going to fuck up if that effect went through. But thanks to the Life Points, I still have the cards my sister left me I'm going to beat you!" Evan shouted back. "And just what cards I have, using the scale three **Oracle Sister of Nature - Rose** and the scale seven **Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome** , I set the Pendulum scale!"

Energy burst from the sides of my field, shaping into two blue columns as the spellcasters levitated inside of the columns, raising above Evan's head. A giant blue pentagram swung between the two monsters.

Oracle Sister of Nature – Rose is a young woman with blonde hair tied into a bun, and matching golden eyes. She wore a white cloak over a white Chinese outfit with yellow borders a red sash tied into a butterfly, red skirt and white sneakers. She held a pair of golden pistols with runes written on them in each hand.

Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome appearance was that of an angel with a glowing white skin and dark green eyes with light green sclera. She wore a light blue cloak over a completely white sleeveless dress with wing-shaped bracelets on both arms and legs. Finally a halo made of light was floating over her head as she held a spear made of magical energy.

 **Oracle Sister of Nature - Rose**

 **Level: 4|Attribute:** **Earth** **|Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **3**

 **ATK:** **14** **00** **/** **DEF:** **18** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **While your LP is higher than your opponent's, Any battle damage your opponent takes from attacks involving a Pendulum Monster you control is doubled.**

 **Effect:** **While your LP is higher than your opponent's, if a Spellcaster-Type monster you control attacks, your opponent cannot activate monster effects until the end of the Damage Step.**

 **Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome**

 **Level:** **4** **|Attribute:** **Water** **|Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **7**

 **ATK:** **13** **00** **/** **DEF:** **3** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **While your LP is lower than your opponent's, you take no effect damage, also all battle damage you take from battles involving a Pendulum Monster you control is halved.**

 **Effect: . When this card is Pendulum Summoned from the hand: You can Special Summon 1 "** **Oracle Sister** **"** **m** **onster from your Deck in Defense Position, but it has its effects negated, also banish it when it leaves the field.**

I looked at the monsters in amazement. Evan has been able to make use of those cards, however, the third card in my hand was a Spell. Unless he drew a Pendulum Monster, those cards are completely useless right now!

"With this I can Pendulum Summon monster from Level 3 to 6!" Evan declared throwing his right arm toward the sky. "Swing Pendulum of Life, be the path of light for my soul and give beginning to a new deity! Pendulum Summon!"

A multicolored portal appeared between the columns and a single beam of light flew from it and onto the field, revealing a floating blue pendulum.

"Appear before me, my comrades! Revive, the millennium goodness sleeping within the mortals' soul! **Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer**!"

A pair of glowing eyes appearance within the pendulum and it started to crack until it break into pieces and a human girl appeared from inside. She had ling green eyes while her hair was dark green with the back tied into a small ponytail with a red flower pin. The bangs were swept to the right, partially covering her right eye. On her left ear she had a piercing with a flower. She wore a green witch hat decorated with yellow flowers and a white coat with light blue lines on the sleeves and shoulders. The cloth was kept closed by a light green ribbon that tied the two sides together. Underneath that the girl wore a dark green sweater and a long skirt of the same color with two belts hanging from the sides. Long white stockings with small pink lines around the top finished the Spellcaster's outfit. In her left arm the monster was holding a long magician rod made from wood whose tip had a form that looked like a beast's head with three blue gems attacked to it.

 **Tempest** **Sina** **the** **Pendulum Sorcerer**

 **Level:** **6** **|Attribute:** **Water** **|Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **3**

 **ATK:** **24** **00** **/** **DEF:** **18** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can target 1 face-up Pendulum monster you control; once during this turn, it cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects.**

 **Effect:** **This Pendulum Summoned card is unaffected by your opponent's Trap Cards. The first time each monster you control would be destroyed each turn, by a card effect, it is not destroyed.**

"What the heck?" Koharu exclaimed taking a step back. "Pendulum Summoning? And you called out a high level monster without release another monster?"

"It's ridiculous overpowered I know!" Evan shouted back with what I could guess to be a derisive voice. "But trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. Those monster can be Pendulum Summoned even after they get destroyed and it's a pain in the ass. Well… a pain in your ass since I'm the one controlling that game breaking summoning method and monster! I used far too much words for this so I'm just going to continue my turn now and beat the hell out of you!"

"That sounds so much like him." I and Avice mumbled in unison.

"I activate the Equip Spell, **Ancient Artifact – Moon Core** and equip it to Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer!" Evan put the card in her Duel Disk as it appeared on her field, showing the art of a flower blooming in front of a full moon.

 **Ancient Artifact – Moon Core** (Spell) Equip

 **Equip only to a Spellcaster-Type monster. The equipped monster gains ATK equal to the difference between you and your opponent's LP, also, it can attack every monster your opponent controls (one attack on each monster per Battle Phase). You take no damage from battles including the equipped monster, also, if it would be destroyed by battle or card effect you can destroy this card instead.**

After Evan played the card a root came from the ground and wrapped itself around Tempest Sina's rod, going up her arm and reaching her chest where it took the form of a glowing yellow flower bud and started pulsing like it was a life on its own.

"Now, Moon Core increases the attack power of Tempest Sina by the difference in our Life Points. Right now mines are at 400 while yours are 1500! That's 1100 more attack for Sina!" The flower on our monster's chest bloomed and a warm light engulfed her entire body, raising her ATK to 3500.

"That's exact game!" Avice cheered on pumping her fists upward.

"We should go now!" Yuto suddenly shouted from the sides.

"Battle! Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer attack Champion of Wishes! " Evan threw his arm toward and our monster nodded before flying into the air and pointing her rod toward the knight, causing its body to turn completely green before shattering.

"It's not over yet! I play my Trap, **Xyz Survival**!" Koharu declared as a card flipped face-up revealing a robotic T-Rex roaring toward the sky as the ground around it began cracking and lava poured, surrounding the beast.

 **Xyz Survival (Trap) Normal**

 **During your opponent's turn if an Xyz monster you control is targeted for attack, at damage calculation: Make the battle damage you take from this battle 0, then target 2 monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon both targets, but they have their effects negated. Immediately after this effect resolves, Xyz Summon 1 Xyz Monster using only those 2 monsters.**

"This trap makes the damage from a battle with a Xyz Monster become 0. Then I can Xyz Summon using monster in my Graveyard as materials! I overlay my Level 4 Necromancer of Wishes and Knight of Wishes!" Koharu shouted as both monsters appeared on her field and flew into a portal above her head.

" _Hope, the enigmatic force that unites us, come as the courageous protector of dreams! Xyz Summon! Heavenly warrior of light! Rank 4,_ _ **King of Dreams, Hope**_!"

A beam of light came from the portal, so bright that it blinded all of us. I tried to not lose those two from sight but all I could see was the silhouette of an angelic being before I had to cover my eyes. Damn those two!

Once the glow died down, both Koharu and Yuto were gone. The holograms of my monsters stood there for a few more moments before disappearing as well. There were a few moments of silence and my brother turned around to look back at me. He stepped toward and took of my Duel Disk from his arm before handing it to Avice and sitting beside me. It would be a lie if I said that I was in a state to follow his movements. After the duel I suddenly remembered about all of the pain and my senses began getting numb and my eyelids became heavier. I think I'm going to pass out soon.

Suddenly I felt an arm wrap around my waist and legs and my body began to rise from the ground. Of course, I'm being carried by my brother right now and it feels kind of weird, but I don't have enough strength to try and fight against him.

"What are you doing?" I asked, but my voice sounded weak. I hate that!

"You head is bleeding seriously." He answered while looking forward. "It looks like a heavy wound, I don't have anything to wrap it with and just to be sure that you are fine we are going to the hospital."

"Be careful to not break your back while carrying her." I rolled my eyes. Yeah, very funny Avice!

"You are underestimating my strength, sis!" Evan replied while… groaning. Ah right, I completely forgot how weak he actually was physically.

"You two are hopeless." I sighed and leaned against my brother's chest. His jacket was actually really warm to cuddle in.

"After we leave Elizabeth in the hospital I'm going to meet the Fusion Chick. I don't know who those two were or what they were talking about, but they hurt one of my sisters so I'm going to make they pay for that mistake." Evan suddenly said, picking up my interest in their conversation. "I will hunt them down."

Hearing my brother said such words with that cold and bitter tone I squeezed the fabric of his jacket. He was carrying for me, but that's not how I want him to prove it. To take out your anger on others only because you can isn't right. But no matter what I try to say or do I'm sure that he won't listen to me, he never did. I should still try to stop my brother from doing something wrong.

I should…

But it's getting dark…

Guess I will sleep for a bit…

* * *

 **General POV**

Yuto and Koharu sat down in and empty alley and looked around, sighing in relief. Shun would be really pissed if he learned that they went out without telling him; not that he was the one who had the right to get angry about such stuff. After all, most of the attacks against LDS and all the carded people were him doing things without telling his comrades anything.

"Why are you so sure that those siblings work with Academia anyway?" Yuto finally asked the question that was bugging him for a while.

"What kind of question is that?" Koharu groaned leaning her head against the wall behind her and looking up. "It was _him_ , so it can't be a lie. Don't you trust your comrades?"

Yuto didn't answer and instead stood completely silent. She kept repeating that a friends has given her the information. However, only the three of them had chosen to come to Standard and they haven't had any contact with the Resistance since then. Since it hasn't been him the only person left who could have told Koharu this would be Shun, however such a things too out of character for him to do.

To put it simple, Yuto was starting to worry about his friend's mental health.

"Ok then." There was nothing else he could say. But those three seemed more skilled than a regular duelist from around here, not to mention that this Xyz Summon seemed far too real. "I will go look for Shun. Let's meet at the regular place."

Koharu nodded in reply and the Dark Duelist ran off, leaving her alone. The girl then looked down at her hand for a moment and squeezed it into a fist. Damn, those rats got away from her and now _he_ wouldn't be angry. Koharu turned her head toward the side and gave a quick nod.

At the same moment the red eye that was watching her from the shadows disappeared into the darkness of the shadows.

* * *

 **A/N: And there it is! Chapter 10 is done and posted! Lately I have been having problems with saving Doc Manager deleting, changing things, so if you notice something strange or wrong, please notice me and I will try to fix it. So, Evan is now going to seek revenge from the Xyz Duelists by manipulating LDS into helping him and something strange is going on with Koharu. What do you guys think is going to happen next? And who is this figure that seems to follow Koharu? So many questions!**

 **Scal I already know that you will post something about the cat motive I'm following with Evan, so don't waste your time.**

 **I'm wondering, should I wait for Arc-V's final episode and celebrate it by spitting, talking shit and swearing on Yuya or should I do it before that? Because holding the anger inside of you isn't healthy and I hold so much hatred for this particular character and I could keep ranting how horrible he is and how YGO would be better if he just died for days.** **I never before believed that someone could be** **emotionally attached to a fictional character until I met him.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **I'm not done yet.**

 **Lately I have been watching tons of Yu-Gi-Oh! Youtube videos about the new Link Summon and readed alot of comments and forum discussions and I'm not sure what the YGO community actually wants from Konami anymore. Literally everyone says that the game needs to be slow down, but at the same time Link Monsters slow down their decks and make it "harder" to summon from the Extra Deck which ruins their Quasar and Zoodiac Decks...**

 **And because the only worth replying part of my current reviews is about this new mechanic here is what I'm going to say.**

ScalchopWarrior **: less than 1 day. That's so long it took for YGO players to create new Zoodiac and Quasar builds that can spam big ass bosses using the currenly revelaled Decode Talker... Only thing that happened with the decks right now is that this scene can't happen any more:**

 **Me when dueling a Quasar Deck: "Can I get my turn, like, today?"**

Stick Figure man **: It's** **concerning only due to the possibility of your opponent having a Five-Headed Dragon while you have only a Decode Talker and 2700 LP remaining... Well, that got a pretty shitty restriction very fast. But it's a very smart thought from Konami's side to make their unable to change battle position as it stops players from abusing the Link Markers by changing the zones they are pointing toward.**

 **To sum this A/N up: The VRains main character seems to be actually a very cool dude and I'm probably going to make a story about the series once it comes out!**

 **Another large A/N... Good work me, good work!**

 **Please, leave a review and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Avice : ...**

 **DT: ...**

 **Avice : *Internal screaming***

 **DT: No, seriously, that thing is 20 pages - twice the size of what I normally write - with a single cheesy duel and stuff that at this point would make little to no sense for you guys...**

 **Avice : ~But it's told from my POV, so it's worth a shot, boys~ ;)**

 **DT: -_-)**

* * *

 _(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**

 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**

 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**

 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**

 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**

 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**

 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;**

 _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**

 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**

 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**

 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.

 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**

 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**

 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**

 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,**

 _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**

 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

An Eventful Meeting

 **Avice's POV**

After the horrible incident that leaded to our sister getting badly wounded, we quickly took her to the nearest hospital, which wasn't that good of an idea either as the staff there questioned us about how she got those injuries and what not.

We lied and told them that it was because of an accident during an Action Duel, which wasn't that far away from what actually happened. The really bad part of all this was that after the incident my brother wasn't acting like himself.

When the doctor assured us that our sister had no serious injuries and would stay in the hospital just for the night, Evan wasted no time and stormed out of the building. His emotional condition after what happened wasn't stable and it wasn't sure that he won't do something dangerous, so I had to go after him and keep my family from getting into any more trouble.

I was able to calm my brother and convinced him to not call the LDS just yet, we needed more time to plan things through and also edit the video that brother was able to record while Elizabeth was dueling the girl.

Eventually we sat at a café near the hospital and believe me when I tell you that the tension around us was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Our usual long debates about best anime and such were absent, there was nothing but an awkward silence. My brother was sitting across from me, drinking a cup of coffee while he stared dead ahead at a wall. The worst part of it was that I was forced to watch how the one person that was always beside me when I needed someone, my role model, was breaking apart and there was nothing that I could do to help him.

Evan had always acted as a cocky person that gave no shit about other's lives, but that was true only to a certain extent. We both hated the humans from our world, the sense for reality that they were trying to force on us. If your opinions didn't match with theirs they would ostracized you, label you as weird and avoid you. Because of that for us, who couldn't relate with the rest of the world, our relationship as siblings became just that more important for us. But Evan got the hardest role in our bond, he was the oldest and the only boy, so he had to take all of the responsibility.

"I'm a piece of shit." My brother suddenly mumbled to himself and chuckled before he raised his head to look at me with a small smile on his face.

What should I do? Big brother was blaming himself for the failed negotiation with the Xyz Duelists. As bad as it may sound such self-contempt wasn't something new for my brother and I had already learned how to deal with it.

"Indeed, you are." I nodded in response. If I tried to refute his statement this conversation would get unnecessary long and whiny, so instead I'm going to agree with my brother, accept the lie that he could have made a mistake and move on.

Big brother chuckled again, I know, this was his way to thank me for the _encouraging_ words. It wasn't the first time we had this type of conversation, so I have already learned how he thinks and what his gestures really mean. Though, this time it felt a bit more special, maybe because it was the first time we spoke about this in a different world.

"I don't understand why." Big brother suddenly hit the table with a fist. "I let my pride blind me and made a miscalculation that put Elizabeth's life in danger. Why my perfect logic did suddenly became so flawed? I thought I was smarter than that, was it just a delusion?"

"If you are an idiot then I must be one too, because I couldn't find the flaw in your logic. Not back then, not now. If those guys who hated all summoning methods expect Xyz were to duel you, or me, the damage would have been far greater. Think about how the same scenario would have gone if I was in the place of Elizabeth. I'm using Fusion, they despise this method of summoning, so they would have gone as far as to try and possible success in killing me during the duel."

We knew absolutely nothing about the two duelists before the battle began, but Big brother still made the best choice even though there too many unknowns. There was no rule to state that there had to be a positive solution for every situation, sometimes you can only choose between two evils.

"There is always another solution." Brother shook his head. _What, there is a solution that even we didn't think about?_ "We could have tried to avoid the duel, even fled from the scene, but instead I choose a more risky solution."

"Did you lose your mind?!" I yelled back. I would accept my brother saying that he has 'flaws'. I could live with the thought that we can make mistakes. What I can't accept is when my brother, the one who made both of us this way, the one who evolved us into more than just boring humans and gave me a better reason to exist, suddenly turned against our own ideology.

We could have defeated those Xyz scums no matter what was the match-up. Brother, me, even sister were ten times more skilled duelists than the two of them taken together. Yes, we were probably going to get harmed during the duel, but our chances to win were nearly one hundred percentages. Winning every game that we could win, no matter what the cost would be, that's how I and my brother were always playing. Flee when you are not sure in your victory but fight with everything when you believe in your chances.

"Running away because it's safer that way? That's now how we do things, brother! We don't run, we fight!" I shouted.

My brother stared at me for a moment, I wasn't sure what he was thinking right now. Was he angry at me, I dared to talk back to him after all. But my dark thoughts were quickly replaced as my brother suddenly smiled, his bright smile made all of my worries to fade away and unable to hold back I replied with the same expression. I'm not sure how long we stood like this, maybe around a minute or longer until my brother stood up from his seat and reached out to pat my head. Of course I didn't resist him, I love when he shows extra affection by either doing this or cuddling me when we are sitting on the sofa at home.

"You helped me a lot." My brother said softly.

I internally laughed to myself, who would think that because of Elizabeth getting hurt I would get to spend some time alone with my older brother. And of course just when things started going to the way I wanted them to my brother's Duel Disk (which can also work as a phone) started ringing and my brother had to answer it. I placed my elbow on the table and leaned on it, why does this kind of shit always happen in anime?

My brother didn't seem interested in what the person who called him was said as evidenced by mumbling a single 'Mhm' every now and then. After a moment however, his eyes widened and his facial expression changed to one that I was very familiar with, as he used it a lot when we watched an anime or played a video game. I had named it: 'Well, that's a complete bullshit if I ever saw one.'

"Yes, she is with me now." My brother said and gave me a look which said that we are leaving. "Yes, there is no problem, don't worry about it. Just tell me where to meet. Mhm. It's close to where we are now, we will be there in around half an hour. Ok, bye."

My brother put down his phone and sighed, rubbing the space between his eyes. I guess that the message he got wasn't a very happy one, but seeing how he didn't run off the moment he hung up the phone it wasn't a bad one either.

"Who was it?" I asked playing with the locks of my hair.

"Yuya. As it turns out he suddenly got himself a FREAKING Fusion Monster of all things and wants to ask you for some advices of how to use it. Call it an advanced class about Fusion Summon."

Well, I'm not sure what to say about this, expect that I want to smash that tomato's head into a wall for ruining my time with brother. Oh, also, why does he want Fusion advices from me instead of Sora, after all he is the 'Pure Fusion' user?

"Well, I guess it can't be helped." I rolled my eyes. Big brother took my hand in his own. I smiled happily and followed after him.

We walked out of the café and headed toward where we were supposed to meet up with Yuya. Well that's pretty much what we were doing, kind of boring I know, but what can I do when nothing interesting was happening? Of course Yuya seemed to have forgotten that we aren't all that familiar with this city as the place he arranged for us to meet at was somewhere our foot has never stepped on, so we had to use the maps on our Duel Disks to get there. Which reminds me, why didn't he call us to meet in You Show or something?

Well, we still found the place, it was in front of a Card Shop in the center of the city. Yuya was already there along with Oni. The two noticed us approaching and waved, we did the same and so the four of us meet. The only remaining question was why Oni was there as well.

"You two are early." Yuya said, which surprised me a bit since they seemed to have gotten here long before we did.

"Where is Eliz-neechan?" Oni looked around.

"Elizabeth can't come right now. She got hospitalized." My brother replied bluntly. Yuya and Oni stared at us in shock and I face palmed. Did he really need to say it?

"WHAT!?" Yuya shouted. "What happened? How is she? You should have called!"

"Don't worry. It's not that bad really" My brother put a hand on his shoulder. "She hit her head badly so we took her to the hospital. The doctors said that there were no serious injuries, but we let her stay there for the night just to make sure everything is ok."

"You should have still called us!" Yuya protested back.

To tell the truth, I'm not sure why I should tell him or anyone else from You Show anything? They aren't something like a family for us and they definitely aren't people that I would like to be a friend with. Yuzu and Sora are okay to some point but Yuya and the other kids are so annoying. They are the last people I would like to try having a conversation with, due to how soft-hearted all of them are.

"Let's move to the point why we meet here." I crossed my hands. "Evan said that you got a Fusion Monster and wanted me to teach you how use it, right?"

"Well, up to a point. I somehow already know how to Fusion Summon, but the problem is that my deck doesn't have any cards that enable me to use it." Well, that's definitely problem since I don't think that his Performapals have any Fusion related cards.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'somehow'?" my brother asked. "Didn't you learn Fusion Summoning from Sora or something?"

"No." Yuya shook his head. "I don't know how it happened either. I was dueling when suddenly I drew the Polymerization Spell Card I took from Yuzu and it just happened. I saw the monster, what are its abilities and learned how to summon it."

Well, that's a bullshit way to give the protagonist new cards when he doesn't even know how such shit works. Yusei and Yuma at least already knew how to summon their monsters before gaining them through some retarded and unrealistic way.

"So it was like the card told you what to do, huh?" My brother raised an eyebrow. "Would you mind if I see what that monster is like?"

"No of course. Here." Yuya gave us the card to look at it.

The monster was indeed a Fusion, a Level 8 Dark Dragon-type with 3000 ATK if I have to be more precise. The monster had a really badass artwork and its name was 'Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon'. Thanks Ra, it was a Pendulum Monster only by name as it would be crazy if there were Extra Deck Pendulum Monsters. How would they be set the Pendulum Scale? And how the heck do you Pendulum Summon a Xyz monster if it doesn't have a Level?

Anyway, back to Yuya's monster, it was somewhat decent with a somewhat decent effect and summoning condition. All it was doing forever was gaining additional attacks depending of the Level of its Fusion materials, because Negate Attack and Mirror Force obviously don't exist in this world.

"Fascinating. The harbinger of the end of time." I commented, holding back the urge to throw the card and forget it ever existed.

"Where did you get it from?" My brother asked interested.

"I don't know. It just appeared in my Extra Deck and I summoned it. Um, why are you two staring at me like that?" Yuya took a step back.

What the heck? Isn't it a bit too early in the anime for the writers to give the main character such bullshit powers? Ok, Zexal did it on their first episode but it part of to the plot and they had Astral who was a creature from another world so it worked for them, but I don't see any aliens or Crimson Dragons around here to justify this madness.

Well, whatever I could as well try to play along with this.

"Ok then, I'm going to help you as much as I can." I gave back the card to Yuya.

"That's all I'm asking for." He smiled back. Why must boys always do that why they try to be nice?

"Now that this is settled, not that I have a problem with it, but do you mind telling me why Oni is here as well?" My brother put both hands on his hips and looked at Yuya with a serious expression.

"Let's Oni answer." The girl raised a hand. My brother nodded and she continued. "Oni went with Yuya-chan to watch his Duel. After that we came here too met with you!"

"Yeah, I had a duel at Unno Divination School and Oni came to watch it along with everyone else from You Show. I called you to come right after the Duel ended and took Oni with me, since she is living with you and there aren't any classes today." At Yuya's answer I glared at him ever harder.

There weren't any classes today? And we still sent Oni to the school? Oh well, it's not like a twelve years old lime me is supposed to be great when it comes to taking care of a child so I'm somewhat ok looking like an idiot. My brother on the other side doesn't have anything to defend himself with.

"So, are we going to buy you some new cards to make that dragon contribute for your future as a Pro Duelist or what?" I asked, opening the doors of the shop.

The others all nodded and walked inside the building with me following close behind. Fairly, I'm really irritated that Yuya called us to help with this since the only thing he needed to make Rune-Eyes work is a single fusion card that would let him summon that dragon. There is no need for recover since the only purpose that monster could have with its ability would be as a game finisher. Well, since me and my brother already here we could as well help the tomato the best we can.

I walked forward, looking at the glass display of cards around me. Most of them weren't what I would consider good or useful cards and the few that would actually come in handy like _Mystical Space Typhoon_ and _Soul Charge_ were far too expensive.

"So how is your qualifying for the Championship going?" Yuya suddenly asked.

I looked at the side to avoid eye contact with the tomato. That was a really bad question and I had absolutely no idea of what answer to give. Right now it was a fifty-fifty chance for us to get in the tournament with the help of the Leo Corporation and zero percentages if our little scheme fail.

"It's not an easy task." My brother sighed. "It's very rare to find someone who hasn't meet the requirements yet. I'm starting to lose hope that we will be able to get fifty wins in time."

"Yes, there are just a few days left." Yuya said.

"So how about you, Yuya? I heard that you haven't meet the requirements either." I reminded him, though since he is the protagonist I'm sure that it won't stay like this for too long.

"I need to win just one more duel!" Yuya replied rather cheerfully. "Smiley has yet to tell me who is the final opponent and I'm a bit nervous since that's a very important duel, but no matter who I face I'm sure that I will make it through with the Entertainment Dueling my father taught me."

"Your father?" My brother asked, probably as surprised as I was. This was the first time Yuya even brought the topic about his father up.

"Yes! I haven't told you yet, have I? I'm talking about Yusho Sakaki, the greatest Entertainment Duelist!" Yuya explained.

Ok, I have never heard about that guy before and obviously haven't seen him dueling to have any accurate idea about him, but I can surely as hell argue about how great Duelist he is only by the fact that Yuya's Entertainment Dueling is taken from that man's.

"Yusho Sakaki is also Oni's inspiration!" Oni added. _Well, maybe he really is a great Entertainment Duelist._

"That explains your deck choice. Nevertheless I'm happy to hear that!" Yuya smiled.

I turned to my brother and saw him staring at a glass display with a very serious expression. The cards he was looking at were all Extra Deck support with Fusion Cards, Tuners and whatnot, by a single glance I knew that this was what we were looking for. I then looked at the prices of each and suddenly felt like throwing up. There was no chance I would give so much money for a single card!

Of course I also had to remember that the Extra Deck summons were pretty unusual around this city so those prizes are probably to avoid the simple 'commoners' like us gaining something so rare. A real tragedy too, since a lot of the cards were very useful for my and my brother's decks.

"What are you tw- Whoa!" Yuya was about to ask us something when he saw the cards we were looking at.

"I guess Rune-Eyes will have to wait a long time before it get the chance to shine." My brother commented.

"What about this one?" Yuya asked pointing at the right side of the glass.

"It's perfect!" I exclaimed.

The card was exactly what he needed! It was a Normal Spell called Odd-Eyes Fusion and it was very cheap compared to the other stuff I saw there. I can't believe that I missed this card when I looked at the cards just a few moments ago.

"Excuse me!" Yuya raised a hand to the clerk. "I want to purchase this card!"

* * *

We walked out of the Card Shop, there weren't any other cards that Yuya wanted and my, my brother's and Oni's deck already had enough options and combos to turn the tables around in an instance. It's really amazing how much better is the consistency of decks made of forty cards with random effects that aren't connected to help each other in the anime as oppose of our world.

We said goodbye to the tomato head and headed toward our apartment for some well-deserved break. Just then I saw that a little boy was standing not too fair from us and looked toward the distance. He wore a light blue hoodie with the hood up, white pants and also had a black cap underneath the hood, for some reason.

The boy looked very depressed, judging by how tightly he hugged his teddy bear I would guess that he good lost and was now afraid from being alone in such a large place surrounded by unknown people. Poor thing, this behavior reminds me of myself when I was a lot younger.

I remembered how when I was six I used to be afraid very from thunders. I hated the loud noise which would always made me thing that there was something very evil out there roaring and trying to hurt me. That's how I started to sneak in my older siblings beds.

I'm starting to get carried away with those stories, aren't I?

Anyway after we saw the kid standing there we did what anyone else in our place would do and passed him. Yes, I couldn't get crazy enough to start carrying deeply about every kid I meet on the goddamn street. He must be having parents to worry about him and if he don't, well, that's a misfortune.

"Hey, hey, what do we got here boss?!" Suddenly a very rude voice shouted from behind us and we turned around.

The little boy was standing there, surrounded by three other boys that all seemed to be far older that him. They clothes were ragged and shabby giving them the blooming image of a group of worthless punks.

"What are they doing?" Oni asked worried. She was too young and innocent to understand what was happening, but I and my brother already knew exactly what was going on.

"Hey I heard that he was director Akaba's younger brother!" Another one of the punks said rather loudly caching my interest.

"Well, he surely doesn't look like it!" The first one replied.

Yeah it was true that the boy wasn't what I would expect the brother of Akaba Reiji to be like, but that didn't matter as little kid was our best chance to get influence in LDS. I looked up at my brother who he was starting toward the group waiting for the best moment to intervene. Those punks would obviously do far worse than just mocking the boy and if we beat the living crap out of them then it would be more justified that if we did it now.

I saw that the kid hugged his teddy bear tighter and tried to find a good chance to run away, but unfortunately those idiots have surrounded him from all ways. Of course then one of the bullies wrenched the bear from the boy's grip. The kid tried to get it back but the puck held the toy high enough for the little one to not reach it. The punks started to laugh again and that's when my brother decided to stop them.

"Is it normal for older LDS students to bully the younger ones or are you three just the finest of humans' de-evolution?" He asked casually.

"Boo! Your line sucked!" I shouted from behind.

"Shut up! Do you know how long I was thinking on it?!" He yelled back at me. "And it's not like those degraded monkeys understood what I said in the first place!"

"You really suck as a main character." I sighed shaking my head in disappointment.

"Oi."

My brother glared at me and took a deep breath. He relaxed and put on his cheeky smirk before turning to face the bullies once again.

"Who are those two?" One of them asked.

"I don't know but I think that they just insulted us." The… 'smart' one, of the three replied.

"Is that so?" The third looked toward us. "Do you have a problem with us, losers?"

He slowly walked toward us and stoop in front of my brother, looking down at him. But Evan didn't step back, instead his expression became serious and even cool, like a badass hero directly from an anime.

I meant from one of those badass fighting animes with a quiet and cool protagonist.

"I asked you something, brat!" the punk mocked my brother and pushed his shoulder.

"I would prefer to not fight." My brother replied with a cool and badass tone.

"But I want to fight! What are you going to do about this, albino?" The idiot asked pushing my brother again.

"That's my final warning. If you try to push me again it's going to end badly for you." My brother growled.

"Oh really? And what are you going to do, loser?"

The punk processed to push my brother again, but this time he got caught. Evan had grabbed his hand and twisted it causing his opponent to whimper.

"Whoah!" Oni shouted in amazement.

I may haven't told you yet, but at some point my brother was taking self-defense classes from various fighting animes and he was pretty good at it. Now then, let's return back to telling how how my big bro beat someone.

It all ended very fast, it wasn't even a real fight. My brother who had a sturdy grip on his opponent's hand pulled him toward and planted his knee into the guy's stomach. A moment of complete silence passed before the punk collapsed on his knees, holding his stomach and looking at my brother while crying.

"W-when I *sob* said f-fighting *sniff* I meant a d-d-duel." The boy said while crying and ran away, leaving, presumably everyone who witnessed this.

"Well, I'm not sure how I should respond to this." My brother ran a hand through his hair and looked back at me.

"Just let it be, this was the best way someone had solved a problem in this world." I answered giving him a thumb up. You have to agree that there are times when a fist in the guts is far simpler and faster that dueling.

"Whatever you say sis." My brother nodded and turned toward the rest of the punks.

The bigger one of them gritted his teeth angry and pushed the boy on the ground after which he threw the plush toy to the side. Oni quickly ran toward to help the child to get up while smiling kindly and telling him to not worry. The two bullies took their Duel Disks and activated them. Fools, we gave them a chance to run away and instead they are going to challenged us head-on.

"Is that how you are going to play?" I asked playfully and put on my Duel Disk.

"Let's make it a two-on-two duel then." My brother replied. "Let's teach them how a senior should act toward a junior."

Oni stepped behind us with the boy next to her hugging his teddy bear. Good, now that our key to the Leo Corporation is safe we can go all out!

"DUEL!" we all shouted.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Thunder LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Tiger LP: 4000 Hand: 5 ****』**

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow while looking at the names that showed up on my Duel Disk. I know that everyone is able to put their own username and that it doesn't have to be their real name, but that's just…

"It's still better that calling themselves Bully #1 and Bully #2." My brother replied. "Anyway, I'm talking the first turn. Since neither player is allowed to attack on their first turn I will set a monster and a card. Turn end."

"That's too easy!" The one who stood against my brother, Tiger I guess, mocked us as he drew a card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Tiger] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Hahaha, that's perfect!" He laughed and I rolled my eyes.

Why must the amateurs always laugh as crazy when they get a good opening hand? It's really annoying how such trash act all high and mighty when they actually can't do jack shit.

"I send _Machina Sniper_ and _Machina Defender_ from my hand to the Graveyard to Special Summon _Machina Fortress (Lvl.8 ATK: 2500)_!" Tiger shouted as a large blue tank-like robot appeared on the field. "Next I set two cards and end my turn."

'So they are going to summon their best monsters on the first turn?' I thought. 'Well, it's just going to make our victory that much easier.'

"My turn!" I shouted drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

Hmm, with that hand I would be able to make a quick work of at least one of them. But since I'm not going to be able to attack on this turn and most of my monsters focus more on offense than defense I should play it safe for now.

"I will take a page from my brother's book and play it safer as well. I set a monster and a card, that's it for now." I declared as the cards appeared before me.

I turned to my brother, now both of our field were set and ready to finish this duel on our next turn.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Thunder] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Huh? After all the big talk the best you can do is to crawl behind your pathetic monsters for protection?" The one who stood against me remarked. "But of course that's to be expected from someone who isn't from LDS, you aren't on our standards, kid!"

"I already saw your standards and it's too dark for me down there." I replied. _See? That's what a cool comeback sounds like!_

"You ignorant little brat!" the bully snapped at me. "I was thinking about going easy on you fools, but after this I'm going to go all out! I activate the Continuous Spell – Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen and use its effect to Special Summon _Arcana Force XXI – The World (Lvl.8, ATK: 3100)_! Now I toss a coin to gain an effect based of the result! Perfect! Since I got Heads which means that during the End Phase I can tribute two monsters to skip your next turn!"

I rolled my eyes. Of course, the anime is the only place where you could successfully pull out that thing's effect. Yeah, not like I'm going to let that happen.

"Then I will play Double Summon to let me Normal Summon twice for this turn only! I summon _Arcana Force IV – The Emperor_ _(Lvl.4, ATK: 1400)_ and _Arcana Force VI – The Lovers (Lvl.4, ATK: 1600)_! Now I toss the coin to determine each's effect!" Two holographic coins appeared above the monsters and flipped before landing on the results which were…

"Perfect! Now due to _Arcana Force IV – The Emperor_ 's head effect all Arcana Force monsters I control gain 500 attack! Next due to _Arcana Force VI – The Lovers_ ' tail effect I can't Tribute Summon any Arcana Force monsters, not that I need any more."

"Think again. That's a nice Arcana Force boss you got there." I grinned and took a card from my hand and put it into the slot of the Duel Disk. "It would be a shame if something was to happen to it. Like, what if… I use _Effect Veiler_ on your _The World_ to negate its effect until the End Phase."

"You damn brat! I set a card. During my End Phase the effect of the World would have activated…"

"If I didn't negate it." I replied smugly.

Also, now it's time for a little Yu-Gi-Oh, ruling lesson. Arcana Force's effects are Trigger effects which are triggered when the monsters are summoned so they have to make a toss coin. Because of that if their effects get temporally negated they forget the result and are unable to apply any of their effects again. In other words, they do not regain their abilities if they lose them once.

"Don't think you have won yet." The bully gritted his teeth.

"Unfortunately we already did." My brother replied putting a hand on his hips. "Avice would you?"

"You got it." I smiled and clicked a button on my Duel Disk. "At the End Phase I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Twin Twister by discarding a card I get to destroy the two cards your friend had set!"

A pair of whirlwinds shot from my card, hitting my opponent's obvious traps. They turned to be Mirror Force and Solemn Strike before shattering.

"OH GOD!" I shouted.

"A Solemn card?!" My brother followed.

If they were able to activate this card things would have gotten far uglier that they had to be. First I avoided _The World_ and now _Solemn Strike_ , the adrenalin is real in this duel!

"You can take it from here on." I told my brother.

"I got it. But don't relax just yet, your turn is going to be next. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

"Hey Oni." My brother called and turned to face the girl. "You know that at You Show I and Avice are known as masters of Synchro and Transformation, right?"

"Yes, Niichan!" Oni nodded.

"Well, that's just a part of the truth. Though each of us focuses on just one summoning method that doesn't mean that we don't know how to use the other ones. Do you understand what I mean by this?"

"Does Niichan mean that…" Oni trailed out shocked.

"That's right! And now I'm going to show you the full strength of my deck! I Normal Summon _ **ChronoDevil**_ _ **Summit Hornet**_!" A large metallic hornet covered with golden platting appeared on the field. Its eyes flashed blue and its horn had a gear on it with two large clock arms coming from it and pointing to the sides.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Summit Hornet**

 **Level:** **3/** **Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Insect** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **0** **00/DEF:** **5** **00**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Normal Summoned** **y** **ou can Normal Summon 1** **DARK** **monster from your hand, as an additional Normal Summon.** **You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 2 face-up Spell or Trap cards on the field; return them to the hand.**

* * *

"When Hornet is summoned I can summon a DARK monster from my hand. The one that I choose is _**ChronoDevil Unknollow**_!" A large gear appeared on the field and a shadowed figure came out of it. The monster was completely black expect it's hollow white eyes, it had long neck and arms but was missing legs, instead it moved using his tail.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Unknollow**

 **Level:** **1/** **Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Reptile** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **10** **0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Normal Summoned** **y** **ou can** **Special Summon** **1 Level** **6 or lower** **DARK** **monster from your hand** **, and if you do, this card's Level becomes the same as that monster's.**

* * *

"Next I use _ChronoDevil Unknollow_ 's effect to Special Summon _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter_ _(Lvl.4, ATK: 1800)_ whose effect activates as well, letting me reduce its attack to 0 in order to summon _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lvl.3, ATK: 1300)_ from my deck with its effects negated!" My eyes widened as I saw the number of monsters my brother summoned in just one turn.

"Due to Unknollow's effect if I summoned a monster using this effect its level becomes the same as the monster I summoned which makes it a level 4. Of course that's redundant information as I tune my Level Four _Stream Supporter_ to the Level Three _Timefrozer Ghost_!"

Oh here it goes, he is going to summon the Synchro Dragon!

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lvl.7, ATK: 2400)!_ "

My brother chanted as the dragon landed on the field standing in the middle of his monsters. The all mighty beast lowered its head toward our opponents and growled.

"Next I Flip _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lvl.3, ATK: 1200)_ and activate the Quick-Play Spell – _**Timeline Fusion**_ to fuse _Protector Golem_ with _Unknollow_!" A card whose artwork showed the silhouettes of a red and a purple monster falling into a whirlwind appeared on my brother's field.

* * *

 **Timeline Fusion (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **During your Main Phase or Battle Phase: You can Fusion Summon 1 DARK Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or your side of the field as Fusion Materials. If this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish 1 Fusion Monster from your Graveyard, then return this card to your hand.**

* * *

"Let's go!" My brother shouted and a large gear appeared in front of him with a red and purple portal inside of it. My brother's monsters jumped inside and disappeared.

" _Ancient guarding made of stone! Cross your future with the unknown dwelling in our past to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight,_ _ **ChronoDevil Grey Reaper**_ _!_ "

This Fusion monster was humanoid, covered in a long grey robe with a large hood, rusted chains came from its sleeves and attached to the one looping around its neck. It had metallic gauntlets and held a long scythe whose blade had to form of a curved clock arrow and was attached to the staff by a spinning gear. The only part of the monster that wasn't covered by the robe was its face which was a white skull with empty black eyes and sharp teeth. It swung its weapon over its head once and landed behind my brother in ATK Position.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Grey Reaper**

 **Level:** **8/** **Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Fiend** **/** **Fusion/** **Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **7** **00/DEF: 2** **3** **00**

 **2 DARK monsters**

 **Effect:** **While your LP is 1000 or less this card gains ATK equal to your LP. Once per turn, you can equip this card to a monster OR unequip it to Special Summon this card. While equipped to a monster by this effect, that monster gains 1700 ATK. When the equipped monster destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, you can unequip this card to Special Summon it.**

* * *

"Now I activate _Protector Golem_ 's effect! Since I control only DARK monsters I can Special Summon it from the Graveyard! Next, I overlay my level 3 _Protector Golem_ and _Summit Hornet_!" The two monsters turned into purple energies and fell into the galactic portal in front of my brother.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master!_ _Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three!_ _ **ChronoDevil**_ _ **Void Lancer**_ _!_ "

My brother's Xyz monster was strikingly similar in appearance to Black Ray Lancer. It had a dark blue armored body with two large clock arrows extending from its back which ticked and moved like real ones. The monster was lacking legs, instead it had a pair of jets attached to the lower part of its body allowing it to float in the air while it held a dark in color hybrid between a shotgun and lance. The beast also wore a helmet with glowing green pipes attached to its chest, it had sharp green eyes and a flame of the same color burned from the back of its head, taking a form similar to a ponytail.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Void Lancer**

 **Rank** **:** **3** **/Attribute:** **Dark** **/Type:** **Aqua** **/** **Xyz/** **Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **8** **00/DEF:** **14** **00**

 **2 Level 3 DARK monsters**

 **Effect: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 card your opponent controls. If you targeted a face-up card, negate its effects while this card is on the field. If you targeted a Set Card in the Spell & Trap Zone: Your opponent cannot activate the targeted card in response to this effect's activation, also While this monster is face-up on the field, that Set card cannot be activated. If this card would be destroyed, you can send one of its targets to the Graveyard instead.**

* * *

"I activate Void Lancer's effect to detach an Overlay Until to prevent you from activating that last set card on your field. _**Voided Zone**_!" My brother shouted as his monster swung its spear and caused the card to turn grey. "Next I equip Grey Reaper to _Mystic-Flare Dragon_ , raising its ATK with 1700 to 4100!"

Grey Reaper's body was absorbed within its scythe, turning its blade completely black. The weapon then flew in Mystic-Flare's hands and emitted a black aura that covered the dragon and chanced the color of its eyes to dark purple.

"Battle! Mystic-Flare Dragon attack Machina Fortress! At this moment I activate ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon's effect! If it battles a monster with lower or equal ATK I can automatically destroy that monster without applying Damage Calculation and inflicts the destroyed monster's ATK as damage! _Time Nullify_!" Brother's dragon fired its cannons toward the robot, destroying it.

 **『** **Tiger** **'s LP: 4000 - 2500** → **1500** **』**

"Damn you." His opponent grumbled.

"Next a finish from Void Lancer! _**Ray Explosive Lance**_!" My brother's Xyz monster threw its lance in front of the opponent. It then exploded and launched its target into the air.

 **『** **Tiger** **'s LP: 1500 - 1800** → **0** **』**

"I end my turn." My brother said and looked at me. I nodded with a smirk and turned toward the remaining punk.

"Since your partner lost, his turn will be skipped. You shouldn't have challenged us on a duel, more less on a two-versus-two duel. Well, whatever, I'm just going to finish this then. My turn. DRAW!" I shouted and looked at the card.

 **『** **Turn 6 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

The card I drew wasn't anything that I needed for my combo to work so I put it with the others and clicked a flashing button on my Duel Disk.

"I Flip Summon _**Astral Angel Warter**_!" The card in front of me flipped face-up turning into a knight in silver armor who held a large shield in his left hand and a lance in the other one.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Warter**

 **Level** **:** **3** **/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Warrior** **/** **Pendulum/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 2**

 **ATK:** **30** **0/DEF:** **16** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect: Each turn, the first "Astral Angel" monster(s) you control that would be destroyed by an opponent's card effect, is not destroyed.**

 **Effect: When this card is flipped face-up: Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower "Astral Angel" monster from your hand or Deck. Once per turn, you can target 1 face-up card on the field, flip it face-down.**

* * *

"When _Astral Angel Warter_ is Flip Summoned I can Special Summon a Level Three or lower Astral Angel from my deck! So come, _**Astral Angel Digital**_!"

A white disk appeared on the field and floated above me, rotating around a yellow orb of light. Well, what kind of design did you expect for a Level Two monster?

* * *

 **Astral Angel Digital**

 **Level** **:** **2/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type:** **Machine** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **2** **00/DEF:** **4** **00**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summon: You can Special Summon any number of "Astral Angel Digital" from your hand, Deck or Graveyard. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can banish any number of "Astral Angel Digital" from Graveyard, and if you do, draw cards equal to the number of "Astral Angel Digital" banished by this effect.**

* * *

"Astral Angel Digital's effect activates as well, summoning two more copies of itself from my deck! Now I overlay my three Level Two Astral Angel Digital!" I shouted.

My three monsters turned into yellow streams of energy. They shot into the air as the galaxy portal opened in the sky and they dived in it.

" _The heavenly dragon, break through the fabrics of space and annihilate the unholy that stands in your sight! Xyz Summon! Rank Two!_ _ **Astral Angel Dragolight**_ _!_ "

The monster appeared as a single white core. Then it started to glow and reshaped itself into a form of a white dragon, well, it was more similar to a Chinese dragon due to its long and thin body. However unlike them it did possessed limps other that its head and tail, however all of them were wings covered in white feather with the ones that took the place of where its legs and arms should be were far smaller than the ones it used to fly. There was a large golden halo attached to its back which was also partially merged with the three pairs of wings that the dragon used to stay in the sky. The rest of the beast was overall average but with blue gems running down the sides of its body. Its head had a more robotic feeling into it due to its smooth golden appearance, the glowing blue eyes and the halo attached to the top of its head.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Dragolight**

 **Rank** **:** **2** **/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Wyrm** **/** **Xyz/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **10** **00/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **3 Level 2 LIGHT monsters**

 **Effect: While this card has Xyz Materials it cannot be destroyed by Trap Cards and their effects. If this card battles an opponent's monster: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, this card cannot be destroyed by that battle, your opponent takes any battle damage you would have taken from that battle, also If your opponent still controls at the end of the Damage Step shuffled it into the Deck.**

* * *

"It's not over! Next, I Normal Summon **Astral Angel Accipit**!" I declared placing the card on my Duel Disk.

A monk appeared on the field wearing a long white cloak with golden stripes and a large hat that hide his or her face from view, they also held a large silver staff with a yellow orb on the tip.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Accipit**

 **Level** **:** **2** **/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **8** **00/DEF:** **4** **00**

 **Effect: When this card is Summoned: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower LIGHT monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it in Defense Position, but it has its effects negated. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; it has its effects negated until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"I use Accipit's effect to Special Summon the Effect Veiler that rests in my Graveyard!" A black portal opened on my side of the field as a girl in white clothes with blue hair and angel wings flew out of it and landed next to my other monsters.

"So, since my Effect Veiler is a Tuner Monster you probably already know what is going to happen next! I tune my Level 3 Warter to my Level 1 Effect Veiler!"

" _When complete serenity reigns over the world a punker would descend from beyond the doors of heaven to deliver some fun to the world! With your malicious mind turn the borders of space into a playground and tell us about your next prank! Synchro Summon! Level 4!_ _ **Astral Angel Telepordude**_ _!_ "

The monster that appeared before me was humanoid in appearance. It wore a long white coat with three blue gems, a single on each shoulder and on its chest, along with pants and boots of the same color as well as a black cap on its head. Its body was similar to a human boy but it was silver in color with large blue glasses covering its eyes and a playful smirk permanently plashed to its face. The monster's hands were larger that a normal person's with a blue gem attached to the right and a green one to the left.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Teleporman**

 **Level** **:** **4** **/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Psychic** **/** **Synchro/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **16** **00/DEF:** **14** **00**

 **1 LIGHT Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn: You can equip 1 face-up LIGHT monster on the field to this card. This card gains 500 ATK for each monster equipped to it by this effect. During either player's turn: You can sent 1 Monster Card equipped to this card to the Graveyard; destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field.**

* * *

"Finally I play the Spell, Selig Transform to transform my Accipit in a much stronger form!" The monster's body disappeared leaving only a white energy sphere as a new body started to build around it.

" _The holy guardian of starts! Transform into a whirlpool of light and Transcend beyond the limits of the Universe! Transformation Summon! Level 4! Sacred protector of Heavens! Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lvl.4, ATK: 1800)!_ "

" _Golden Knight_ gains 500 ATK for each Light monster on the field by its own effect [ _Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lvl.4, ATK: 1800 - 3300)_ ]! Also, I activate _Teleporman_ 's effect! Once per turn I can equip a LIGHT monster to it! Also, this effect works for both sides of the field so the monster I will equip to it is your _Arcana Force IV – The Emperor_! _Ray Crossroad_!" I shouted my monster's effect.

A blue portal opened below The Emperor and it flew into it. Then the gem on my monster's chest started to glow and gained a symbol that was similar to the absorbed monster's head.

"Hey, doesn't that monster have a MST effect?" My brother asked me. I quickly realized what he meant by this and acted.

"Next I activate Teleporman's other effect! I sent a monster equipped to it to the Graveyard and destroy Spell or Trap Card from the field! The one I choose is my brother's set card!"

Teleporman's fired a blue laser from the gem on its chest, cutting my brother's card in two before shattering it. And just then the card reformed once again face-up on the field, its artwork showed a futuristic looking machine emitting an enormous amount of smoke.

"Thanks sis. Now the effect of my _**Critical Overload**_ will activate! If this set card is sent to the Graveyard by a card's effect I can destroy a card on the field and draw a new one. I will destroy _Arcana Force VI – The Lovers_!" The monster exploded and my brother drew. Good, two down, one to go!

* * *

 **Critical Overload (Trap) Normal**

 **If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 card on the field; destroy it. Then draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Ok, let's finish this!" I shouted. "Astral Angel Dragolight, attack _Arcana Force XXI – The World_ with _Space Shatter_!"

My dragon charged and fired a light green beam from its mouth toward the large tower-like monster that stood in its way. The World in return pushed the laser aside, reflecting it back toward where it came from.

"I activate Dragolight's effect! I detach an Overlay Unit to negate battle destruction and reflect all of the damage back toward you! _Illusion Barrier Stone_!"

My dragon absorbed one of its Overlay units and spread its wings, the gems on the tips of them glowing as a multi-colored barrier absorbed the attack and shot it toward my opponent, knocking him off his feet.

 **『** **Thunder's LP: 4000 - 2100** → **1900** **』**

"Next, Dragolight's other effect returns the monster it battled into the deck!" I finished as The World slowly faded away from the field. "And now that You have nothing else to defend yourself with I attack you directly with _Golden Knight_! And with its attack currently at 2800 that's game! _Divine Slash Ragnarok_!"

 **『** **Thunder's LP: 1900 - 2800** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice & Evan** **』**

"W-what was this?!" One of the punks yelled while they slowly retreated away from us.

"Who are you two!?" The other one asked.

"We will get you back for this!"

I rolled my eyes, yeah, the most original call back I have heard in years. And it's not that those losers would actually muster the guts to challenge any of us on a duel ever again. Pfff, some people really are pathetic.

"Will you two shut up please?" I heard a stranger's voice from behind me and…

 _ **Pow! Smash!**_

I didn't even realize how it happened but suddenly the two punks fell on the ground, unconscious. A single boy was standing in between them with his hands crossed.

He was a lot taller than me and my brother but by face seemed to not be more than sixteen years old. He had red and black spiky hair covered by a red fedora with sunglasses over his eyes. The rest of his outfit was somewhat… conflicting to say in the least. A ninja mask that covers the rest of his face for some reason. He wore a very dark black and red jacket, a red shirt with the symbol of batman on it, black jeans with a brown belt, and red boots with red socks.

"I hate bullies." He replied and looked toward us. More likely behind us.

I turned around and there was standing another boy. He seemed older than my brother, probably eighteen years old with light grey hair that laid flat and had greenish-blue highlights. The boy, or young man, had greenish-blue eyes and wore a grey hoodie with white front, white pants and sneakers of the same color.

"Levant-chan!"

"H-hey!" Oni shouted as the little boy ran toward the grey haired guy and hide behind him.

"Hey, Reira." The grey-haired man, Levant, replied with a polite smile and kneeled to stand at an eye level with the kid. "Sorry that it took us so long to find you. Please, don't run off on your own like that again, ok?"

He little kid, Reira, nodded obediently. Levant patted him on the head again then stood up and looked toward us and I nodded that his polite smile seemed a bit… forced.

"Thanks you for helping Reira. I hope we haven't made too much trouble for you." Levant told us and turned his attention toward the punks. "To think that students from LDS would go as far as to bully the director's brother. Those three really are scums."

"How do you know that they were three?" My brother asked.

"We checked the security cameras about where Reira is!" The ninja guy replied cheerfully and put a hand on my brother's shoulder. "That was one good hit you got there! Were you training martial arts before?"

"Excuse me, but who are you again?" My brother asked as he politely pushed the intruder's arm away from his shoulder.

"I'm Ventus!" The ninja responded then pointed toward the other guy. "And that's my helper, Levant!"

"The other way around." Levant corrected, crossing his hands. "And judging by your dueling skills and decks you must be Evan and Avice Greyson."

"How do you know our names?" I asked.

"How about you help us to get Reira back to LDS and we talk on the way?" Levant asked.

Hmm, that suggestion smells a lot like a trap to me. I'm in for the game.

"Ok then." I and my brother answered at the same time.

"Good. Let's go then." Levant smirked.

* * *

 **(Omake)**

 **I'm… We? What?**

Elizabeth was alone in her hospital room, lying on the bed like a good patient and stared at the white ceiling. Originally she was angry at her siblings for bringing her to this place, when they knew how much she feared doctors but now she could understand why her siblings did that and was thankful for the choice they made.

The reason for that?

And it has been already established, Elizabeth lied in the hospital bed and stared at the ceiling, but the reason for that was because in the last few hours she was trying her best to completely ignore the voices of the three girls that were standing in her room. Correction: the three girls that were floating in her room!

What frightened Elizabeth even more than the fact that she was going insane was that her guess all looked just like her, but with different hair and eye colors.

"Are you two going to bring your asses down here or will I have to do it myself?!"

The girl that yelled had short pink hair with a white flower accessory on the left side of it and azure colored eyes. Her bangs were blue at the ends and were swiped to the right side of her face, covering her eye. Her outfit consisted of a white jacket that reaches the waist with dark-blue edges; a purple tank top, blue gloves a skirt of the same color with two black belts. Her outfit was finished by light grey boots and a star shaped earing on her left ear.

"Why must you be such a party breaker? Chill for a bit and have some fun girl! Being a ghost is so much fun~!"

A girl with blue hair and hazel eyes replied back while floating on her back. Her hair was tied into two long ponytails on her back that reached her waist and two ahoges that pointed upward like rabbit ears. Her bangs were light-blue, almost white in color, swapped to the left and partially covered her eye. She wore a ragged, sleeveless, cream trench coat that features a high collar and a black border, a dark green long-sleeved shirt that reaches past her waist, worn out black pants with cuts and dirt all over them, a brown belt with a deck holster on the right side, a red scarf tied around her upper left leg and black combat boots.

"Woohoo! This is better than free falling! IMMA FIRE MAH ECTOPLASM! Oh wait I don't have ectoplasm… Hehehe~"

The first girl started to beat her head into the wall while the one with blonde hair and violet eyes laughed silly at her own stupidness. Her hairstyle seemed like a combination of the other two with short hair that was tied into a ponytail on the top left side of her head, secures with a wing-shaped barrette. Her bangs were swiped to the sides, and framed her face. She was wearing a white vest with a yellow front, which reached just above her belly, a white sash around her waist tied into a ribbon at the back, short yellow skirt and orange boots. The girl had pink wristbands and she had yellow earrings shaped into smiling birds.

"I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU TWO! GO BURN IN HELL!"

"KYYYYAAAAAAAAAHH!"

Slowly, Elizabeth turned to the side and covered her head with the blanket. As a single depressing, yet optimistic whispered left her mouth before she disappeared from view.

"Don't worry Eliz, you are just hallucinating as a result of brain damage."

What she didn't take into account however was, that those 'hallucinations' don't get tired easily and right now-

"Burn you two! Burn! BURN!"

"IMMA FIRE MAH-"

"I hate both of you…"

-They were into it.

* * *

 **A/N: So, I see you are still here. I appreciate it but that won't forgive your past sins :)**

 **This thing took me a weak and a half to make, can you believe it? Originally the idea about the duel was that the bullies would attack Yuya and steal his pendulum while the group is talking, after which the siblings would go after them and beat the crap out of them after which Ventus (** _bennyf5302_ **'s OC) and Levant would finish off the boss, but that would make no sense, and I really think that Reira could get a bit more character development and duels than what they did with him/ her (this long hair still confuses me) in the Anime.**

 **As you can see I have no experience in writing Omakes (** _bennyf5302_ **'s idea), but from what I understand by Wikipedia it's meaning is 'Extra' so I put something extra... Also, those won't be a 'per chapter' and instead I'm going to pun an Omake when I feel like it. I will try to write one per 5 chapters, but no promises!**

 **As you can see, it doesn't stand well with me to call unnamed characters "** Punk #1 **", "** Punk #2 **" or something like this during a duel... I mean, because we don't know them that doesn't mean that Mama and Papa didn't give them a name. Of course I'm still going to call the Obelisk Force and Security "** Obelisk Force Green **" and "** Security #### **" since that's the name of the unit they are part of and it's possible that their Duel Disks use those names in order to avoid leaking of personal information.**

 **On another note, Yuya is GOING to use the cards from "** _Structure Deck: Master of Pendulum_ **" and "** _Dimension of Chaos_ **" in this story, but as you may have guessed from the way he gained "** _Odd-Eyes Fusion_ **", those cards are more than meets the eye...**

 **And on an related topic, because my characters criticised the way how characters get new cards out of thin air, I'm going to put it right here and right now that they are going to do the same bullshit in the future. All of their ranting and such isn't me using them as an outlet for my own thoughts, but come on, how comes no OC originating from RL even noted about this phenomenon? Where is the fun in making them RL related when they don't even bother to point out those YGO tropes?**

 **Or maybe it's because the Anime characters' dueling skills are averagely on level kindergarten, I don't know.**

 **Avice : I thought you said that you would stop ranting.**

 **DT: I did. What are you getting into?**

 **Avice : You just ranted.**

 **DT: I did't! That's sharing my opinion! If peopledon't agree with me they are free to tell their opinion and kick me in the d*ck for being a baby.**

 **Avice : Then I disagree :)**

 **DT: Why :')**

 **Anyway... that's from me (and Avice) for today. Hope you fav/follow and leave a review as it shows that I don't waste a week of my life for nothing. Please do, I'm so tired of Scal's puns...**

 **Avice : Um, it bothers me... Did you forget that I'm using the rabbit theme already?**

 **I didn't know what else to use. And not that I don't like it or something... but how long are going to write the A/N with me?**

 **Avice : 'Till death do us apart?**

 **I can live with that.**

 **So. Diabolic Tracer out!**

 **Avice out!**


	12. Chapter 12

_(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**  
 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**  
 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;  
** _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**  
 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,  
** _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**  
 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

Tracers Reveal and Some More

 **Evan's POV**

"So, we passed two corners and none of you has said anything, well, anything useful at least. Are you going to tell us how you know about me and my sister or should I just forget it, show you the middle finger and move on with my life?" I asked my two new possible-helpers while we were walking back home the Leo Corporation president's very own little brother.

"No need to get rude because of such little things. I was trying to keep back this conversation due to the kids being around, but since you insist, I and Ventus know who you guys are from LDS' database. Evan Greyson, Avice Greyson and Elizabeth Greyson; the three of you are pretty much the new sensation among the teachers and science department of the company. In fact, Reiji himself wanted to make first contact with the three of you, but he is currently busy with… other matters." Levant answered with a serious smile and moved between me and my sister.

I'm not sure whenever I should feel happy or be cautious about this. Well, yeah, getting the attention of Akaba Reiji and his company was number one on my to-do list since we arrived in this world, but something about those two just doesn't feel right. I'm not saying that they seem like bad people, far from it, but there is that strange vibe around them and I can't put my finger on what it is. They definitely know more than they let out and are probably ones' of Akaba Reiji's most trusted people if they are talking about breaking into the LDS' database so lightly and in front of the director's brother.

I turned my gaze toward the little boy and found out why Levant felt so safe to talk about this. It was because both Reira and Oni were walking a few steps behind us with the later trying to either start a conversation or cheer up the boy. I had to admit, that was pretty cute.

"It was about time that those guys from LDS notice our awesome dueling talent. After all, hello, masters of the four summoning methods." Avice replied with a matter-of-factly voice.

"Yeah, this is like, a really rare ability in this world. Like, even if you know just one summoning everyone treats you like some kind of prodigy." Ventus threw his hands over his head trying to make a point. "It's cool, but it can get really annoying at times."

"Wait, are you saying that you aren't from this world?" I asked, not really surprised to hear this. The Batman shirt gave it away long ago. But those people, could they actually be in the same situation as us? My thought that there were more than got transported here may end up being real.

"Oh yeah, you won't believe what happened man! I have been playing on the phone when my screen began to suddenly glow and then: BAAM! I found myself in the middle of this city! It was the craziest experience I ever had! Good thing that I crossed paths with Levant when I did!"

"The same thing happened to us as well, but with a deck of cards instead of an electronic device. I don't remember a lot of it, probably because I lost consciousness sometime during the process, but there was that awful voice that spoke directly in my brain. When we woke up, I and my sisters found ourselves near a bridge and the area around us was badly burned."

"Wait, what?" Levant stopped and looked at me in disbelieve. "That didn't happen to me or Ventus when we arrived first here. Are you sure that there weren't any weird looking people watching you from afar or something similar?"

"I don't know. If there were any I probably haven't noticed them because I was busy trying to figure where in the fuck I was!"

"Ha! He shut you!" Ventus laughed earning confused stares from Levant, Oni, Avice and me. The Reira kid seemed to be used to this. Poor kid.

"So why are you asking me?" I turned toward the more, easy to talk with, half of this strange duo. "That's the usual procedure, isn't it?"

"No, it's not. The usual 'procedure' is you appearing out of thin air, the description you gave sounds like the appearance of a Fragment."

Ok, that's it, I'm calling BS on this conversations. What the heck is a Fragment? Why can't we stick to the regular card game? Duel Monsters we had spooky Egyptian magic; GX we had a blizzard space conflict between Light and Darkness; during 5D's we got Wicked Gods and 'Back to the Future'; with ZeXal there were aliens and now I have to deal with Fragments of all things.

"So what? I have to be careful to not step on one of those because if I do I would cut my leg and get send to the Shadow Realm?" I deadpanned.

"Dude, don't joke with those things!" Ventus shouted at me. "They aren't child play I'm telling you! During my whole stay in this world I had faced only one who was an alternative version of Malik with an overpowered version of The Winged Dragon of Ra!"

"Wait, you mean the psycho from Duel Monsters? What the heck is that freak doing in this anime?"

"Well, for starters Arc-V is a kind of anniversary series so that would be normal, however the problem here is that the plot of the anime is tied around Dimensions and dimensional counterparts. Those Fragment weren't a thing in the original and according to them this is some kind of alternative timeline." as Levant explained the situation I noticed that his expression turned from seriousness to worry.

"Wait, you are telling me that you know what the plot of this anime is?" Avice asked.

"You are here and you don't know about the show?" Ventus answered with a question. "What planet did you fell from? And for that matter, what kind of fans are you? When I got transported here Arc-V was on episode 64. You should know more about this stuff than me, not the other way around!"

How should I put it? It's true that the anime was on its 90th episode or something last time I checked out, but the truth is that I haven't watched any of the episodes. What can I say? I'm a bigger fan of playing the game rather than watching fictional characters doing it. Maybe that was a gigantic oversight on my part, but let be real here for a moment. Was I really supposed to expect that one day I will get thrown into a fictional world and because of that I should watch every goddamn episode?

"Yeah, not sure how I'm supposed to say that, but when we first started watching the Arc-V I saw a boy riding a hippo and with a mutual agreement I and my brother choose to skip out for that one. It's ironically how because of a single hippo reality is now biting our asses." Avice said.

"Is Yuya really your problem?" Levant crossed his hands. "Holding a grudge against a fourteen years old; that's pretty childish."

"It's not like I hate him or something. It's just that… his dueling isn't really entertaining." I replied rubbing the back of my head. "I… it just annoys me how everyone says that his dueling is the most entertaining thing ever and praise him for it when it isn't true. When I see him dueling I feel like he is trying to turn the duel into a circus freak show."

I don't have any personal problems with Yuya, but I just don't like how he is always fooling around without thinking or having any sort of strategy on his mind; just using Action Cards to save himself. I believe that for a duel to be entertaining both sides must be giving their best during the whole duel, use their own cards and strategies. The duel needs to be intense with the duelists going all out while also showing to the audience how fun dueling is. Yuya got the last part, but the more important, first one seems to be completely missing. Because of that, for me that isn't real entertainment, it's just the self-satisfaction of a shitty teen with father issues.

"That's pretty harsh, dude." Ventus said.

"I see what you mean." Levant nodded. "But tell me, have you ever tried to fix your problem with Yuya? Have you tried to talk to him instead of just silently raging from the sideways?"

I didn't answer momently, Levant had made a very good point and I had to think it through. He was right, I had never tried to sort out my problems with the kid; I had never mentioned that I don't like his Dueling style in front of him or the others from You Show.

"You are right. Instead of just judging him, I should have helped Yuya to evolve his dueling and make him an amazing duelist and a less annoying person!" I declared.

"So is that it? All of the information you had to share with us I mean. In other words, if we ever find any legacy characters that means that they are Fragments and he should duel them?" Avice asked.

"Not exactly. Fragments can take the form of any human, the ones that look like legacy characters are just some kind of evolved form of some sort. Most of them also tend to call outsiders like us 'Executors' while a few high ranked ones called us 'Tracers'." Levant started explaining. "From the intel I, excuse me, we gathered so far Tracers is used to call all otherworldly duelists like us. Reason for that is because we were brought here for the one reason to find and exterminate all phenomenons that would change the history of this timeline, like the Fragments."

"Actually, I remember that once I had an encounter with a strange dude. He kept calling me 'Executor' then he initiated a duel between us and though it wasn't an Action Duel his attacks did real damage to me!" I replied

"Did the duelist also had blue markings somewhere on his body?" Levant asked and I nodded. "Because the higher ones are able to manipulate the minds of normal people and use them as decoy, similarly to the Dark Signers from 5D's."

"Yeah he had those. And he also disappeared as soon as I defeated him."

"That's good. It means that you have destroyed it. When a Fragment is defeated they disappeared from the timeline and everything they did in it is reversed like it never happened."

"So all that he have to do here is to make sure that all of the events that happened in the anime will happen in this world as well, without any obstacles?" Avice asked. "Sounds easy."

"Something among those lines, however we cannot be sure about that since as I already said, this is an alternative timeline so there should be some differences from the actual story." Levant explained. "But now that we had established that we all are from a different world, I suggest we form a partnership. Let's help each other out while we are in this complex world, ok?"

"I guess that this is the most logical thing we could do. I and my sisters don't have any other lead to what is going on and the stuff you described is certainly dangerous. Let's work together." I agreed to the idea.

This was the best move I could make to both protect my sisters and sort out the mess we got ourselves into. I don't want to be the pessimistic one, but if something bad were to happen to me at least Levant and Ventus are going to protect them in my place. After all, from the information I got the Fragments would still go after Tracers like us, so building a stable connection with people who share the same enemies like us is a priority.

"Yes!" Ventus shouted pumping his fist forward. "Now we are teammates! We will show you that you weren't front to trust us! Right Levant?"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved it off and moved to grab Reira's hand. "We should hurry up and get back before anyone notice that Reira is gone. Let's meet near the bridge where you first appeared tomorrow!"

"You know where that is?" I asked, surprised.

"Please, those from LDS were investigating the place literally five minutes after they got information about an open dimension gate!" Ventus answered as the two teens were quickly retreating with Reira.

"Bye, Reira!" Oni waved after the boy and smiled kindly. "Let's meet again sometime!"

I and Avice waved as well. When the trio disappeared from our line of sight we both gently took Oni's hands and headed toward our apartment. Looking through the map on my Duel Disk it wasn't too far away from where we were. Our apartment complex wasn't anything fancy, it was surrounded by other buildings and there wasn't much place outside. Not that I mind that, actually I prefer more closed spaces, I don't like when there are parks and alleys where people could gather.

* * *

"I guess that's it for today!" I kicked the door of our apartment open and walked inside.

Groaning, I lazily took off my jacket and threw it somewhere before falling on the couch. I got a lot of information for today and was ready to hit the sack, or to just play dead since according to the clock it was just about 6 PM. Avice walked in front of me and took of her own jacket before falling on top of me. Damn it! I was going to protest, but Avice huddled in me and took the TV remote.

"I'm going to watch TV." She said.

Ah right, now I got an idea about why she jumped on me so suddenly. By now, you guys should know how much I have in common with my sister: we both are competitive, we like playing the same games and we also love to watch a lot of the same TV shows. When we were younger we also used to always huddle on the couch and watch some crime series together (I blame my parents for inheriting their tastes). I sighed heavily and using my elbows for support raised myself so that my back was against the couch's arm and put a hand on her shoulder.

Avice turned on the TV and like I expected she turned to a criminal series, which was actually pretty funny to watch in anime style. I let out a small laugh and rested my chin on top of her head, just like I did when we were younger. I guess there was after all more to the reason why I'm so protective toward my sisters. Because of Avice I remembered that all happy moments of my lives were, in a way, linked with these two and their own happiness.

"Niichan! Neechan!" Oni stepped before us. Her hands were behind her back and she looked down. "Oni knows that it's rude to sneak into your private life, but I was wondering… Oni unintentionally overhead your conversation and since then, Oni wondered what it did mean."

I had to hold back the urge to face palm for my own stupidity, until now I tried to not get Oni involved in our problems but it's because of me that she now knows everything. I could lie to her and say that we were 'Roleplaying' or something like that, but another part of me said that I shouldn't do it. What good would lying to her do? If those things are trying to get to me and my sisters then there is a big chance that they would try to use the people closest to us as a bait. But if I told her the truth she could start to think that I'm crazy. What should I do now?

"There is no problem." I told her with a kind smile. "I completely understand that you would get curious and I guess that if I tell you the truth now it would be far easier for everyone. Just promise me that you won't tell anyone about this, will you?"

"Oni promises!" the girl raised her hand. "Oni won't tell anyone about this!"

"Are you sure about this?" Avice whispered to me.

No, I'm not. Those were the words I wanted to say, but I didn't. I could lie to Yuya, I could lie to Yuzu, I could lie to literally everyone expect my sisters and Oni, in a sense, I felt her like an addition to my small family, so I couldn't muster the courage to lie to her either. Even if the truth sounded like a hoax, if she thought that I was lying to her and starts to hate me about it, I will tell her everything, because I feel her as my sister as well.

* * *

 **General POV**

A man in a tattered blue coat was standing in the middle of the empty street, eyes focused on the place where his prey would probably arrive. LDS… He knew that they were working with Academia since the son of the Professor was the director. But all of his tries to lure the man out and use his as hostage had failed. Even after he cared some of LDS' best instructors, yet nobody came after him, they weren't trying to capture him. Were they underestimating him because he was alone?

"Shun!" A voice called from behind, but the man didn't turn to look back.

He didn't need to turn, because he could immediately recognize who was calling him. How could he mistake his best friend, the one who he fought back to back with for so long, one of the only two persons that followed him to Standard to rescue Ruri?

But why did he had to show up right now? Yuto was too soft hearted and if he learned about Shun's plan to ambush the only LDS student that was trying to catch him, he would definitely try to talk him out of it.

"I thought you were going to do things your own way and not follow me." Shun said coldly. "So what are you doing, looking for me now?"

"It's important! Koharu has disappeared!" Yuto answered. "Today we dueled against three siblings that you had told her were from the Fusion Dimension and she lost it, so I had to stop her and escape. I felt her in an alley to go look for you, but when I came back for her she wasn't there. I tried to call her, but she isn't picking up either."

"Wait, siblings that are from the Fusion Dimension?" For the first time, Shun turned to look at his friend. "I have never told her anything like that. You know that I prefer working on this alone, so even if I had such information I wouldn't share it with her."

"Then who did? She said that it was a comrade we both knew and trusted, but there are only the three of us here. I'm worried about her safety!"

"Don't be. Koharu is a strong girl, she can defend herself just fine. After all, her teacher was Heartland's Duel Champion himself. No harm is going to come her way with those dueling skills."

"I already know that!" Yuto shouted and looked away. "But I'm confused about what's happening! As strong as she is, Koharu had always been a bit naïve, so what if someone had tricked her?"

There was a moment of silence between the two friends. Koharu was a dear friend for them and Ruri, if Shun let her get hurt, his sister definitely won't forgive him. But now, freeing Ruri was his main task, he couldn't afford to waste any time on small adventures. Shun sighed, he had made his mind, he knew what he had to do.

"I'm sorry, but you are on your own this time." Yuto's eyes widened at those words.

They said nothing more.

The two comrades had chosen their paths and Yuto realized.

Their goals were far more different that he initially thought.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not dead! Not yet atleast. So, this chapter turned out short and without any duel, but I had to get used to writtin again. I promise that the next one will be far better than this!**

 **The plot was finally revealed! Yay! Took me some time, right? But what do you guys think about the idea of Fragments and Tracers honestly. I know its too OOC for Arc-V, but I'm trying to focus a bit more onto the idea of different timelines so while the anime is dealing with dimensions I'm going to deal with the timelines.**

 **Sorry to** bennyf5302 **if Ventus doesn't act exactly like in the description you gave, but let be honest here. I'm trying to build a somewhat serious and (spoilers!) sad story here, so having him yell "** dattebayo **" at middle of his sentences... W-w-who does that? D-d-d-do you, Avice?**

 **Avice : You said something, swine?**

 **Also, if you feel offended from the comments Evan threw his way or the way the sibligs act toward him. Being disrespectful bastards is in the core of their characters. Watch! Hey Avice, do you respect me?**

 **Avice : No.**

 **See?!**

 **I guess that it wouldn't hurt if I also give my two words about the ending of Arc-V.**

 **Avice : Oh no! A rant!**

 **No, no! Don't worry! I will keep it short. Though I have to admit the shitstorm on the forums and YouTube comment section was funny to witness, I actually have no problems with this ending. I mean, wouldn't it be weird if the show had a great finale? That would contradict with everyting Arc-V was standing for after all.**

 **Avice : I find it funny that you are talking shit about Arc-V in the Arc-V fanfiction section. Suicidal pretty much?**

 **Shut up!**

 **Also, Scal, you guessed what is going to happen with Yuya's deck. 100% on the mark buddy! Good job!**

 **Avice : The smiles! They are burning me! Stop it!**

 **Thanks for that too, buddy :')**

 **So that's all for today! See ya next time!**

 **Avice : You know, I was thinking, I'm pretty much useless here. So, why don't you give me to read the previews for the next episodes?**

 **Weeeeell... that's a hard thing to ask from me since I don't plan anything in advance and write what comes to my mind ._.**

 **Avice : Don't worry, its never too late to try something new :)**

 **...Shit.**


	13. Chapter 13

_(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**  
 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**  
 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;  
** _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**  
 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,  
** _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**  
 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

The Many Surprises Part.1

 **Evan's POV**

" _Time to wake up~!_ "

"Ugh, just five more minutes!" I groaned and put a pillow over my head, totally not wanting to leave my bed.

" _Don't be like this. Get up sleepyhead~!_ "

"No. Get out now."

" _Ah, why must master speak to me in such a harsh manner?_ " Wait, what?

My eyes widened and I sprung out of my bed, finding myself face to face with two super cute girls. Actually, scratch that. They weren't cute, they were gorgeous! With those piercing golden eyes, the fluffy animal ears resting on top of their heads and the way their waged their tails.

Wait for a moment…

"In the name of Zorc!" I shouted taking a step away from the hotties in my room.

In front of me were standing a fox girl and a wolf girl, who also looked exactly like **ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy** and **ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy**! How did those two came here?! Well, actually, Duel Spirits were pretty much a thing in every Yugioh series I have watched so far, but why did they choose to show in their spirit form and talk to me right now? They could have done this any other time, but instead they choose when I was asleep? Maybe I'm still asleep and this all just a dream!

I slapped myself, but nothing happened. I guess this wasn't a dream after all. Not that it's a bad thing, but I'm a bit worried of how a conversation with those two could play out. Not sure why, but I felt like I know those girls pretty well, like we were first buddies. And according to my gut's instinct Wolfy and Foxy were some pretty 'active' personas.

" _Do you remember us, master?_ " Foxy purred as she flew next to my right shoulder.

"Of course I do! You are Foxy, and this is Wolfy! You two are siblings and were the first Pendulum monsters I used!" I, more accurately my mouth, said all this on auto-pilot. How the heck could someone ever thing that a wolf and a fox could be siblings?

" _It seems like master isn't quite used to this._ " Wolfy giggled.

"No shit Sherlock!" Because you know, I had had so many animal girls calling me master that I'm already used to it. Expect that I hadn't!

" _They you should be honored that we are your firsts._ " Foxy winked. What, those two can read my mind or something.

" _Yes, we do!_ " Shit.

Don't think anything perverted! Don't think anything perverted! Don't think anything perverted!

" _We can see your thoughts as well, master~!_ "

'Well, I tried.'

I rubbed my forehead, while processing all of the new information. "So you two are Duel Spirits that can read my mind? I'm not very happy to learn that that is a thing, but why the heck did you show up right now? If you were the spirits of my cards then why not show up sooner? I don't really know how spirits work, so explain it to me."

" _Silly master!_ " Foxy waved while she floated around me. " _It's because of that deck of yours._ "

"My deck?" I asked as I looked at my Duel Disk, which was on the night stand where I left it.

" _Yes! Doesn't master wonder who exactly designed his deck? Actually he probably had, but wasn't able to find the answer because he always forgot to look at the most obvious place. His own heart._ "

"What does it have to do with this? And you are moving away from the question. I asked why you didn't show up sooner, not how you came to be. Try something else, I have used this trick long enough to know… Oh." Now I get it.

" _Yep, that's it!_ " Wolfy giggled as she jumped face first on my bed and rolled on her back. " _The reason why we are like this is because we, the ChronoDevil, were made from your feelings and desires. In other words, our deck is a complete manifestation of your inner self._ "

Well, that definitely explained why the female part of the archetype looked like this! I truly was a sinner, weren't I?

" _And now, moving to your own question, my perverted master, the reason about why we showed up now is because you can see us. We were around you since you created us, you just couldn't notice our presence until now. It seems that the powers the three of you have will take some time to fully activate._ "

"Powers?" Oh no, not that bullshit again. I have seen enough shonen anime and manga to know where this is going. "Oh, yeah and let me guess, we were born with those powers but couldn't use them because of timeline bullshit. Right?"

" _Not in the slightest!_ " Foxy shook her head. " _It seems like your abilities are a result of some strange reaction you had with the time-space flow when your bodies got transported to this reality. Humans can't notice it, but from our point of view you are shinning like a Christmas tree due to the radiation floating into your body._ "

"Wait, isn't that dangerous?!" I protested.

" _Well, normally it's a very destructive stuff to deal with. It corrupts whatever get in touch with it and gives the time-space fragments consciousness, turning them into merciless killing machines. But since master's world doesn't operate this way I guess that he has some kind of immunity toward this toxic._ "

"That's now how time, space and biology work!"

" _Master was the one who wanted an explanation in the first place! There are things in this world that one week old Duel Spirits don't know either!_ "

"Great." I sighed. So all of this was made-up from the damn fox? "Where are the rest of the gang, anyway? You said that every one of you was a representation of my soul so shouldn't the others be Duel Spirits as well?"

" _Yep, the others are alive as well, they just don't feel like talking at the moment._ " Wolfy replied then lowered her head. " _They are scary and sinister so we try to avoid contact with most of them._ "

"So I guess this is a thing that happened, huh?" I'm not very surprised; after all they did have the word 'devil' in their name.

" _Hmm, where is master going?_ " Foxy asked as soon as I was about to open the damn door and leave.

"I can't hear Avice and Oni so they must me asleep. I'm going to make some breakfast before they wake up." I answered.

Actually it was a bit strange for those two to not come in my bed, but I guess that shows how lucky I was. Once in a lifetime I would wake up screaming like a girl and no one was going to be there to hear me. So, I walked into living room and there, indeed, was no one. So I went into the kitchen took some things from the fridge and started cooking while listening to Foxy and Wolfy making various comments behind my back.

I will need help taming those two.

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

I woke up and found myself in the company of three girls that had the same face as me. They were arguing about something once again, not that they had ever stopped. My head was ringing, they hadn't stopped yelling all night long and I was barely able to get some sleep because of them. So as a payback, I snapped as soon as I opened my eyes.

"Shut the heck up all of you!" I roared. "If you want to yell at each other then get yourselves a room, but don't do it over my head! Do you know how much sleep I have lost due to the three of you not shutting your traps during the whole night?!"

All three of the girls stopped their arguing and turned to look at me, for the first time ever, registering my existence. They stared at me for almost a minute at it began to feel a bit awkward, but then the three lowered their heads.

" _Sorry, don't hurt us!_ " They all plead in unison.

"Listen you three, I know that this is all just a hallucination and probably none of you is real, but I would prefer if the illusions created by my head didn't hinder my sleeping, ok?"

" _Oh my, don't degrade me to something as silly as an illusion._ " The pink haired girl crossed her hands, irritated. " _I would much better like if you use the term 'alternative personalities' when talking about us, since that's what we really are._ "

"But I never had multiple personalities before! It makes no sense if the three of you are existing now!"

" _Well, the three of us were created as a result of your transportation to this timeline._ " The blue haired girl replied. " _The three of us also seem to have lots of knowledge about one of the four dimensions and each of us also represents one of the Extra Deck summoning types, with me being the Xyz counterpart as you could call me._ "

" _I'm the Synchro user of the group!_ " the blonde haired one shouted, excited.

" _You should have guessed, but I'm the Fusion personality. Just call me Fusion._ " The first one said and looked away.

"But why? Since the three of you are only in my mind, there is no one who could hear your name if you say it. It also feels awkward for me to call you Fusion, Synchro and Xyz. So go ahead and tell me your real names."

" _We don't have real names._ " The fusion personality mumbled under her nose, but loud enough for me to hear her.

The Synchro user looked down sadly and the Xyz one nodded her head to confirm that it was true before adding, " _We were created from your mind, so technically, we never existed in this world and so we never had any names to go by. Calling ourselves Xyz, Synchro and Fusion also makes a lot more sense since that's what we were created to represent after all._ "

" _I got an idea! You are kind of our creator so why don't you name us?_ " Synchro asked me cheerfully with starts in her eyes.

The other girls just groaned and face palmed from behind her, it seemed that both of them didn't like this personality, but I found her somewhat nice to have around. Her big eyes and that never disappearing innocent smile on her face made her look like a little girl in my eyes. In a way, she reminded me of myself when I was younger.

"I guess I could try." I replied kindly. "But I have to warn you that I'm not very good with names."

The Synchro and Xyz personalities nodded while the Fusion just clicked her tongue and turned away. She definitely was the rude one of the three.

" _So let's see… Hmm… How about, Sunny for you?_ " I said pointing at my Synchro personality.

She was a very cheerful and energetic girl, plus judging by her outfit the color yellow seems to be her favorite one, so she does look like a… sun I guess?

" _Yes!_ " Synchro personalities aka Sunny pumped her fist into the air. " _Heard that pals? From today on you will call me Sunny, not Synchro!_ "

" _Whatever._ " Fusion rolled her eyes. " _It's not like having a name will make me respect you in any way._ "

Sunny hung her while the Xyz personality started to point at herself. " _So, I'm next, right? Please, give me some cool name!_ "

"Ermmm… Maybe the name Yuki would work for you?" If you haven't figured out I'm just giving random names I have heard before.

" _Yuki, huh?_ " The Xyz personality put a hand under her chin in thought. " _Why not? It sounds very cute and I like it! Ok, from today on I'm going to be called Yuki!_ "

"One last remaining." I said and looked at the Fusion girl.

She turned to look at me as well, but after a moment she turned away. " _Cut it, original. Just call me Fusion, I'm already used to it._ "

"Yes, but that wouldn't be fair, would it? The others got a name so you should as well. Let me see, let me see… Ah, got it! Isha!"

" _What stupid name is that?_ " Definitely not the reaction I wanted.

"Then, how about Luna?"

" _That has nothing to do with me!_ " the Fusion personality snapped. " _If you so much want me to have a name then I will go with Hema!_ "

" _But doesn't that mean 'golden eyes'? Yours are azure so that couldn't work._ " Yuki countered.

" _I don't care about the meaning!_ " Hema snapped back.

"So what exactly are your roles here?" I asked the girls, causing them to cease their hostility toward each other. "I mean, why exactly did I suddenly gained three new personalities? If it's just a random side effect ok, but isn't there anything that you could be… how to say it… useful for? I already know how the game works so giving me tips during duels isn't something that I would need."

" _We woke up just yesterday, so we didn't have time to check that out._ " Yuki admitted. " _But I'm sure there is something we could be useful for._ "

" _Oh, oh, I think I got an idea!_ " Sunny shouted raising her hand. " _Since we look like ghosts maybe we can actually possess people! Let's try it!_ "

"How are you-! No, no, no, no, no!" I crossed my hands and shook my head, but it was too late.

" _Bomb!_ " Sunny shouted as she jumped toward me.

I closed my eyes preparing for the impact, but it never came. Then I remembered that Sunny and the others didn't have real bodies so they couldn't hurt me. The next thing I knew, my headache suddenly started to disappear and my body began to feel numb, like I was empty or something among those lines. I reopened my eyes and found myself next to Yuki and Hema both of which were staring somewhere in disbelieve and I soon realized why. I looked around the hospital room and my eyes landed on a blonde haired who was lying in my hospital bed, edgily pocking her face and hands.

"Oh Quasar I have a body! It's so coo- ARGH!" Sunny yelped in pain and grabbed her head.

There was a bandage wrapped around her forehead, so I guess that when she 'possessed' me, although my body's appearance did change to match hers, the wounds remained. It was a good thing that I no longer had to suffer from the headache, but I still prefer to be the one in control of my body.

" _So I guess possessing is a thing after all._ " Yuki said. " _That's not fair! I want to be in control as well!_ "

" _Not so fast, sunshine._ " Hema grabbed the Xyz user by the collar. " _Synchro, get out of the body right now! Even if we have the ability to take control over it, you should remember that the one in control should be the original, so without her permission possessing is forbidden._ "

After all even if she acted rude toward everyone else Hema seemed to actually care about peoples' personal space. She also seemed to be the most mature one out of the three.

" _You are no fun!_ " both Yuki and Sunny grumbled.

" _I never said that I was._ " Hema replied. " _Now, give control back to her before something-_ "

"Are you Elizabeth Greyson?" A new voice came and we all turned to look at the door.

There was a guy with two different shades of grey hair, red-framed glasses and a red scarf, for some reason. Strange, because outside was pretty hot, yet the man was dressed as if he was preparing for a winter; maybe he was sickly.

" _-like this happen._ " Hema finished her sentence with a groan.

I turned toward Sunny, who was currently in possession of my body. The Synchro persona just blinked a few times while she stared at the guy. A bit of sweat formed on her forehead and her big innocent smile curved in a more awkward one.

" _She doesn't know what to say!_ " Yuki panicked. " _She also gets very shy when around strangers!_ "

Damn, and this man had to come in here just now? I couldn't switch control with Sunny while he was here, since if I do our appearance would change and he would witness it! All of my faith was into the Synchro girl and that didn't make me any happier because I knew absolutely nothing about her!

" _Quick!_ " Hema shouted. " _Ask him how he knows you name and what he wants!_ "

"How do you know my name?" Sunny asked with a polite smile. "And what do you want from me?"

" _Don't do it so politely!_ " Hema roared.

" _Just let her handle it._ " I told her. " _Yelling at her when she is already scared wouldn't help._ "

"I see, you aren't wasting your time to ask me." The man said. "I should probably as well introduce myself. My name is Akaba Reiji, I'm the president of Leo Corporation and LDS."

So wait, this is the person that my brother wanted to meet with. If he was here to ask about me, then that would mean that Evan's plan was starting to work, which was great to hear.

"Hi~!" Sunny waved and the rest of us face palmed.

"As president I have access to all sorts of data including duel records and such. I found some interesting things while I was checking the data base for you and your siblings I found something intriguing so, I came here because there were a few things that I would like to ask you. If you are feeling well enough to answer me of course."

" _So we are on an interrogation here?_ " Yuki gritted her teeth.

" _No, that's ok._ " I said and put a hand on her shoulder. " _My brother wanted to ask this man for help so sharing what we know with him is going to help out._ "

" _I see._ " Hema replied and turned toward Sunny. " _Say that you will answer his questions._ "

The Synchro persona nodded and turned toward Akaba Reiji. "Ok! What do you want to know?"

"First, I already know that the three of you aren't from around here." My eyes widened at this statement. "Before you deny it, there is no data about any of you ever existing in this dimension other than your dueling records from a few days ago, so it's pointless to try and hide it. The question I want to ask you is: Where are you from?"

" _He already figured out that I'm not from around here!_ " I said shocked.

" _Quick, Synchro! Tell him to ask the question more precisely!_ " Hema ordered.

"What exactly do you mean by this?" How is this going to help out?

"You should already know that there are four dimensions." Reiji said. "Standard, Fusion, Synchro and Xyz. Each of the later three is based on one summoning method. Yet, there you are, three siblings each of which holds their own unique summoning which is far too different from anything I have witnessed before."

Yes, my other personalities had already mentioned something about different dimensions, but according to Reiji each of them used just one summoning method. Only Standard was able to use all three of them, but there was no information about us in this world, so I couldn't trick him to think that we were from this universe. He had done his research very carefully, I couldn't find an opening to use on my advantage.

" _Tell him that we mean to harm to anyone._ " I said.

"We came with peace!" Well, that would work as well.

"Is that so? But I will need proof for that." Reiji said and turned to leave. "I heard that you are going to be discharged today. If you and your siblings want to prove me that you are here with peace the three of you should come to speak in my office tomorrow. I'm in a need of strong duelists for a special program so I also have an offer I want to talk about."

And with that the man left. I sighed and collapsed on my knees. Damn, he asked me just one question and I barely made it out with the help of three other heads. I see why Evan and Avice were always the ones doing the negotiation, this stuff wasn't as easy as it seemed. But what offer did Akaba Reiji had for us? He mentioned that he was in a need for strong duelists so that worried me a bit, since the only duels I had so far ended with a lost and a draw.

" _That was so scary!_ " Sunny sighed, " _Who is going to switch with me?_ "

" _Me!_ " Yuki exclaimed.

" _No._ " Hema grabbed the Xyz by the collar and threw her back. " _It's the original's body so she is taking control over it!_ "

" _You didn't have to throw me though!_ " Yuki shouted.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

" _Prideful silver wolf, become one with the arcane dragon and give birth to a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth, ferocious dragon with luminous feral eyes! Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (LV.8 ATK: 3000)!_ "

Currently I, along with Avice, Oni and the rest of You Show watched Yuya's duel against his best friend, Gongenzaka. Both my and my sister's chins were about to fall off when we saw the tomato fusing Performapal Silver Claw with Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to summon a new fusion dragon that totally wasn't in his Extra Deck yesterday.

"Another new fusion monster." Avice said. "He really doesn't know where to stop, does he?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

I had judged Yuya as a bad duelist before and I will probably do for some more time after this, but I'm going to admit that this duel actually made me smile. Why? Because of how different it was. This wasn't just a duel like any other for Yuya, he had to face off against his best friend, he knew how strong Gongenzaka was and because of that for the first time he actually gave his best to win. He wasn't trying to be an entertainer in this, he was trying to be a strong duelist and that allowed me see his passion for the game.

He really didn't know when to stop, that stupid tomato. In every duel, his deck evolved, it changed and with it his strategies too, they became better and better. He said that in order to win he would need to surpass his own limits but was that possible? From what I saw in this duel, Yuya's dueling didn't have any limits and he would keep on evolving, becoming better and better with every duel. He would probably never be able to reach his own limits, let alone surpass them, because every time he had done that it would feel like he had just opened one door and waited for the moment when he would need to open the next one.

"I activate Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's effect! When it destroy an opponent's monster in battle, it can inflict damage equal to the attack of the Beast-type Fusion Material!" Yuya declared. "Silver Claw's attack is 1800! This will end it, Gongenzaka!"

With this, Yuya's dragon fired its final attack, knocking the guy off his feet and reducing his life points to zero as a screen showing a picture of Yuya with the word 'Win' appeared in the sky above them.

 **『** **Gongenzaka's LP: 1600 - 0, Hand: 1** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Yuya** **』**

The Action Field vanished and everyone from You Show went to congratulate Yuya for his win. After seeing what he really can do, if he is serious, a newfound respect for this boy formed inside my chest. I guess that Levant was right when he told me that I should try to talk and watch more carefully before making any presumptions.

"I guess that's it." I said and turned to leave.

"Won't you congratulate him for the win?" Avice asked.

"Everyone else is taking care of that." I told her pointing at the crowd that had formed around Yuya. "And we don't have much time for that. Elizabeth is going to be discharged today so we should hurry up. I don't want to make her wait for us."

"Siblings are more important." Avice nodded with a smile and we left the group.

" _By the way, I hear all of your thoughts during the duel, master._ " Oh no, this damn fox!

" _Acting all tough, eh? Better cool down a bit, Yuzu may be jealous._ " And then there came the wolf…

"You know, I learned some really useful tricks since I realized that I can talk with Duel Spirits this morning." I told them mentally with a grin.

" _I don't like when master looks at us like this._ " Foxy replied.

Just then Phantomus formed behind the two animal girls and cracked his knuckles. Screams followed and then there was silence.

"Why are you staring at the wall?" Avice asked.

"Oh sorry, let's go."

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

Brother was acting really strange today. Sometimes while he was happy, suddenly his smile would disappear and when this happened I could see him squeezing his fists, like he was trying to hold himself from attacking something. And once he even stared at a wall with a mad grin on his face. I tried to ask him if everything is ok, but all he told me that there was nothing I should worry about. Of course that was a lie, I could tell that much, but he didn't seem to be worried. More like he was irritated by something that I just could see. Eh, if he told me that there is nothing to worry about then I should trust him.

So we made our way to the hospital where we had to split. I and Oni were going to visit Elizabeth and help her to get ready while my brother would take care of the documents about her discharge and then join up with us. Simple, no? The two of us were making our way through the hospital corridors – which by the way I really hate due to fear from hospitals that I don't want to talk about – when Oni brought up a topic I wasn't very comfortable talking about.

"So what was Neechan and Oniichan's old home like?" she asked out of the blue.

So, yesterday my brother choose to tell Oni everything about how we ended in this world and while I expect her to think that it was just a lie or something, she actually bought it. Oni said that she believed in us and swore that she would keep it a secret. It wasn't a big deal for us to tell everyone the truth as in the worst scenario they would think that we are crazy or something, but even so, we avoided it because we knew questions like this would eventually become unavoidable if we told them the truth.

"It was a really boring place." I replied.

"What was so boring about it?"

"Growing up, I guess. To have to give up on all of the games and toys that brought you joy because sociality forces you to work in order to survive."

"But working is something important!"

"Indeed it is. But what's the point in growing up if this means that you need to give up on the things you like? If humans exist only to work so they could survive then what difference are we from the animals?"

But even so, in a world where games are something only for kids, there was a game that everyone was forced to play; a game called Life. Why I hated the real world and loved the fiction one was because of how different the rules for this unavoidable game were in them. In my world, life had no rules to follow, you were able to make whatever move you wanted, but at the same time if you didn't follow the rules you would be punished, if you took a right step when everyone else took a left one, you would be labeled a weirdo and nobody would want to be a friend with you, expect for other weirdoes. And if you were unlucky enough to be born as the oldest sibling then your parents would put all of their expectations on you, have you take care of the younger siblings and act as a parent while the real adults in the house will never be around to thank you or praise you.

"Oni doesn't think that this is- Why is everyone standing like this?" Oni asked.

I raised an eyebrow then looked around and believe it or not, everyone else in the corridor had frozen on their spots, even the clock on the wall had stopped. Well, now we are in some deep shit I guess.

"Nihility detected. Initiating Power Mode: Seraph!" Suddenly my duel disk spoke and transformed.

The device opened up, revealing light green energy flowing inside of it as the back part became longer and the touch screen transformed into a hemispherical display. After that the Duel Disk activated on itself multiple crystal fragments of different size and shape started to come together creating a very beautiful, wing-shaped, light green blade.

"What the heck is a Nihility?" I yelled at the device.

"Hahaha!" A terrible laugh echoed through the hall.

I looked around, but there was no one else around here. And this laugh, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere. Just what is happening?

"More fools have failed into my trap!" The voice suddenly spoke and a figure formed in front of us. It was…

"Yami Bakura?" I groaned as form of the familiar Yugioh villain appeared before us, but with blue marks all over his hands and neck.

Just the perfect time and condition for some messed up bullshit to happen, eh? That's why so many kids like me fear going to the hospital.

* * *

 **Avice: What the heck?! I'm the main start of this and I get so little time? Oh, I'm going to-! Hello everyone! As you can see, after long debates and a bit of blackmailing from my side the author actually approved the idea of a preview section and let me handle the previews for all those chapters that he haven't ever planned before giving me this list...**

 **...Whatever let's do it!**

 **Chapter** **14: The Many Surprises Part.** **2**

Summary: With no choice, Avice and Oni are forced to participate in a Shadow Duel initiated by Yami Bakura between himself and the girls. Scared of losing Oni in this duel Avice is forced to play defensively in order to protect the little girl, but quickly she finds herself overpowered by Yami Bakura's Occult Deck. Backed against the wall Oni tries to help Avice to get back her determination and…

 **Avice: Is the author actually retarded?! This is his main character's third duel and its going to be a Battle Royale?! I want a 1 vs 1, not this! I'm a freaking badass not a babysitter you piece of *** **censored** ***, you** ***** **censored** ***** ***** **censored** ***** ***** **censored** ***** ***** **censored** ***** ***** **censored** ***** **!**

 **Chapter** **15: Contract with Hell, Earth and Heaven**

Summary: Evan and the rest accept Reiji's invitation and visit Leo Corporation to share their knowledge about the dimensions and their reason to be here. However, things take a completely different turn when Reiji leads the siblings into the Duel Arena and initiates a three on one duel to see if they are strong enough for his 'special' program.

 **Avice: Am I even in this? The previews says nothing about me! Oh wait, the title... Yay I'm in!**

 **Chapter** **16: The Different Shades of Xyz**

Summary: Although Kurosaki had joined LDS and stopped his assault, the school still keeps getting reports about disappearing students and teachers. Believing in the existence of another cuprite Levant and Ventus request the aid of Kurosaki to find and stop the person behind the attacks. However what they find out is…

 **Avice: This is going to be the worst and everyone knows why.**

* * *

 **A/N: Well hello there! Chapter finally done! Also sorry if you find Reiji to be acting OOC or asking yourself was that cameo ever needed, but please first hear me out! Reiji is going to be a very important charater in this story just like in the anime, so I wanted to make his introduction as fast as possible and to be honest, we all know that he isn't a guy that likes speaking alot so that's why his converstation with Elizabeth/Sunny ended so soon.**

 **Yes, I'm going to use DM characters in this story! The idea about this came from two games I play:** _Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links_ **and** _Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Generation_ **. So yeah, the Fragments I mentioned last chapter are going to be something like this. Characters from the anime series who you need to beat in order to move forward in the story.**

 **Foxy: Isn't that too cheap of a trick to hook readers?**

 **How the heck are you here?**

 **Foxy: You left the front door open.**

 **...**

 **Why must every Author Note after Chapter 10 haunt me?!**

 **Foxy: You were pretty "gentle" with Yuya this time.**

 **Well yeah, the trick is that all the time until now I had Evan talking shit about him, just so I could prove him wrong in this chapter. Yuya isn't a bad character really, but he gets annoying to handle alot of the time, so that's why I have Evan be the "oppisite". He is balancing Yuya like how Vector's evilness balances Yuma's goodness in ZeXaL or something like that.**

 **Foxy: So about the reviews.**

 **Thanks to benny for the kind review and thanks to Scal for contributing to the joke. Also, no Evan isn't even close to be as much of a dick as I am. Also to clear any confusions this isn't a self insert kind of story, but if it was, then the main character would be a bit more like Avice and Evan...**

 **Avice: Talking about me motherfucker?! Why did I get so little screen time in this chapter?! I thought I was the star! What story is this if the Main character isn't the main focus?**

 **But Avice, your** **narcissism is far more than enough to balance the lack of screen time~**

 **Avice: ...**

 **Avice: Die. :)**

 **Ugh! x_x**

 **Foxy: Wasted!**

 **Avice: Who the heck let the animals in here?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Boy this was a nightmare to deal with! I was somewhere at the middle of writing this when I found out that because I had readed a card effect wrong I did something that the actual card doesn't do... I ended up fusion Anime and RL cards into this...**

 **Avice: Hey, atleast this time I'm the one dueling! I'm sure that this covers all the cons!**

 **And Avice is dueling like a noob... (-100 points x_x)**

 **See you at the bottom of this, experiment gone wrong.**

 **Avice: If you survive till then, thats it. Muahahaha!**

* * *

 _(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**  
 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**  
 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;  
** _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**  
 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,  
** _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**  
 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

The Many Surprises Part.2

 **Avice's POV**

"Did this thing really have to show up now?" I groaned and titled my head to the side at how frustrating this situation just became.

Out of all Yugioh characters that could have shown up to challenge me on a duel it just had to be Yami Bakura. Though I don't remember him defeating any of the more important characters in his anime, like Kaiba and Yami, even Yugi I still remember how annoying and trolly his deck was. Burn damage, deck out, card stealing, it all of those annoying mechanisms build into it.

I gritted my teeth and looked around, trying to figure out what trick this bastard used this time. As far as I know the Millennium items didn't have the ability to manipulate time so how thing he suddenly stopped the time around us? Maybe it was all just a mind trick, an illusion to make us fear him or something, but if so then why was Oni affected by it as well? In fact, since this wasn't the real Bakura and just some kind of Fragment it would be possible for it to have time manipulating abilities, even then why was Oni unaffected by his powers?

My eyes widened as I came to the realization. No, it wasn't possible but there was no other logical explanation for that. Didn't Oni believe in my brother's words a bit too fast even for her own age? I haven't watched Arc-V but there definitely wasn't any information about her on the Wiki and I have never seen her deck before, so she wasn't supposed to exist in this universe. From what Levant told us there were both Tracers and Fragments from other timelines and worlds that were transported to this one. So if my Duel Disk didn't recognize her as an enemy… Could Oni be a Tracer like me and the rest?

"Are you that afraid that you froze on the spots?" Yami Bakura mocked us and laughed.

I shook my head and turned to face the crazy lunatic. It didn't matter what Oni's role in this was. For now, I had to focus on beating the shit out of this psycho and get her somewhere safely.

"Are you just going to stand there and laugh like the crazy little gnome you are?" I returned the insult and from how Bakura's expression changed it seemed he didn't like it. "If you thought I was afraid of you then why didn't you just killed me on the spot? Maybe you are the one with weak legs here."

"You foul mouthed brat." Bakura frowned and pulled out one of the original Duel Disks which he then put on his arm. "I will let the shadows to toast with your remains."

"Wait!" Oni shouted and put on her own Duel Disk. "Oni will fight as well, Neechan!"

"No." I pushed her behind me. "This doesn't have anything to do with you Oni so stay back! This guy is very dangerous so I can't let anything bad to happen to you."

"Unfortunately you have no say in this, fool." Bakura replied and pointed toward Oni. "TH reason she is unaffected by the time stopping is because she is my target as well!"

So I was right after all. Oni was indeed an outsider for this universe just like us. Even so I wouldn't let her risk her life in this stupid game. "No! I won't let you do that! She is just a girl that hasn't done anything to anyone! Even a bastard like you should have enough mercy to let the innocents go!"

"Hahaha!" Bakura started to laugh like a maniac – not that he wasn't to begin with. "Fate has already handler both of your tickets so there is no turning back! I'm just here to deliver your souls to the beasts of the underworld! Now, let's the Shadow Game begin! Duel!"

Before I could protest about this shadows raised from the ground and raised creating a barrier around the three of us. Then, my and Oni's Duel Disks both made a beeping sound, accepting the duel on their own.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Oni LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Bakura LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Since this is going to be a two on one duel I'm going to take the first turn. Furthermore, none of us is going to be allowed to attack on our first turns!"

So he is practically going to not only go first but also get the first Battle Phase! I turned toward Oni only to see her facing against the threat with determination in her eyes. I shook it off and looked back to Bakura who was already starting his turn.

"Hehehe, it seems like I will have to save the massacre for latter!" He laughed. "For now, I play a monster facedown and set a card. Turn End."

That's all? Well Bakura never tended to make big first turn plays, so it's not that surprising. He is probably going on easily since we won't be able to attacking for another turn. If my guess is right then this face-down monster is going to serve as a tribute folder during his next turn.

"You really are the worst to threat little girls! Oni, let your Neechan to take this turn!" I shouted and drew my card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

'Perfect!' I thought as I turned the card and saw that it was Sola, my ace monster. I had the needed Pendulum cards in my hand and there was also the trap card - _**Universal Compass**_! Even if I couldn't attack this turn I already had an opening combo that would burn this bastard for 2500 damage!

 _ **Universal Compass**_ **(Trap) Counter**

 **Remove from play 1 LIGTH monster you control and inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK. During your next Standby Phase; return the monster banished by this effect to the field.**

"A good hand, huh? But you won't have the chance to use it!" Bakura laughed again. "I play my trap card, _Multiple Destruction_! With this card, if both of us have three or more cards in our hands this forces us to discard all of them! Then for each card discarded we take 100 points of damage!"

No way! He saw through my strategy without playing any cards!

We all returned the cards back into our decks. Then electricity shot from our Duel Disks causing both me and Oni to scream in pain and fall on our knees while Bakura just stood there like nothing had happened.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 3400, Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Oni LP: 4000 - 3500, Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Bakura LP: 4000 - 3700, Hand: 0** **』**

"Finally, by the effect of Multiple Destruction we all draw until we are holding five cards." Bakura finished explaining his card effect. "Just look at yourselves! I haven't started and the two of you are already screaming!"

That bastard! I turned toward Oni, there were tears forming at the edges of her eyes, but she just smiled at me. How can she be so brave? I drew my new hand, but there was nothing that I could use at the moment to inflict damage.

"I set a monster and two cards." I announced. "Turn end."

"My turn, draw!" Oni declared.

* * *

 **General POV**

"Damn where is it?!" Evan shouted as he walked through the hospital corridors.

He has been talking with one sexy nurse when suddenly everything froze and his Duel Disk began to make an annoying beeping sound.

"Well, now I'm in some deep shit I guess." Evan sighed and looked around. "Ah, what is this~?"

A large smile that would put the Cheshire cat on shame formed on the boy's face as he found that the door of one of the offices was open and inside was an unopened chocolate lying on the desk.

A few moments later Evan was back on his track, with his cat hood on the head and eating free chocolate.

"I must be the luckiest black cat in this world!" Evan told himself and giggled.

" _Master really is the devil reincarnated~_ " Foxy commented while floating behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Evan froze on the stop as another voice spoke behind him.

Wasn't everyone else supposed to be frozen in time, like, not moving or talking? With slow movements Evan turned his head to look behind where he found… Levant and Ventus.

"What are you two doing here?" He said a bit disappointed.

"An unexpected thing happened." Levant answered.

"Kurosaki wasn't as gentle at handling Masumi, Yaiba and Hokuto's asses as he was in the anime." Ventus sighed. "Because of that we had to take them to the hospital. We just came to check if all of their memory about the events last night were successfully deleted and the freaking time stopped. Can you believe it?"

"Ah, so how is the Fusion chick doing?" Evan asked.

"Fusion chick?"

"I guess a bit bruised, huh?" Evan sighed and continued walking. "What can be done about that? I also had my eyes on here. Well, too late to thing for that, but I don't use second hand."

"Huh?" Levant and Ventus blinked at the other boy's words until the realization came. "EEEEEHH!"

" _Master is a true sadist as well._ " Foxy began to tear up while Phantomus glared at her from behind.

"Whatever." Evan waved his hand. "Let's just go find the bastard who hit the 'Pause' button already."

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"My turn, draw!" Oni declared.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Oni] LP: 3500, Hand: 6** **』**

"I summon _**Performallusion Candyllon**_!" Oni declared as her monster formed from the darkness beneath us.

The creature was a ghost in a white circus attire appeared on her field. It had round body and head with purple and blue vertical stripes on its face and blushed checks. Its eyeballs were empty; it held an orange balloon in its right hand with the word 'Party' written with red letters.

 **Performallusion** **Candyllon**

 **Level: 4|Attribute:** **DARK** **|Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1600** **/DEF:** **1000**

 **Effect:** **If this card on the field is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon 1 "** **Performallusion** **" monster from your Deck.**

"Now that is just a mockery." Bakura commented and to be honest, I think I agree with him this time around.

"I set a card. Turn end." Good, now we have three set cards to protect us.

"That's the most pathetic duel I have had!" Bakura laughed again. "I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Bakura] LP: 3700, Hand: 6** **』**

"Allow me to show you what true monsters looks like!" Bakura grinned and showed us a card in his hand. "I play _Polymerization_ to fuse _The Earl of Demise_ in my hand with the _Headless Knight_ on my field! Fusion Summon! _The Duke of Demise (LV6, ATK: 2000)_!"

The two monsters formed before Bakura when a dark whirlpool formed in the center of the field and they feel into it, getting assimilated. After a moment a hand came from bellow and a new horrifying zombie-like monster appeared on that sick bastard's field.

"A Fusion Monster?!" Oni exclaimed.

Yeah, I remember that this card existed in the YGOPro database as an anime exclusive card. I can't remember if it had an effect but it was the only Fusion monster in Bakura's deck.

"Now, from which one of your monsters should I get rid first?" Bakura asked and I gritted my teeth. "Hmm, I made my mind! Tear apart this joke of a ghost!"

The monster let out a deafening scream and jumped toward Oni's monster and cut off its hands then bite on its head, crushing it. The remains of ghost flew into the darkness and disappeared as another scream was emitted from Oni. I looked at her and saw that pairs of claws were holding her legs, with their nails driven into her flesh.

 **『** **Oni LP: 3500 - 3100, Hand: 3** **』**

"Stop this!" I yelled.

I tried to grab Oni, but something stopped me from moving. Just then I noticed that a pair of claws was holding my legs as well, but unlike Oni's, mines were slowly pulling me into the shadows.

"I activate Candyllon's effect! When this monster is destroyed I can Special Summon any Performallusion from my deck! Come forth! _Performallusion Wind Spirit (LV8 ATK: 2000)_!"

"Oni!" I cried out.

"Yes, Neechan?" she asked me forcing on a smile.

No, I couldn't let anything bad to happen to her. I, didn't want to see Oni suffer because of me, I didn't want to lose her because of some maniac. I had to end this duel before any more harm came her way; I absolutely needed to.

"Too bad that you won't be able to make use of the monster you summoned." Bakura said. "I play the Equip Spell – _Grief Table_! The monster equipped with this card cannot attack and have their effects negated!"

A large stone table formed behind Wind Spirit and sucked it inside, turning the monster into a figure carved into the stone.

"Next, I play the Field Spell, _Dark Sanctuary_!" Bakura declared as the shadows around us changed color, turning from black to red, then thousands of eyes and sinister smirks appeared all over the walls and ceiling and stared down at me and Oni.

"Lastly, I set a card and end my turn!" Bakura licked his lips.

"My turn!" I shouted drawing my card.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Avice] LP: 3400, Hand: 4** **』**

"At this moment I activate my Trap, _Destiny Board_!" Bakura shouted as a ghost formed over his head holding the letter 'F'. "During each of my opponent's End Phase, this card lets me activate a Spirit Message from my Deck! And when all four of them are activated you will lost the duel!"

Good move, motherfucker.

"I tribute my _Astral Angel Warter_ to Tribute Summon _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion (LV6, ATK: 2100)_!" I declared as my face-down monster turned face-up and vanished to be replaced by the majestic beast. "Now, battle! I attack _The Duke of Demise_ with _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion_!"

"That's what I wanted you to do!" Bakura shouted. "The moment you brat attacked you sealed your fate! Now, feel the curse of my Field Spell! I activate _Dark Sanctuary_ 's effect! When an opponent monster's attack I get to flip a coin and if the result is Head the attack is negated. Then the opponent takes half of their monster's attack as damage!"

My monster froze in the middle of our field and the ceiling opened after which a coin fell on the ground and began to spin.

'Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease! Don't give that sick psycho a Heads, don't do it!' I mentally begged as the coin began to slow down and then…

"Hahahaha! Luck is on my side today!" Bakura grinned as the coin stopped on Heads. "Now take the curse of the Sanctuary!"

A ghostly version of my version came from its back and flew toward me, stabbing me into the chest.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3400 - 2350, Hand: 3** **』**

I grabbed my chest in pain and feel on my knees. The pain in this duel was real. I don't know how Oni was able to stand it, but it made me want to cry. I shut my eyes, gasping for air, it was horrible; I hated this feeling, to be hurt like this! It was sickening! After a moment the pain in my chest subdued and I was able to stand up once again. The first thing I got meet with however was the worried face of Oni.

"Neechan!" She cried out. "Neechan, are you ok? Y-y-you are bleeding, neechan!"

I blinked curious when a stringing feeling came from my right hand and I looked down to see a wound with blood spilling out of it and soaking the sleeve. Damn it! I was supposed to protect her, not make her worry about me. But after I saw how serious of a wound I got from an effect horrible images of what could happen with Oni started to play in my head. Pictures of her getting engulfed in flames, ripped apart by the claws holding her, or stabbed in the heart by Bakura's monster started to fill my head. No, stop it!

I felt tears rolling down my cheeks but I didn't care about this anymore. There weren't many people in my life that mattered, maybe almost no one did expect for my brother and sister. But after I met Oni, after she started to call me Neechan I was able to understand the feeling of being an older sibling. With Oni I also felt closer to Elizabeth and Evan, but… It wasn't like I used her to make myself feel important, no, I genuinely carved to protect have her by my side. I wished to always see her eyes filled with joy and dreams, her big smile and its magical ability to always cheer me up, her way or speaking in third person.

But most importantly, I wanted her to have a better life than me. Because when I saw her for the first time – alone without parents or a caretaker on a quest to learn about the big world - she reminded me so much of myself back in the days.

"I end my turn." I said.

"Neechan…" I closed my eyes tightly at the sympathetic voice. "My turn."

 **『** **Turn 6 [Oni] LP: 3100, Hand: 4** **』**

"Using _Wind Spirit_ as the tribute, I activate the Ritual Spell, _Night Parade of Souls_!" Oni declared and a large coffin locked with rusted chains appeared on the field before her. " _Millennium spirit of the sleeping souls, wake from your slumber and be revived! The omniscient priest of the Spirit Realm! Ritual Summon, Level 7! Performallusion Grand Specter Numu (LV7, ATK: 2400)_!"

"Another insult toward the Zombies and Fiends made its appearance." Bakura commented irritated.

"I activate Grand Specter Numu's effect!" Oni shouted. "When summoned I can shuffle a number of cards my opponent controls back into the deck, up to the number of monsters used for this card's summon! I will return _Destiny Board_!"

"Dark Sanctuary's effect protects my cards from the opponent's effects!" Bakura shouted as a void appeared before his cards. ( **A/N:** Dark Sanctuary's protection effect says 'expect "Destiny Board"', you cheater!)

"Then Grand Specter Numu attacks _The Duke of Demise_!"

"Have patience!" Bakura said. "At this moment Dark Sanctuary's first effect activates! Hahaha! Heads! With this your attack is negated and you take half of your monster's attack as damage!"

"Kyyaaaahh!" I heard Oni screaming again and put a hand over my ears. No, no, no!

 **『** **Oni LP: 3100 - 1900, Hand: 3** **』**

"I set two cards, turn end." I head Oni panting. "You need to get yourself together, Neechan!"

"I can't do it." I shook my head.

"Neechan, please! We are both running out of time… So please…"

Oni's life points are already below 2000 and none of my set cards could protect her. My entire deck is focused on offence and burn damage, if something go wrong Oni will… I grabbed my head with both hands as new images of Oni getting killed by the effects of my own cards appeared before my eyes.

"One of you have already fallen under the effect of my Shadow Game, huh?" Bakura said with a playful grin.

"A Shadow Game?" That shit from the first two animes again?

"Yes, it's a game that tests the souls and minds of the participants. If you are weak enough to be tricked by the shadows then you will lose both the game and your life." Bakura explained with a calm and collected manner. "And it seems that the older one was the first to fall for my tricks,. Pathetic."

"Why are you telling us this?" I asked. "Wouldn't it be better for you if we don't know about this? What is your gain from this? Or is that another lie mean to confuse us?"

Bakura stared at me for a moment then burst into laughing. "Hahaha! You brat are a smart one. But what I'm telling you is not a lie and I'm not trying to trick you. This kind of cowardly schemes aren't my style anyway. I just figured out that as a fragment that got born into this world without any real purpose, I could do that much! There is no Zorc or Millennium items to collect so what's the purpose of my existence here? To kill certain people because I'm programed to do that?"

"Does this mean that you aren't going to murder us?"

"That would be too good for you!" Bakura crossed his hands. "Even if I'm just a puppet right now I still have a job to do! This is still a real Shadow Game and I won't stop it only because you brats asked me kindly. My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Bakura] LP: 3700, Hand: 3** **』**

"Hm, I wanted to see you two suffer some more, but it seems that I just got the cards needed to finish you this turn!" Bakura explained as a red aura formed around him. "First off, I will pay 500 life points to keep my _The Duke of Demise_ on the field (Bakura' LP: 3200)! Then I play the Spell card. Pre-Preparations of Rites to add the Ritual Spell, _Contract with the Dark Master_ and the Ritual Monster, _Dark Master – Zorc_ to my hand! Then I play the _Contract with the Dark Master_ I just added to my hand!"

That baster ran Ritual monsters as well? Knowing how strong of an effect some Ritual Monsters had back in the days, this wasn't going to be an easy one to deal with. I needed to make sure that this bastard wouldn't hurt Oni.

"Using the effect of Ritual Raven that's my hand, I treat it as the whole tribute! Ritual Summon! _Dark Master – Zorc (LV8. 2700)_!" Bakura shouted as a muscular demon with crimson wings and an even so ugly face appeared on his side of the field and roared at us. "I activate Dark Master – Zorc's effect! Once per turn, I roll a six-sided die and if the result is 1 or 2 all monsters you control are destroyed; if its 3, 4 or 5 one of your monsters are destroyed and if 6 all my monsters are destroyed!"

Six balls with the numbers from 1 to 6 appeared over his monster's head and a flame began to jump from one to the other. If he pulled out even just one of the first two effects Oni would be in extreme danger. Why must my deck be so useless in a moment like this? And then the fateful die stopped with the flames burning on the number…

…2

"Dark Master – Zorc's effect!" Bakura shouted. "Destroy all of their pitiful monsters!"

The creature swung its wings and waves of dark energy flew toward both mine and Oni's monster, cutting them in two before destroying them.

"Now, battle!" Bakura shouted. " _The Duke of Demise_ attack the smaller bug, directly!"

"No, Oni!" I cried out as the monster charged toward her.

"Trap activate!" Oni shouted. " _ **Illusion Laugh**_!" A trap showing various Performallusion monsters along with other zombies dancing in a graveyard appeared on the field. "When an opponent monster attacks, by banishing a level 7 or higher monster from my Graveyard, this effect swaps its ATK and DEF! I remove _Performallusion Grand Specter Numu_ to use both effects!"

 **Illusion Laugh (Trap) Normal**

 **When a monster your opponent controls declare an attack you can banish 1 Level 7 or higher "Performallusion" monster from your Graveyard; target that monster; switch its current ATK and DEF.**

The spirit of Oni's monster flew through _The Duke of Demise_ , changing its attack power from 2000 to just 1700. But that didn't calm me down, because shortly after that another scream pierced the air and Oni fell face-first on the ground. Everything became darker all of the sound around me vanished and I felt like all of my emotions had shut-down. I couldn't feel anything, it didn't matter for me anymore.

 **『** **Oni LP: 1900 - 200, Hand: 1** **』**

"T-t-trap activate…" Oni spoke weakly as another trap that showed a grave with a laughing mask resting on the gravestone. " _ **Dramatic Performance**_ … When I-I… take damage…it-t Special Summons a Performa…llusion from my Grave-e-yard."

A coffin appeared from the darkness in front of Oni and opened up, as _Performallusion Wind Spirit (LV8 DEF: 2000)_ appeared to protect her.

"What a waste." Bakura sighed and turned toward me. "It's your turn, foul mouthed brat! I use Dark Master – Zorc to attack directly!"

"Trap open! **Astra Angel's Trust**!" I ordered and a card whose art showed a knight protecting an angel appeared on my field. "When the opponent declare an attack, this trap lets me draw 1 card, then, if it's an Astral Angel monster, I can Special Summon it in Attack Position!"

 **Astra Angel's Trust (Trap) Normal**

 **When an opponent's monster declare an attack, draw 1 card and reveal it. If it's an "Astral Angel" monster, Special Summon it in face-up Attack Position with its effects negated. If the card you draw is a Spell or Trap Card, send it to the Graveyard.**

I put a hand on my deck and grabbed the top card. Please, work!

"Draw!" I shouted and drew the card. "I Summon _Astral Angel Star Frieden_ _(LV2, ATK: 600)_!"

"How bothersome. _Dark Master – Zorc_ , destroy Golden Ring!" Bakura shouted and my monster got ripped apart.

 **『** **Avice LP: 2350 - 250, Hand: 3** **』**

The claws pulled me toward the darkness which climbed onto me, covering all the way to my chest. I could feel it pressing against me and it became hard for me to breathe as I felt that the arms were trying to smash my lungs.

"So as I was sa- Woah! What is this shit?!" My brother's voice suddenly echoed through the darkness.

The shadows behind Bakura split open to show my brother, along with Levant and Ventus staring at us wide-eyed. I'm sorry that I failed you, big bro. To protect Oni, to be a strong older sibling just like you and sister. I really didn't want my adventure to end like this…

"Oni, Avice!" My brother shouted as he ran toward us, but got hit by some invisible barrier. "What the heck is this? Damn those shadow games and all! Avice! What you doing there? Beat this bastard and win already!"

"Don't worry, there." Bakura told my brother. "Your time will come soon. After I finish those two, that's it! I will play the Continuous Spell, _The Dark Door_ which prohibits us to attack with more than one monster per Battle Phase. I end my turn."

"I don't think I could win this." I narrowed my eyes and lower my head.

I was strong, I had won so many duels in my life, but this was one that I couldn't handle. What was the point in my skills if I couldn't protect the people I cared about? If I couldn't make brother and sister smile and be proud of me.

"Don't give up." Oni told me.

"But Oni you…" I tried to speak, but she shook her head.

"Neechan, please listen! It doesn't matter if Oni is hurt or not. It was because of worry for Oni that neechan got hurt as well. Oni didn't want to be a burden in this due, but to help neechan because you are an important person for Oni."

So she thought that she was a burden for me the entire duel? I placed a hand on my head to hide my eyes. Although I was the one who did nothing but listened to my fears during the entire duel. This is so pathetic and weak of me, I had to somehow fix that. Oni was too hurt to be able to take her next turn and if we didn't finish the duel until then Bakura would have won by the effect of Destiny Board. This was my responsibility, I had to fix the mistakes I made in this duel. Only for myself, but in order to save Oni was well. Please my deck, led me the strength to finish this duel in one turn!

"My turn, draw!" I declared as I drew my card which was covered by golden glow before turning into…

 **『** **Turn 8 [Avice] LP: 250, Hand: 4** **』**

"I'm sorry Oni. It's my fault that you had to go through so much just so I can snap back to reality." I put my Duel Disk high against my chest. "I'm putting an end of this, right now! I activate the two Continuous Spells, _Astral Angel Der Erste_ and _Astral Angel Das Letzte_!"

"What are those strange markings on them?" Bakura asked.

"Those seem like Pendulum Scales!" Ventus said.

"It's impossible!" Levant replied. "Something like Pendulum Spells couldn't actually exist, can it?"

"You should answer that yourself." My brother nodded toward me with a smirk.

"I activate the effect of Der Erste! When this card is activated I can add 1 Astral Angel monster from my deck to the hand! I choose _Astral Angel Ersten Speer_! Next I activate the effect of Das Letzte to negate the effects of _Dark Sanctuary_!"

"My Field Spell?!" Bakura shouted as the shadows around us started to disappeared, but the claws that held us remained.

"That's not all! I use the other effect of my Continuous Spells to put them in the Pendulum Zones!" I pointed at my cards which flew into columns of green light and turned into actual monsters. "And to finish the preparations, I play my second and final Trap card – _Pendulum Back_! With its effect I return two monsters in my Graveyard whose levels are between the Pendulum Scales, back to my hand!"

My Disk ejected Sola and one of the Pendulum monsters I intended to use to summon her with originally.

"This is it!" I declared and a green pendulum formed between the Pendulum Scales on my field. "Swing, pendulum of balance, arise within my soul and become a path of light! Pendulum Summon! Arise before me, my monsters! _Astral Angel Ersten Speer(LV4, ATK: 1600)_ , _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion(LV6, ATK: 2100)_ , _**Astral Angel Enlightener**_ and the star of this show; _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ _(LV6, ATK: 2500)_!"

Four beams landed in front of me with three of them turning into familiar monsters while one transformed into what seemed to be a man in a white robe sitting on a chair. It had a large golden mask covering its face with longs cables coming out from it creating something like a breath. There were five large green orbs places around the monster's shoulders with golden spikes striking from them while the chair itself had wings attached to the backside and projected a halo over the head of the actual creature.

 **Astral Angel Enlightener**

 **Level:** **8/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type:** **Psychic** **/** **Pendulum/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 2**

 **ATK:** **1000** **/DEF:** **2800**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn: You can reveal 1 Pendulum Monster from your hand, then target 1 card in your Pendulum Zone; that target's Pendulum Scale becomes the same as the revealed Pendulum Monster's, until the end of this turn.**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn: You can tribute 1 other monster you control, then target 1 Normal or Quick-Play Spell Card in your Graveyard; apply that target's effect, then return it to the bottom of your deck.**

" _Ersten Speer_ 's effect activates! All light monster on my field gain 400 attack points!" I declared as the attack of _Ersten Speer_ , _Enlightener_ , _Magnificus Lion_ and _Sola Starlit_ raised to 2000, 1400, 2500 and 2900 respectively.

"What good is this going to do you?" Bakura asked me. "Due to the effect of my Dark Door only one of your monsters is allowed to attack this turn! Even if you use your strongest one, Sola Starlit I will still have enough Life Points to survive!"

"Don't be so sure." I smirked. "This turn, the cards that you sent to my Graveyard at the beginning of this duel will come back to haunt you! I activate Enlightener's effect! By Magnificus Lion it allows me to use a Spell Card that lies in my Graveyard!"

My monster opened its eyes and fired beats of light that blinded Bakura and forced him to take a step back as Magnificus Lion disappeared from my field and a Spell Card formed on its place with its artwork showing a green portal with multiple golden rings.

"I choose the Quick-Play Spell, _**Dimension Overlap**_! Targeting Sola for its effect I tribute Enlightener to give half of its attack points to Sola herself!" I shouted and the wings on my Ace's back began to glow as her ATK raised to 3600.

 **Dimension** **Overlap** **(Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1** **LIGHT** **monster on the field, then Tribute 1 other monster you control; that target gains ATK equal to half of the ATK the tribute monster had on the field, until the end of this turn, and if it do, the targeted monster can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn.**

"Battle!" I pumped my fist forward. "Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph attack _The Duke of Demise_! _Linear Ray Artillery_!"

Sola smirked and leaped into the air, then put her hands together and fired a green energy beam toward Bakura's monster.

"But that's not all! Since Sola fights the best when she borrows help from her comrades I activate her ability! When she attacks I can reveal a light monster in my hand to make her gain that 500 ATK! Help her out, _Kuriray_! _**Unity Beam**_!"

A spirit of my _Kuriray_ monster beside _Ersten Speer_ as the two watched Sola's ATK raising to 4100 and her beam becoming stronger.

 **『** **Bakura LP: 3200 - 800, Hand: 0** **』**

"Shit!" Bakura cursed as he felt the strength of my attack. "But now due to Dark Door you can't attack me anymore!"

"That's not true!" I shouted. "Dark Door's effect stops me from attack with more than one monster, not from attacking more than one time per Battle Phase!"

"Impossible!" Bakura's eyes widened as he realized what I meant.

"That's right!" I shouted. "Dimension Overlap's other effect allows Sola to attack you twice during the same turn! Go, destroy _Dark Master – Zorc_ and end this duel!"

" _With pleasure!_ " a new voice spoke and Sola charged toward, slashing through Zorc with her wings.

 **『** **Bakura LP: 800 - 0, Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice & Oni** **』**

I heard Bakura screaming as the light emitted from my monster's attack engulfed us. I think that the claws around our bodies had disappeared because I could breathe freely once again. After a moment the light that blinded me died down and I was back in the hospital along with Oni, my brother, Levant and Ventus. People were walking around us and walking, which meant that time had returned back to normal. I looked at my hand where my wounds were, but there was nothing now, Oni seemed to be ok as well, guess that's what Levant meant that once we win a duel against those freaking things their influence in this world would disappeared as well. Since we were hurt due to Bakura's Shadow Game his disappearance from this reality would erase the results as well.

"Neechan." Oni grabbed my hand and smiled. "Good job!"

"Thanks." I hugged her.

* * *

 **General POV**

Somewhere far away from the hospital a figure with glowing red-eyes was leaning against the wall of a building, completely hidden by the shadows casted upon him. There was someone they were hidden too well to be found out with mere eyes.

"Another one of us lost." The red-eyed figure spoke. "We need to hurry up, your job won't change, keep attacking that bastard's school."

After a moment the presence of the second person could be felt any longer. The red-eyes shadow used this moment to take out a Normal Monster card and looked at it.

"Don't worry my old friend. Soon, both Akaba Leo and the Tracers will burn into the flames or our revenge."

* * *

 **Avice: And here is ME with the reviews for the next chapters! It's the same thing like last time, I tried to speak with the author about adding the summary for chapter 17 but he told me to, and I quote "Fuck off" so here we are I guess.**

 **Chapter** **15: Contract with Hell, Earth and Heaven**

Summary: Evan and the rest accept Reiji's invitation and visit Leo Corporation to share their knowledge about the dimensions and their reason to be here. However, things take a completely different turn when Reiji leads the siblings into the Duel Arena and initiates a three on one duel to see if they are strong enough for his 'special' program.

 **Avice: So now its official that I'm going to be in this. Actually the duel with be Reiji vs me, Evan and Elizabeth and boy, you won't be able to guess the winner I'm telling you that!**

 **Chapter** **16: The Different Shades of Xyz**

Summary: Although Kurosaki had joined LDS and stopped his assault, the school still keeps getting reports about disappearing students and teachers. Believing in the existence of another cuprite Levant and Ventus request the aid of Kurosaki to find and stop the person behind the attacks. However what they find out is…

 **Avice: Oh I finally got that one! It's about the Xyz guys! And what? I just heard from the rest that Ventus will duel in this one. Eh, he couldn't outclass me so who cares!**

* * *

 **Well, thats it. So for those of you who are somewhat 'interested' in the mistakes I had to fix, when I first readed Multiple Destruction's effect I thought that the 300 damage is dealt to everyone according to the number of cards they returned. Then when I tested the deck on YGOPro and the AI used the card I started to question myself "Why the fuck is that thing taking so much damage? And why I didn't take any? Oh!" Then I realized that** **the controller of the trap is the only one who takes damage and that meant that Bakura would burn himself for like... 4200 DAMAGE!**

 **So I said, "Fuck it" and used the anime effect instead.**

 **I now feel bad about how this turned out because I had build a whole Occult Deck with Ectoplasmer, Dark Spirit of the Silent and freaking Dark Necrofear, but I had to cut them out of the chapter because without all of this the duel already was 6700+ words O_o**

 **But hey, at least my favorite monsters from this deck - The Earl of Demise and Headless Knight - made a cameo so yay for me!**

 **Lastly, I know that this comes out of the blue and that its too early for me to make such annoucements because VRAINS hasn't aired yet and all, but when it comes out, I'm going to make a fanfic about it! Yes, its going to be an OC fanfic like this one and I have already started working on the character's deck. The Ace Monster is already made and I can say that this character is going to be VERY different from Evan, Avice and Elizabeth in both of personality and dueling skills.**

 **Also, still talking about VRAINS, today when I first woke up I noticed two interesting things on the Ygorganization site. First,** _Firewall Dragon_ **is getting an Alternative Artwork! This is really crazy because so many years passed since their shows aired and for now neither Neos, Stardust or Utopia have an Alternative Artwork, but Firewall got one before its series even aired?! Not that I have a problem with this, because that Dragon really deserves the love!**

 **Second they showed a new Cyverse-Type Link-4 monster called** _Topologic Bomber Dragon_ **that also has 3000 ATK, which probably means that this is going to be the Rival's Ace. If that's not fun enough, Firewall is white in color just like Yusei's Stardust while Bomber is red just like Jack's Red Dragon and they have the opposite effects. So do you guys think that** _Topologic Bombed_ **could really be the Rival's Ace? I really hope so and I also hope that the rival is also going to be a girl instead of Go who uses a Warrior-Type deck.**

 **So this is what I will finish this chapter with. A couple of questions for you guys. Do you agree about my idea for this new dragon being the rival's ace? What kind of rival are you guys hoping for? Are you excited for VRAINS?**

 **I really want to know your opinions about this new series because I do care about what other people think! Also I do it because I want to try and interact a bit with those kind people among you who read this story, instead of just writing shit in the A/N section and calling it a day xD**

 **So that's it folks! Until next time!**

 **Avice and DT out!**


	15. Chapter 15

T **hat's it! This is the last time I write a duel with 3 or more duelists! I'm done! This thing was 9000+ words!**

 **Avice: But, the next chapter is going to be a Xyz Battle Royale, remember?**

 **...**

 **Well Shit.**

 **Anyway, there is an Omake at the end for those who can't be shitted to read the whole thing :,)**

* * *

 _(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**  
 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**  
 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;  
** _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**  
 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,  
** _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**  
 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

Contract with Hell, Earth and Heaven

 **Elizabeth's POV**

" _Hmm, what if you chain this when they attack?_ " Sunny asked.

" _No, I think that this would be better to use it on your own monsters since that way it would protect them from destruction._ " Yuki replied.

" _If you use this along with this you could create some tricky situations for the opponent._ " Hema added.

If any of you was wondering what's going on; during the early hours of the day I sat down on the couch and started to go through my deck, using the help of my other personalities to try and figure out all of the possible combos I could make, depending on the situation I'm in. I had already done that once before, but the duel against that Xyz Duelist proved that my skills weren't high enough if I wanted to me of any help to my siblings. After Evan told me about the duel Avice and Oni had when they came to take me from the hospital I realized how important this damn card game could be.

What if I were in Avice's place? I definitely wouldn't have been able to overcome my fears and would have caused the death of both me and my partner. It was actually surprised me how fast the two were able to recover from this dangerous experience, Oni even talked about it like it was just some kind of game. How nice it would have been if that was true, if there were no lives at stake and we just played for fun.

I heard footsteps and glanced toward the corridor. None of the others ever woke up before eleven, though even if Evan had come back from the land of dreams he probably wouldn't be able to more right now, because when I cheeked this morning, there were two girls climbing on his sides. Now I feel stupid for making breakfast so early, it was going to get all cold by the time those three lazy heads get up. But then Evan showed up, running a hand through his messy hair before lowering it to rub his neck while he groaned. I turned back to rebuilding my deck which seemed to have triggered him.

"Hmm~ it smells nice." Evan said and I heard him walking toward me. "You have overdone yourself with the breakfast again, sis. Hm, what are you doing?"

"Looking through my deck." I answered and he sat on the ground opposite from me.

"If want advices I would be more than happy to give you some as your older brother." He told me with an annoying smirk. "Since you aren't into games I guess that you are either salty of how that Xyz Duelist hammered you or Avice and Oni's story got you to rethink your importance for the team, right?"

" _Someone is pretty full of himself, eh?_ " Hema said disgusted.

I lowered my head and took a deep breath, this was going to be more difficult to handle that I expected, but I still smiled. "I really hate you; you know that? I always had. It wasn't fair how you always successes to get whatever you want while I - the person who actually put real effort in my work – never success to win anything. Life wasn't fair for me, but the last thing I need is for you to come with that Cheshire smirk of yours and reminding me about my failures."

" _I think this was pretty harsh._ " Yuki told me. " _Better stop before you two ended up fighting over this._ "

Evan on the other side just titled his head to the side, then his smile grew even wider and he lied on the ground. "Oh, so someone is jealous that mama and papa never noticed their achievements? But then shouldn't you be the one blessed by God and me being the one who got cheated?"

"I suppose that from your respective that could be true as well." I nodded, somewhat agreeing with him. "But that doesn't make your attitude any less annoying and toxic."

"I suppose it doesn't."

"Let me ask you something. Are you and Avice… actually thankful that we got sent to this world? Is this what the two of you wanted? To way to escape from the real world?"

"That's a hard question to answer." Evan replied and waved his hand. "You could put it like a fifty-fifty. I'm happy that I don't have to deal with the same plain everyday shit anymore, but living in a world where everything is determined by a card game isn't my biggest dream either. So basically I view my situation right now as the smaller of the two evils."

" _That brother of your is really insane._ " Hema told me.

I'm not sure if I should laugh or hit Evan on the head for how stupid this sounded. For him being hunted down by some crazy things that want to wipe you out of existence if far better that doing homework and throwing the trash? Not that Evan wasn't crazy enough to think this way, but I have to say, his opinion on the subject wasn't the most 'logical' one for someone as relying on 'logic' as him.

"Hey, hey! Can I ask you a question now?" Evan asked kicking his legs like a little kid. "Was there anything that you ever wanted to achieve? Did you had a dream job or something like that in mind? Any plans of the future?"

" _Oh, I think that this conversation just became a lot more serious that it was a few moments ago._ " Yuki noted. _So wait, what I told him before this wasn't serious enough?_

" _Hey, did any of us ever had a dream about the future?_ " Sunny asked.

" _What are you saying, Synchro?_ " Hema replied, annoyed. " _We aren't real beings to have dreams or other bullshit like that! But I'm sure that the Original has some good ones!_ "

" _I would really like if you stop calling me Synchro and start using my actual name!_ " Sunny shouted back.

I ignored my other personalities and just focused on the question I was given. Did I have any dreams about the future? For as long as I remember everything I ever wanted was to prove how good I am by achieving something big and important, but I had never focused on a single thing. My plans for what I'm going to do after growing up were always simple; to get a well-paid job and form a happy family, but isn't that what everyone wants their future to be like? There was no certain job that I had my eyes on or a type of person that I wanted to spent the rest of my life with.

"Well, you have time to think about it, don't you?" Evan stood up and walked past me.

" _Do you really have no dreams!?_ " Hema asked me and sounded… shocked as she did so.

I shook my head. So that's why Evan had suck a negative view of the world. I remember that he had a dream to become a programmer; he wanted to create games, programs and even softwares, which caused some serious arguments with our parents because they wanted him to choose a more successful profession and eventually made him give up. Since then Evan just stopped carrying and started wasting even more his time in playing games with Avice.

"Would you go wake up Oni and Avice for me?" Evan asked from the kitchen.

"Can't you do it? I'm busy right now!" I replied, irritated. Did he want me to be a good duelist or a housewife?

"Me too. I'm making coffee right now. It takes a lot of concentration you know!"

"Scumbag." I groaned and got up.

One day I was going to hit him with a pan, but let's see when this will happen.

* * *

"Is that why you woke up so early today?" I asked, glaring draggers at Evan.

I, Evan, Avice and Oni walked into the all great LDS. People were giving us strange looks because they knew that we weren't a part of the school. Evan and sister however paid no attention and just masher forward with raised chests, acting like they owned the place. Oni on the other hand stood close to me, holding my hand tightly and trying to hide from the strangers. I knew that Akaba Reiji wanted to meet with us, since I was the one who had to deliver this message to my siblings, but that acting was too much from their side, really. Then the two strange guys that were with my siblings yesterday showed up once again and were literally waiting for us before one of the elevators.

"Took you long enough to show up." The grey haired one – I think his name was Levant – told us casually.

"Hey, we just woke up and came here! We didn't even have time to eat breakfast because of this!" Evan lied; we had breakfast for half a fucking hour!

"I see, well, have a good time." Levant said and opened the elevator.

"Wait, you aren't coming with us?" Avice raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, no, no, no!" the other guy – Ventus – waved his hands then clenched them into a fist and looked down. "While you chat with Reiji, I and Levant will go out to bring justice."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaahhh." Evan trailed out as he pushed the rest of us into the elevator. "Have a good time with that and if you ever get in any trouble remember to call… literally anyone else but not me! Bye, bye!"

"Wasn't that a bit too rude?" I asked.

"What do you mean? I was extremely kind this time around."

"Jackass."

"More importantly, does any of you know on which floor Akaba Reiji is?" Avice crossed her hands.

"Eeeeeerrrrmmm…" I and Evan rolled our eyes.

"I thought so…"

* * *

So, it took us a bit of time to find Reiji's office, but after like, fifteen minutes of wandering from floor to floor we finally made it. Thankfully we also had an appointment with him ready so the receptionist didn't hold us for too long. We walked inside and I must say, I really liked the interior. The office was large with a single desk and a large window from where you could probably see the whole city beneath. The chair behind the desk turned around and a familiar face meet us.

"I'm grateful that you kept to your word and showed up." Reiji greeted us. "But it took you some time."

"Well, it wasn't easy to fit this meeting in my program for the day, you know?" _Trying to play cool now?_

"This building is monitored as well."

I'm not sure if this is an anime effect or something but suddenly Evan's whole body tensed up and he turned completely white in color. I'm not joking when I say that; not only his, but the black clothes as well completely paled.

"So I guess introductions are in order!" Avice said and pushed Evan away. "Thought you should already know our names, I'm Avice, the douchebag over there is my brother, Evan, this is Elizabeth and the little cutie over here is Oni. I heard that there was something you wanted to talk about, so here we are."

"Let's skip the small talk. I already know that the four of you don't belong to any of the four dimensions. I'm also well aware that the crisis of this world is none of your business either, but after I saw a few of your duels I knew that the three of you would be extremely useful for something I'm working on."

"And what would that be if I may ask?" I questioned him.

"As first, I would want you to let my team study your cards." Reiji told us. "You don't know it, but there is a way to detect and analyze the energy readings which allows us to identify the used method. Your monsters' however, their readings are far too different from anything we have seen before. Not only is the energy output times larger, but they also transfer some kind of data than our technology was unable to read."

"Wait, they are transferring data? To where?" Evan asked.

"That's something we still aren't able to figure out." Reiji told us. "What I know however is that your cards seem to hold some much needed information for my future plans."

"Yeah, problem with that is that you won't tell us what those plans actually are." Evan crossed his hands.

"The other Dimensions are in a war. I'm currently forming a group of elite duelists that would take the role to bring the fight to the enemy and defeat them. Our mission is going to be to bring peace to the four worlds, but for that I will need the information stored inside your cards. They will be useful not only for perfecting the dimension travel technology that the technicians are working on, but those cards will also serves as templates for the creation of new, powerful ones for the Lancers to use."

"So then it is mutual I guess. I and my siblings need your help to figure out more about those cards as well." Evan replied. "We don't know how they work either, so we are going to give you everything we have to offer if you agree to share with us any new information that your sciences discover on the matter. Also we would like to be allowed to supervise both the data extraction and the card creation. Does that sound as a good offer for you?"

"Yes it does." Reiji nodded and stood up. "Then, welcome to the Lancers, Evan Grayson, Elizabeth Grayson and Avice Grayson."

"Oh, oh!" Oni suddenly shouted jumping in place. "And Oni Hakuryù! Oni wants to help out as well!"

Reiji raised an eyebrow and looked at us confused. Evan nodded and the man looked at Oni.

"And Oni Hakuryù." He said politely but for some reason the words felt like Reiji didn't want to put a little girl in his team. "So, then if it's possible I want my team to start the examination through a practical test."

At this both Evan and Avice smirked and I knew that… I was screwed!

* * *

"Hey, don't you think that this is a bit unfair?" I suddenly asked.

After the creepy scene in the observation room – or whatever the heck it was called – Reiji lead us to an empty Duel Area and challenged us on a 3 vs 1 duel. I wasn't sure what the big idea was, but I was sure that the president of the strongest Duel School wouldn't put himself in such a disadvantageous position without a good reason.

"What are you saying? We are the ones with the advantage here so shut up!" Evan shouted at me.

"Yeah, it's not sportsmanlike to question the opposite team's choice." Avice added.

' _Oh, so that's not sportsmanlike, but when you teared apart our Ludo because you didn't get a six that one time two years ago was completely sportsmanlike, huh?_ '

"The rules are like that of a regular Action Duel." Reiji told us. "Only changes are that I will take every turn that's on an odd number while the three of you will have to switch between one another. Also you will have to share your 4000 Life Points!"

"Are you sure that dueling here would be safe?" Avice asked. "I mean, you said that our cards weren't regular so wouldn't it be dangerous to test them in an Action Duel?"

"I see why you would think that way." Reiji replied as he adjusted his glassed on. "But this Duel Arena was specially equipped for this kind of duel. The computer is programmed to stop the duel if something was to happen."

"Then let's do this!" Evan raised his Duel Disk.

"Action Field: Haunted Demon Den!" A robotic voice declared as the field around us changed into what I could only describe as ruins possessed by the devil itself.

"Action…" Reiji trailed off.

"Duel!" My siblings shouted.

 **『** **Evan** **Hand: 5 & ****Elizabeth** **Hand: 5** **&** **Avice Hand: 5 LP: 4000** **(VS)** **Reiji** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"My turn!" Reiji declared. "I play _Foolish Burial_ to send _D/D Necro Slime_ from my deck to the Graveyard. I set a monster. Turn end."

" _That was pretty anticlimactic._ " Sunny sweat dropped.

" _Is that Standard's strongest?_ " Yuki asked mockingly. " _That's just sad and pathetic._ "

" _He probably has something in mind._ " Hema warned us. " _Since a player cannot attack on their first turn he is building up his field for his next turn._ "

"I hope you girls won't mind if I start this off." Evan stepped forward.

"I guess we can go from the oldest to the youngest in this one." Avice offered.

Evan nodded and put a hand on his deck. "My turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [** **Evan** **] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

Evan smiled at the card he drew and turned toward Reiji. "You know, I really wanted to duel you one on one because I knew how strong you are. Your dueling strategies and skills aren't just for show and neither are mine! I Summon _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv3, ATK: 1300)_! Then I set a card and end my turn."

" _Interesting. Timefrozer Ghost's effect can negate a card's effect one per turn._ " Hema crossed her hands. " _He plants of disrupting the opponent's strategy while his set card is probably a defensive trap or spell._ "

" _I already know that._ " I told her mentally. " _I'm not that much of a newbie so there is no need to explain every turn to me._ "

" _Very well them. Just don't blow up._ " And with that the Fusion personality disappeared from my view.

"Interesting." Reiji said and drew his card.

 **『** **Turn** **3** **[** **Reiji]** **LP:** **4** **000, Hand:** **4** **』**

"First of I play the Continuous Spell, _Dark Contract with the Swamp King_! By its effect I will take 1000 points of damage during each of my Standby Phases, but in exchange, I can perform Fusion Summon!" Reiji explained as a card appeared showing a swamp monster behind a stone.

"I don't think so!" Evan shouted. "I activate Timefrozer Ghost's ability! Once per turn, during either player's turn I can choose a card on the field and negate its effects till the end of this turn! I choose your _Dark Contract with the Swamp King_!"

Evan's monster opened its armor as ghostly hands flew from it and wrapped around Reiji's spell, changing its color to grey.

"Just like I expected." Reiji replied. "I Summon the Tuner Monster, _D/D Night Howl (Lv3, ATK: 300)_! When _Night Howl_ is summoned I can Special Summon a _D/D_ from my Graveyard with its ATK and DEF reduced to 0! Reappear, _D/D Necro Slime (Lv1, DEF: 300 - 0)_!"

"So figured out that much, huh?" Evan replied.

Reiji ignored the comment and continued with his turn. "I flip _D/D Lilith (Lv.4, ATK: 100)_! Now! I tune my Level 4 _D/D Lilith_ and my Level 1 _D/D Necro Slime_ to my Level 3 _D/D Night Howl_!"

The third monster turned into three Synchro rings that encircled around Lilith and Necro Slime which turned into five orbs of light and them a beam passed through them.

" _A Level 8 Synchro?!_ " Sunny shouted from within my head.

" _Climb over the corpses of heroes, carrying your bloodstained blade! Synchro Summon! Be born! Level 8! D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried (Lv8 ATK: 2800)_!"

A humanoid monster with pale skin and long white hair appeared on the field, wearing a dark knight armor and a long red scarf. The monster held a large sword which it rested on its shoulder.

"Next I activate the Continuous Spell, _Dark Contract with the Gate_. By losing 1000 Life Points During my Standby Phase this card lets me add a D/D from my Deck to the hand! I add _D/D Swirlal Slime_ to my hand. Then I activate a second _Dark Contract with the Gate_ to add _D/D Berfomet_ to my hand!"

"Those Contract Cards are pretty suitable if I may say." Evan commented.

"What does this mean?" Reiji raised an eyebrow.

"No peace is for free, you have to pay a price for everything. Your Dark Contracts work the same way. They make you pay with your life for the benefits that they give you. At least that's how it should work, right?"

A small, but creepy smirk appeared on Reiji's face. "I wasn't wrong about your three. None of my other candidates knows that much about how war works. But knowledge alone isn't enough for me either. I activate _D/D Swirlal Slime_ 's effect in my hand to fuse it with _D/D Berfomet_!"

The two monsters appeared beside him before getting combined in the fusion portal behind Reiji.

" _Arcane swirl that takes in all forms! Engulf the grotesque God, and be reborn into a new king! Fusion Summon! Come forth, ruler who carries the glory of God! D/D/D Oracle King - d'Arc (Lv7 ATK: 2800)_!"

As Reiji finished the chant a female demon with blue hair and large black wings flew into the air wearing a white armor and holding a sword.

"The name of your monsters means Time Devils, right? But can they match with my Different Dimension Demons?" Reiji asked casually. "Tear him apart! I attack _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_ with _Oracle King d`Arc_! _Oracle Charge_!"

"Trap Activate!" Evan quickly countered. " _Time Shift_ negates your attack and changes to Defense Position all monsters on the field whose ATK is less or equal to the monster whose attack was negated!"

"Pointless; I activate _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ 's effect! Once per turn I can negate the effects of a face-up Spell or Trap card until the next Standby Phase! I negate the effect of your _Time Shift_! Now the attack continues."

Reiji's monster flew through Evan's, cutting it in half and instantly destroying it with the power of the impact being so strong that it knocked Evan.

 **『** **Evan** **LP: 4000** **\- 2500** **, Hand:** **4** **』**

"Next is a direct attack from _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_!" Reiji shouted as his other monster charged toward us.

"If this attack reach us we are finished!" I shouted.

"You are worrying too much." Avice told me.

What is she saying? Before I could question her Reiji's monster was already before us and swung its blade toward my head. I closed my eyes and covered my face with both hands, waiting for the impact. It never came. Slowly, I reopened my eyes and saw that a clock gear was floating in front of me blocking the sword. I had no idea what happened but there a small amount of surprise in Reiji's expression, so that wasn't his doing. Then a mad laugh filled the air and Evan stood back up with his Duel Disk turned so that everyone can see the screen.

"Nice try there." He said and multiple gears formed around him. "But my Trap was just a bait! This now is the real deal! When your monster declare a direct attack, this little fellow's effect activates to save me! Isn't that right? _**Kurigear**_!"

"Kuri!" The gears resonated and merged into a single metallic ball with golden clock gears pointing from its back and those cute, large purple eyes.

 **Kuri** **gear**

 **Level: 1|Attribute:** **DARK** **|Type:** **Fiend** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **300** **DEF: 200**

 **Effect:** **When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can put this card in your Spell/Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. If this card is put on the field that way it remains on the field for 3 of your opponent's turns. While this card is face-up on the field as a Continuous Spell, monsters your opponent controls cannot declare an attack.**

"With this we are safe from attacks for three turns!" Evan declared.

"I will end my turn here." Reiji said and turned toward me. "Now, show me how high your possibilities are!"

"Don't worry, I will!" I shouted back. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **4** **[** **Elizabeth** **] LP:** **2500** **, Hand: 6** **』**

"First, using the scale three _Oracle Sister of Nature - Rose_ and the scale seven _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome_ , I set the Pendulum scale!" I started setting my Pendulum Zones. "With this I can Pendulum Summon monster from Level 3 to 6! Swing Pendulum of Life, be the path of light for my soul and give beginning to a new deity! Pendulum Summon!" Appear before me, my comrade! Revive, the millennium goodness sleeping within the mortals' soul! _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ _(Lv6, ATK: 2400)_!"

A single beam of light shot from the portal above my head and my faithful spellcaster appeared swinging her rod in one hand.

"Next, I activate the Equip Spell, _Ancient Artifact – Moon Core_ , increasing the attack of my monster by the difference in our Life Points!" A flower bloomed where Sina's heart was and her attack points increased to 3900!

"You got it!" Yuki cheered.

"Now, destroy Siegfried so he could no longer negate your Spell and Trap cards!" Sunny told me.

"I know that!" I told them. "Battle! _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ attack _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_!"

"You idiot!" Avice shouted.

"I activate _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ 's effect!" Reiji said as well. "I negate the effect of _Ancient Artifact – Moon Core_ until the next Standby Phase!" The flower on my monster's chest faded and her attack fell to 2400.

"It's not over yet!" I shouted. "I activate _**Kuriborn**_ 's effect in my hand! When a monster attack this card can equip itself to a monster on the field and change it to Defense Position! I choose _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_!"

A blue fluff ball with a black witch hat appeared on the field and jumped on my monster's back, forcing her to stop her attack and land on the ground shielding herself with her staff.

 **Kuri** **born**

 **Level: 1|Attribute:** **WATER** **|Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **300** **DEF: 200**

 **Effect:** **When a monster declares an attack: You can target that 1 monster on the field; change that monster to Defense Position and equip this card from your hand to that monster. It cannot change its Battle Position or attack, also it cannot be destroyed by battle. Once per turn, if a monster you control is attack while this card is in your Graveyard, you can activate this effect: Target that monster; it cannot be destroyed by that battle and any battle damage you take from that battle is halved, also shuffle this card into the Deck.**

"Due to Kuriborn's effect my monster can no longer change its battle position also it cannot be destroyed by battle anymore!" I explained. "I set a card, turn end."

"That was a good move." Evan praised me.

"Yeah, now even if Reiji negates the effect of Kurigear next turn we will have one indestructible monster to protect our Life Points!" Avice said.

"Is that so?" a cruel smile formed on Reiji's face. "My turn!"

 **『** **Turn** **5** **[** **Reiji]** **LP:** **4** **000, Hand:** **1** **』**

"And now the effect of your Dark Contracts will activate!" I reminded him. "You will take 3000 points of damage!"

"And I thought that she learned." Evan sighed.

"A single bird doesn't make spring bro." Avice added.

"What do you mean!?" I shouted at them.

"He won't take the damage." Evan told me and looked at our opponent. "Contracts are always a double edged sword. They can raise you or they can ruin you. But for the elite such danger doesn't exist. We know how to exploit this possible danger and turn it into advantage."

"That's right." Reiji nodded. "When the effect of my Dark Contracts activate the effect of _D/D/D Oracle King - d'Arc_ activates as well, negating the damage and raising my Life by the same amount!"

"What?!" I grabbed my head.

 **『** **Reiji** **LP:** **4** **000** **\- 7000** **, Hand:** **1** **』**

"I activate the effect of _Dark Contract with the Gate_ to add _D/D Savant Copernicus_ to my hand! Then I activate the effect of my other _Dark Contract with the Gate_ and add _D/D Savant Newton_ to my hand."

" _He almost double his Life Points and refilled his hand._ " Hema suddenly appeared beside me. " _You should be very careful!_ "

" _I already know that!_ " I yelled at her mentally.

"I, using the scale one _D/D Savant Copernicus_ and the scale ten, _D/D Savant Newton_ , I set the Pendulum scale!" Reiji raised a hand into the air as the columns of light formed behind him. "Grand power which shakes my very soul! Arise within me and become a new light that rends the darkness. Pendulum Summon! Come before me, my monster! _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon (Lv8, ATK: 3000)_!"

A monster made of purple crystal with mechanical parts and robotic head appeared on the field.

"So that guy showed up again." Avice said as she put a hand on her hips.

"You don't seem surprised to see me use Pendulum Summoning." Reiji noted.

"Well, we already knew that you had those." Evan replied. "We got full access to the Duel Record of You Show and we know everything about the fight between your schools. It seems that you haven't mastered this summoning perfectly since it backfired horribly during your last duel with Yuya."

"Indeed, the Pendulum monsters I had back then were just prototypes, so they were highly unstable. We were able to fix this with those new ones, but even after that the Pendulum Cards we create cannot compare to Sakaki Yuya's or yours."

"So then the Pendulum Cards we have are…"

"I activate _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ 's effect!" Reiji cut off Evan. "Once per turn I can negate the effects of a face-up Spell or Trap card until the next Standby Phase! I negate the effect of _Kurigear_!"

The knight shot a laser from its forehead, knocking Evan's monster and causing it to lost consciousness. If that's even possible for a monster. Then Reiji jumped on his new monster which floated toward a tree, letting its owner to get an Action Card.

"Next I play the Action Spell – _**Ghost Lance**_!" Reiji said as a card that showed a dark ghost with purple eyes and a large grin appeared beside him. "By its effect _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon_ gains the ability to attack up to the number of monsters I control as well as inflicting piercing damage at the cost that other monsters I control cannot attack for the rest of this turn!"

 **Action Spell - Ghost Lance (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 face-up monster you control; this turn, that target can attack a number of times equal to the number of monsters you control, but other monsters you control cannot attack this turn. If the monster targeted by this effect attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

"Battle!" Reiji shouted. " _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon_ attack _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_!"

The monster flew toward mine and fire an entire artillery of lasers toward it. I winched as the attacks reflected to the sides and one of them gazed my shoulder. Damn, this guy was no joke! Three piercing attacks in a row each of which would take 1200 of our Life Points. Also the way he read and countered all of our moves so far; it was like he knew everything about our Dueling styles and strategies, which was crazy because each of us hadn't dueled more than three times.

"I'm surprised that you didn't look for any Action Cards." Reiji told us.

"Sorry, I don't like playing like an absolute noob." Evan replied. "If I'm going to duel someone as strong as you then the least I could do is use the power of my Deck and my Deck alone!"

"Is that so?" Reiji raised an eyebrow. "And is that how you survived this turn?"

 **『** **Elizabeth** **LP:** **2500 – 1900 – 1300 – 700** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

"Yes." I answered. "Due to _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome_ 's Pendulum effect all Battle Damage I take is halved as long as our Life Points are less than the opponent's. This halves the 3600 damage we should have taken to just 1800! Also, it's pointless to try and finish us with effect damage because Salome's effect negates all effect damage as well!"

"My turn is over." Reiji jumped on his monster again and flew to look for Action Cards.

"Brother, sister." Avice turned toward us. "Leave this to me, ok? Draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **6** **[** **Avice** **] LP:** **700** **, Hand: 6** **』**

"Here I go!" Avice shouted and raised a hand toward my Pendulum Zones. "Swing, pendulum of balance, arise within my soul and become a path of light! Pendulum Summon! Arise before me, my monsters! _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion (LV6, ATK: 2100)_ and the holy warrior of light and dreams, the light of my soul; _Destruction Angel_ Queen - _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (LV6, ATK: 2500)_!"

Four beams landed in front of us turning into the mechanical beast and a white angel with cybernetic wings. The two monsters looked at Sina and nodded to each other.

"Now battle!" Avice shouted and jumped on _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion_. " _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion_ attacks _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_!"

"But the attack points of your monster is lower." Reiji reminded Avice to which she just smirked.

"I activate _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion_ 's effect! As it battles a non-Light monster it ATK raises by 1000 until the end of the battle!"

 _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion's ATK: 2100 – 3100_

"Then I will activate the Action Spell – Miracle!" Reiji exclaimed as he grabbed another of those cheats. " _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ won't be destroyed by this battle and all damage is halved!"

 **『** **Reiji** **LP:** **7000 - 6850** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

"I knew that you would do something like this!" Avice shouted. "Now _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion's ATK_ returns to normal, but I attack _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ with _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_! And before you say something about her attack, Sola's ability - _Unity Beam_ \- allows me to reveal a LIGHT monster in my hand to raise her ATK by 500 until the end of the next turn! I reveal _Astral Angel Enlightener_!"

 _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph's ATK: 2500 – 3000_

"Finish it in this attack!" Avice cried out as her monster charged. " _Linear Ray Artillery_!"

Like before Reiji tried to block the attack with an Action Card, but unlike last attack Sola's speed didn't gave him the chance to protect his monster and brutally cut through the knight, destroying it.

"Because of _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ 's effect when it's destroyed I gain 1000 Life Points for each Dark Contract that I control!" Reiji told us.

 **『** **Reiji** **LP:** **6850 – 6650 - 9650** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

" _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon_ 's effect activates! As a monster I control was destroyed by battle it gains _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ 's ATK!" Reiji's monsters began glowing and its ATK raised to 5800.

"And now I activate Dimension Overlap! I tribute _Magnificus Lion_ and give half of its ATK to Sola along with the ability to attack again!" Avice counted and Sola's ATK became 4050. "This time I will go for _D/D/D Oracle King - d'Arc_!"

"I play Action Card – _Big Escape_!" Reiji's monster flew out of the trajectory of the attack and stopped behind him. "This card ends the Battle Phase!"

"This starts getting annoying." Avice groaned. "I set two cards and end my turn. At this moment the effect of Dimension Overlap ends as well returning Sola's ATK to 3000. Sorry bro, I wasn't able to completely clear the field for your turn."

"There is no problem." Evan patter her head. "I will deal with it my way."

"If you haven't lost until then." Reiji jumped of his monster. "At the end of this turn _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon_ 's effect ends as well. The three of you really are more that you seem. I have watched your individual duels, but compared to how you handle this one, the past ones seem like a game."

"Does this mean that we can end this now?" Evan fell on his butt. "I don't have that much of a stamina anyway and I'm starting to get hungry!"

Reiji said nothing to that. Well, not that I could blame him I wanted to hit Evan in the head as well. There was a time and place for everything and the middle of such a badass duel surely wasn't it. Also what does he mean by that he is hungry? We had breakfast less than an hour ago, you idiot!

"My turn." Reiji finally said.

 **『** **Turn** **7** **[** **Reiji]** **LP:** **965** **0, Hand:** **1** **』**

"The effect of _Dark Contract with the Swamp King_ and _Dark Contract with the Gate_ activate!" sparks fell around Reiji as his Life Points raised again.

 **『** **Reiji** **LP:** **965** **0** **\- 12650** **, Hand:** **1** **』**

"I don't think that even Obelisk could push through this kind of Life Points!" Evan giggled.

"We are in deep shit right now!" I yelled at him. "Don't you understand what this means?! This guy is practically unbeatable right now!"

"Relax, relax." Evan laughed. "That's what makes beating that guy all that more satisfying! Right, Avice?"

"Yeah, no matter how high his Life Points are they won't be enough to protect him from our power!" Avice nodded. _I can't believe that she agreed!_

"I activate the effect of _Dark Contract with the Gate_ to add _D/D Savant Thomas_ to my hand! Then I activate the effect of my other _Dark Contract with the Gate_ and add _D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok_ to my hand."

Oh come on! Three cards at once again?! I must say that those D/Ds were ridiculously overpowered. No wonder that this guy stays inside his office all day, no one in this world would want to be friends with someone who could easily handle their ass on a golden plate in a duel!

"Grand power which shakes my very soul! Arise within me and become a new light that rends the darkness. Pendulum Summon! Come before me, my monsters! _D/D Savant Thomas (Lv8, ATK: 1800)_ and _D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok_ (Lv8, ATK: 2200)!"

A golden microscope with a robotic face and a hooded creature with horns and black bandages that sat on a demonic throne appeared on Reiji's field.

"I activate _D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok_ 's effect! If it's summoned I can Special Summon a D/D/D monster from my Graveyard! I target the _D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried_ that you had destroyed last turn!"

"Not so fast! I activate my trap, **Oracle Sister – Art of Exorcism**!" I shouted as my trap flipped face-up showing a witch taking cover from a blowing up vat. "This card negates the activation of a card's effect and shuffles it back into the deck!"

 **Oracle Sister – Art of Exorcism (Trap) Counter**

 **When a card or effect is activated: Negate the activation and if you do, shuffle it into the deck. After this effect resolves: You can reveal 1 "Oracle Sister" monster in your hand, target 1 face-up monster on the field; banish that target, then Special Summon the revealed monster.**

"So you had a counter for that." Reiji said casually as he shuffle his monster into the deck. "But could you counter this? I overlay my Level 8 D _/D Savant Thomas_ and _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon_!"

The two monsters started glowing purple and flew into the black hole that appeared on the ground, after which a column of light bursted from it and a new monster descended.

" _When two suns rise, the horizon of a new world shall open up! Xyz Summon! Appear and come forth, Rank 8! D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga (Rank8, ATK: 3500)!_ " Reiji chanted as a demon that wore red armor over a black robe appeared on the field, sitting on its throne.

"When _D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga_ is Xyz summoned the effects of all face-up cards currently on the field are negated!" A purple electricity appeared around my and Evan's Kuri monsters causing them to bounce back in pain. "Now the effects that protected you from my attacks are negated! Battle! _D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga_ attack _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_! _Twin Break Shot_!"

The eyes of Reiji's monster started glowing and it fired a dark beam toward our monster. But even if that attack collided Sola Starlit still has 3000 ATK so the damage would be just 500. Then Tempest Sina who is in Defense Position will defend us from the remaining attack. We were still in this! Unless that's what I thought until Reiji found another Action Card.

"I activate the Action Card – _Zero Penalty_! Its effect changes the ATK of Sola Starlit to 0!"

"Tch, I was hoping to safe that for later, but you give me no other choice, I activate my Trap Card, **Holy Barrier – Invariant Force**!" Avice pointed out as the trap flipped face-up; its artwork showing Dark Grepher and Lightray Grepher attacking each other. "Its effect protects my cards from being destroyed and at the cost of banishing a LIGHT monster from my hand I can reduce all Battle Damage I take this turn to 0!"

 **Holy Barrier – Invariant Force (Trap) Normal**

 **Cards you control cannot be destroyed this turn. You can banish 1 LIGHT monster from your hand, and if you do, you take no battle damage from your opponent's monsters this turn.**

A white barrier appeared before my sister's monster and reflected the attack toward a wall. I won't lie, I was a bit scared that we were going to lose there. Ugh, why did I actually care about the duel anyway? I need to get out of this world ASAP!

"I set a card. Turn End." I have a really bad feeling about this card!

"Kurigear's effect ends and its sent to the Graveyard." Evan reminded.

"Now the effect of Sola wears off as well returning her ATK to 2500. So now we took care of the monster that negates our effects." Avice said. "You know where to aim next, right bro?"

"You bet I do!" Evan laughed. "Here it goes! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **8** **[** **Evan** **] LP:** **700** **, Hand:** **4** **』**

"Good." Evan nodded. "I play the Quick Spell, Double Cyclone! This spell lets me destroy a Spell or Trap from both sides of the field! I will go with _Oracle Sister of Lofty –_ Salome and that face-down card f yours!"

Two typhoons shot from Evan's card, destroying both the Pendulum Scale and the face-down card which turned out to be Dark Contract with the Witch. Woah, it's amazing how fast those two come up with a solution for, wait…

"Is it me or you two actually have exactly the cards you need to counter the exact thing in the exact moment?" I asked.

"I guess you could say that we were lucky." Evan answered. "Simple, if nothing else works just believe in top decking and miracles happen, like this one for instance! I use the Scale Eight, _ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy_ to complete the Pendulum Scale! With this I'm able to Pendulum Summon monsters from Level 3 to 7 without problem! Come forth! Supreme Devil King, _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv6, ATK: 2500)_!"

A red thunder stuck the field and Evan's ace descended on the field with his hands crossed and his eyes glowed a sinister red.

"Phantomus' effect activates! When he is Pendulum Summoned I can reduce the ATK of all monsters the opponent controls by 500! _**Chain of Degrading Souls**_!" Evan's monster raised his hand forward Reiji's and a black mist formed around their necks causing them to gasp in pain as their ATKs got reduced to 2300 and 3000. "To finish the preparations, I activate Phantomus other effect! Once per turn he can copy the effect of a face-up monster in my Extra Deck and I choose ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost's effect! _**Cursed Void Absorb**_!"

"Now your monster is able to negate any card's effect until the end of this turn." Reiji realized.

"That's right! So there is no point to go looking for Action Cards! Go Phantomus! Slay down _D/D/D Oracle King - d'Arc_! _Double Void Slash_!"

 **『** **Reiji** **LP:** **1265** **0** **\- 12450** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

"I set a card and end my turn." Evan stated. "Now the ATK of your monster will return to normal."

"Then I will use this moment to activate _D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga'_ s effect! During either player's turn I can detach an Overlay Unit to destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field!"

"I use the Timefrozer Ghost effect that Phantomus has inherited to negate it!"

" _D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga_ 's effect cannot be negated!"

"Figured that this could be the case." Evan sighed. "Then I will use _Wolfy_ 's effect to protect my face-down from being destroyed this turn!"

"And I will use my Trap Card, _Universal Compass_ to banish Sola Starlit until our next Standby Phase and inflict her ATK as damage to you!" Avice added.

"I activate _D/D Savant Newton_ 's Pendulum Effect! If a Trap that would inflict damage to me is activated I can negate it, then I have to destroy _D/D Savant Newton_!"

After this a shockwave shook the entire field, destroying all other Spell and Traps on the field as well as my Kuri monster which was an Equip Spell at the time of the effect.

"My turn!" Reiji shouted as he drew his card.

 **『** **Turn** **9** **[** **Reiji]** **LP:** **12650** **, Hand:** **1** **』**

"I play the Spell, _Illegal Dark Contract with the War God_ to reduce Sola Starlit's ATK by 1000 and raise _Kali Yuga_ 's by the same amount!"

 _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph's ATK: 2500 – 1500_

 _D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga's ATK: 3500 – 4500_

"Battle! _D/D/D Twin Dawn King Kali Yuga_ attack Sola Starlit and destroy them!"

"I activate Kuriborn's effect in my Graveyard!" I stated as the monster's spirit appeared before my sister's ace and took the attack. "I shuffle it into my deck to negate Sola's destruction and halve the damage!"

"The difference in their ATK is 3000!" Reiji pointed out. "Half of that is 1500 and your Life Points are just 700! It's over!"

He was right, even halved the damage was too much to withstand. I felt that the ground beneath me started to shake and the strength of the attack tried to push me off my feet. I looked at the screen of my Duel Disk and saw something unexpected. Just then Kuriborn cried out and the attack pierced through it. I cried out as the power threw me into the air just to crash down a moment later.

 **『** **Evan** **LP:** **320** **0** **\- 1700** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

"So that was the trap that you set last turn." Reiji said as adjusted his glasses.

"Yeah." Evan stepped before me with a card glowing beside him. "The Trap Card, _**Chronical Clock**_! This card banishes a Dark monster on my field until the next Standby Phase and increases our Life Points by the same amount! No matter how strong of a duelist you are, Akaba Reiji, even you could never gasp the full power of time and space!"

"Is that so? But I haven't seen you show any kind of power. All you were doing from the start of this duel was protecting yourselves! But now I your chance to show me the full extent of your ability! I end my turn!"

"It's your move, sis." Evan turned toward me and nodded.

"Remember, we are here to make a point and show the strength of our bond!" Avice told me.

I nodded and put a hand on my Duel Disk. This was the moment of truth. Could I turn this duel around, or is everything going to end? My hands were trembling, but I couldn't tell if it was due to fear of from excitement. I was never a perfect Duelist or a good gamer like my siblings and wasn't a big fan of those activities either. But for some reason, when I dueled with Evan and Avice beside me, I felt strangely happy. Even if the outcome of this Duel didn't matter I wanted to give my best.

"My turn." I closed my eyes and focused on the card I wanted to draw. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **10** **[** **Elizabeth** **] LP:** **1700** **, Hand:** **1** **』**

"No way!" My eyes widened as I looked at the card that I just drew. "That, that's not what I need right now! How am I supposed to with this?!"

"Are you really saying that now?" Yuki appeared beside me and crossed her hands. "Now, that all of the pieces have come together?!"

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Don't you realize it by now? Look at Sina, don't you see it in her eyes? After such an amazing duel, after facing such a fearsome force, don't you realize what she wants?"

What my monster wanted? I narrowed my eyes and turned toward Sina. Our eyes meet and I felt a strange sensation in my chest. Then something unexpected happened and I felt a new presence. A new figure was standing before me as a blue pendulum swinging between us, lighting up its face which was…

"I understand." I said.

Yuki nodded and disappeared. I knew what Sina wanted, it was the same thing that I did. This was it, the moment of truth…

"Brother. Sister." I turned toward them. "I found a way for us to win, but for that I will need your support."

"And what are you waiting for?" Evan smiled.

"Don't tell us about it. Just act! That's what we were preparing for the entire time!" Avice added.

"Yeah." I nodded. "This is it Reiji! You insisted on seeing our true strength saying that protecting each other was just cowardliness, but you are wrong! It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't protect what's dear for you! The dearest thing for me are Evan and sister and with their support I will show you want mere bonds can do! I overlay the level six Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer!"

The three monsters all turned into different colored beams of light that shot into the air as a portal appeared on the ceiling and they got sucked inside. A blue lighting then burst out and hit the ground behind me.

" _Brilliant deity of this trembling world, give a smile that breaks darkness and bring forth an unyielding hope! Xyz Summon! Rank 6! Grand performed crossing space and time!_ _ **Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer**_ _!_ "

A large object that was shaped like a beating dark heart appeared on my field with the orbs orbiting around it. The creature then started to change shape as light shot from the sides and reformed into hands and legs. The upper side then divided into two pieces and the head of a girl pooped out. Her hair was pink and long, curving to the sides behind her as various colors flowed through it, giving out the feeling that you are watching the rainbow itself. Her eyes were glowing yellow and there was a blue drawn moon on her left cheek.

After that the heart she was contained in started to become smaller as the parts started to fit her better, following the curves of her body. The outfit then changed color as well, turning from black to light brown; a purple stripe ran down the right side and a heart-shaped accessory of the same color formed on her right shoulder while a golden one did the same on the left side with a larger heart forming around the shoulder like an armor. Pink, heart-shaped buttons appeared on the back of her wrist and on her knees after which that a dark blue belt wrapped itself around her waist with the ends floating behind her forming a circle. The girl put her hands together and a golden want appeared out of thin air with a large pink crystal shaped as a heart sat on the head with a purple and yellow fabric flailed behind it in the form of an angel and a demon's wing respectively.

 **Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer**

 **Rank** **:** **6** **|Attribute:** **EARTH** **|Type:** **Spellcaster** **/** **Xyz/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **3000** **DEF: 2** **5** **00**

 **3 Level 6 monsters**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Xyz Summoned it gains these effects depending on the number of monsters with different Attribute used as Xyz Materials.**

 **1 or more: When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can activate this effect; gain LP equal to that amount.**

 **2 or more: Your opponent cannot activate Spell Cards during the Battle Phase.**

 **3: Once per turn: You can detach all Xyz Materials from this card; shuffle all cards in both players' hands, Graveyards and on the field (other than this card) into the Deck, then this card gains 300 ATK for each, until the end of this turn.**

"Now that the main star of today's show is on the field everyone prepare to witness the greatest magical trick of all times!" I smiled and bowed. "Within the next minute this whole duel will return to zero!"

"What?" Reiji asked in surprise.

"You see, Eden Sina has the ability to infuse the powers of Sola and Phantomus that reside in her soul and use them to create the greatest show for her audience!" I answered. "But why telling you with words when I can show it! I activate Sina's effect! I detach all of her Xyz Materials to return all other cards that are in our hands, fields and Graveyards back into the deck! _**World Triple**_!"

Sina smiled and flew into the air absorbing all of her Xyz Materials into her heart, then she swung her staff and a clock formed behind, glowing like a star that erased everything else that was on the field. The clock arrows began to move backward and waves of colorful energy was unleashed from my monster's wand and flew around us, making circles or taking the form of a smiling face as if it was alive. At the same time the whole field started to change its appearance, becoming orange, then pink, and then blue and so on while it began to move backward but without affecting us. Finally the energy around us began to morph with the cards on and in our Duel Disks as the spirit forms of _Chrono Phantomus_ , _Tempest Sina_ , _Sola Starlit_ , _Doom King Armageddon_ and all other monsters that were used during this duel appeared on the field and show toward the sky as rainbows of various colors and kinds.

"Now, Eden Sina gains 300 ATK for each card we returned to the deck by this effect!" I finished and my monster began to glow as her ATK raised.

 _Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer's ATK:_ _30_ _00 – 1_ _17_ _00_

"Battle! _Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer_ , attack Reiji directly! _Triple Void Ray_!"

My monster swung her staff which began glowing as she leaned into the air and fired a homing laser toward Reiji. The power of the attack was so powerful that I had to hide my eyes, but that didn't stop me from noticing that the field around us had started glitching.

 **『** **Reiji** **LP:** **12650 - 950** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

 **『** **Elizabeth** **LP:** **170** **0** **\- 13400** **, Hand:** **0** **』**

"Duel Terminated!" I computer voice suddenly alerted us and all the lights in the room turned off as the field and my monster disappeared as well.

"What just happened?" Evan asked and put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, are you ok? You look somewhat pale."

"I'm fine." I told him. Not sure why, but summoning Sina's Xyz version drained a lot of my energy.

"It's just like I suspected." Reiji said and removed his Duel Disk.

"What did you suspected?" Evan raised an eyebrow.

"The amount of energy your cards can generated is far too much for the system to handle even with all of the updates I had made for this duel." Reiji answered. "If such destructive power were to fall into the hands of our enemies… That's why I want my team to research your decks."

"Well, we already gave our permission for that as long as we are in control of this little side project of yours. We don't know all of the secrets of our decks either, but if there is something I can warn you about that is that they are very good at recognizing their owner and if someone that isn't us tries to use then, don't expect anything less but the worst to happen."

Reiji didn't say anything else. He simply nodded, turned around and left the three of us alone on the field. I didn't know what to say about this myself. How exactly did Evan know all of this? Had he actually witnessed something like that happening? Was he just trying to scare Reiji to make sure that LDS won't try to steal or cards? I wanted to believe that it was the second one, but his expression - so serious and cold – told me the truth that I didn't want to know. It was the polar opposite of the smiling one that I saw during the duel, the one I remember from back the days when he and Avice taught me how to duel on YGOPro. Was that what our life in this world would be like from now on? An endless battle for survival?

* * *

 **(Omake)**

 **Black Cat & White Bunny**

Elizabeth was alone in the living room of the apartment, singing a happy tune, mopping the floor. The place needed to be cleared every so often, but Evan and Avice weren't home and this difficult task was left for her and Oni. She wasn't really mad that her siblings left her to do the chores since most of the time they would hinder the work instead of speeding it up.

Elizabeth finished and wipe the sweat off her forehead as she observed the job she has done. The room was practically shinning from cleanliness. Clearing the house really wasn't an easy job so seeing such great results made her feel a bit more significant. Although she wasn't such a great duelist and strategic as her siblings she felt pride knowing that there was something she could do that they didn't.

"Neechan!" Oni's sudden cry echoed through the apartment as the little girl came running with tears in her eyes. "Monsters! There were monsters!" She shouted as she hide behind the older girl. "They were under the bed and… and… their eyes glowed… they hissed and… there are monsters!"

"Calm down, calm down." Elizabeth patted the girl on the head. "I'm sure that there is a simple and logical explanation to what you saw. Tell me, where were those monsters?"

Oni looked up with tears in her eyes before pointing toward the corridor. "They are hiding under niichan's bed!"

"Ok, ok." Elizabeth replied and went to check.

There was no possible way that there could be monsters, she probably had just seen a spider or something like that and got scared. Well, that's what Elizabeth was thinking until she reached the room and began to hear a strange sound. It was almost like a… game soundtrack.

Elizabeth's left eyebrow twitched as she realized what was going on. Tip-topping she made her way to the bed and lifting the blankets that surrounded the bed she bend down… Meeting the familiar faces of Evan and Avice, illuminated by the lights of their tablets.

"Is that where you two were hiding since the morning?!" Elizabeth shouted in disbelieve, her face red from anger. "Get out of there! Now!" She continued as she reached out to grab her brother's tablet.

"Hish!" Only to quickly recoil as the teen tried to bite her hand.

"What the heck?! You were going to bite my hand off!" She yelled and turned toward Avice. "Then you give it!"

"Hiiissshhhhh!" Elizabeth yelped and fell on her rear, holding her bleeding hand. "Y-you scratched me?! That's it! I'm done! Here come the big guns!"

Soon after Elizabeth was standing over the occupied bed which one also had a red sign reading 'Don't disturb!'

"Hehehe, it's over now." Elizabeth giggled as she took her secret weapon - a mouse toy – and put it on the ground, facing the bed. "Now it's going to get bloody" She clicked on its back and the little creature dashed toward its target.

A moment and…

"OH GOD THERE IS A MOUSE IN HERE!"

"KYYYYAAAAAAA!"

The bed trembled as painful groans and moans came underneath it after which two blurs, one black and one white dashed out of the room faster than a human eye could follow. Elizabeth smiled triumphantly as the toy came from underneath the bed and she took it in her hand.

"It works every time."

* * *

 **Avice: And our reviews today!**

 **Chapter** **16: The Different Shades of Xyz**

Summary: Although Kurosaki had joined LDS and stopped his assault, the school still keeps getting reports about disappearing students and teachers. Believing in the existence of another cuprite Levant and Ventus request the aid of Kurosaki to find and stop the person behind the attacks. However what they find out is…

 **Avice: Literally the same thing?! You aren't even trying, are you?**

 **This thing is already long enough without those!**

* * *

 **So, I know that the chapter was kinda... meh. The reason about why Reiji dueled those three may seem kinda lacking, but, why wouldn't he do this really? And more if that means new shinning weapons/cards for the Lancers?**

 **So as I already mentioned and you saw yourself... if... you are reading this... the duel was pretty long so if there is any missplay or a poor move on Reiji's side, please tell me, but also keep in mind that A) I use anime effects and B) This was, after all, an Action Duel so you can't be completely sure that if he made a different move it would actually change anything, hehehe.**

 **Also I know that he doesn't run a Foolish Burial but it turned out that D/D Night Howl summons only from Graveyard and I had to rewrite the whole segment.**

 **Again ending with VRAINS news, the Knights of Hanoi are so cool! Though I didn't expect Topologic Bomber Dragon's owner to be so scary. Also all those new characters that were announced today, just woah! The hype is over 9000!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Avice: You did it again.**

 **...**

 **Avice: Why? Why do you keep doing this?!**

 **...Sorry.**

 **Avice: Why must you make everyone suffer through another 20 pages?!**

 **It just came! I couldn't control it!**

 **Avice: Whatever. Anyway, hope that you guys will ... enjoy this chapter? But for those of you who had readed the original version of Arc-Tracers knows as Arc-Twins, well, you will find out why I brought that up soon enough.**

* * *

 _(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**  
 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**  
 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;  
** _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**  
 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,  
** _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**  
 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

The Different Shades of Xyz

Levant smiled at the scent of breakfast as he put a cup of green tea and plate with toast and fried eggs on the table in his kitchen. It wasn't often that he got the chance to enjoy some peace and quiet with everything that was going on. Because his and Ventus' knowledge about the Dimensions they were given a task by Reiji almost every day while also hunting down Fragments and preparing an army of Tracers for Grelyson to use in their fight against the darkness.

But his hopes quickly disappeared as his Duel Disk started to vibrate showing that he had gotten a message. Levant put down the toast that he had started eating and took the device to see what it was about. It was a message from Leo Corporation which called both him and Ventus to get there as fast as possible and it also mentioned something about LDS' newest student, Shun not showing up yesterday. The two things were definitely connected, which would mean that the Xyz Duelist was doing something that he wasn't supposed to do. Or something that he was supposed to do only in this timeline. It was difficult to understand how the whole timeline thing worked.

Still, Levant deleted the letter as soon as he read it to remove all of the evidence and leaned against the back of his chair. Yesterday he had talked with those crazy siblings and Elizabeth said something about them being invited to talk with Reiji about business, so he should probably have to deal with them as well, which wasn't a very charming idea, mostly due to that dark vide that was coming out of the oldest one, Evan. There was something very strange about him and Avice; their aura was different from that of Ventus and Elizabeth who were Tracers as well. Today was going to be another tiring day for sure.

"Hey what are you doing?!"

A voice yelled causing Levant to spring up, grab the kitchen knife that was next to him and turn around ready to attack.

"Hey, hey!" Ventus shouted and jumped backward, dodging the attack. "You almost cut off my head, man! That's not cool at all! I need it in order to see and think. And to life as well, yeah, that one too. You almost killed me! We are comrades, remember?!"

Levant clicked his tongue annoyed. Damn why did he have miss this one. He could have ruled it as an accidental death. Levant put down his knife and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. A Tracer couldn't afford to be careless even for a moment or else the Fragments would kill them. No matter if you are at home or not, if you are awake or asleep, those nasty creatures will come and end your life before anyone even realize their presence. But on the positive side, Ventus just taught him that he needed to work a bit more on how to handle a knife.

"Are you ok, man?" Ventus asked a bit worried.

"I'm fine." Levant waved a hand. "What did you expected anyway? You surprised me by showing up like that. Why did you come here anyway? Actually, how did you get inside? The door should be locked!"

"A ninja never tells his secrets." Ventus answered putting a hand over his mask while looking left and right. "Though you should better buy a new window for the bathroom. My ninja senses are telling me that it's a bit broken, hehe."

Ok, not a knife, he needed to learn how to handle an axe as it had a bit of a longer range. But Levant sent this awesome idea to the back of his head for now and sat back down. He wasn't going to sacrifice his breakfast because a company that he didn't like in the first place had a small crisis and needed someone else to clear up its mess.

"Oh is that toast?" Ventus sat down. "And fried eggs? Man, I'm starving! I got here right after the Leo Corporation send me that letter, didn't even have a chance to eat. Hmh, yummy~!"

Levant put down his fork and knife and just watched how his breakfast disappeared from the table as fast as if it was running away from a nuclear bomb.

"Hey won't you eat something before we go?"

"I will be fine."

* * *

Now long after the two had made it to the Leo Corporation's building are were told to go to the room which Reiji used to supervise the whole city and everything that happened in it. As Levant suspected the president himself was already there, observing the cameras and giving out orders. The workers were doing their job much faster than at any other occasion so things must be much more serious that they were before. The two Otherworldly Duelists stepped beside Reiji's chair and looked at the screen before them which showed a person that wore the LDS employer uniform getting engulfed into a ray of blue light after which a hooded person came into view and took a card from the ground.

"Did they just card that person?!" Ventus shouted.

"Indeed, one of our elite duelists, Renzo Katsura. The card was delivered yesterday night by an anonymous sender." Reiji explained with a calm and collected tone. "The way it was done is the same as with Tio and Professor Marco."

"You are suspecting this to be Shun's work." Levant replied. "Since he was the one who sent the previous cards you are suspecting him to have betrayed us, aren't you?"

"I don't believe this to be his doing." Reiji's said, coughing the grey haired boy by surprise. "If Kurosaki had something against me he would have come and challenged me head on now as he knows that I won't try to hide or run. If he wanted to lure me he would do it in a more obvious way. Also, the figure on the screen has a different body build than Kurosaki."

"So why did you mention him in the message that you sent us if you are already sure that he isn't the culprit?"

"The person who has targeted the LDS this time does it the same way as how Kurosaki tried before. I'm sure that this isn't a coincidence and that whoever stands behind the attack has known Kurosaki." Reiji said. "They know what they are doing; trying to turn us against one another."

"Hey, if memory serves me right, all of Kurosaki's attacks were outside the camera's range which made it so hard to figure out who he was." Ventus added.

"Indeed, so this is a completely different person." Levant nodded. "They are using the same Duel Disk model as Kurosaki and the Phantom Duelist, but their style isn't quite like theirs. And what is going to be our job this time, President?"

"As the Maiami is closing in we can't afford to lose any more people to this case." Reiji started. "Everyone of the staff, including me, is needed for the organization and preparation of the tournament and Kurosaki himself isn't answering to any of our calls so he must be involved in this as well. Because of that I want the two of you to find the attacker and neutralize them."

"But didn't you just say that he is innocent?" Ventus asked.

"Yes, I believe that Kurosaki isn't the one doing the attacks." Reiji replied. "But because the culprit seems to be trying to make us think otherwise it's highly possible that the reason behind those attacks is to lure out Kurosaki by making it seem like he is the guilty one."

"You are worried that he may have taken the bite?" Levant titled his head.

"Kurosaki has enough combat experience to not fall for such a weak trick, but since the culprit is another Xyz Duelist whose abilities are unknown to us I'm thinking that he has probably gone after the attacked by himself."

"Well, he does seem to like working alone. Ok, we will deal with that."

After that Ventus and Levant bowed and left the room. This definitely didn't happen in the canon universe where the only people from Xyz who had crossed dimensions were Kurosaki and Yuto. This worried the Otherworldly duelists because it meant that this there was involved a third person that they knew absolutely nothing about. In fact, it could be a Fragment and not a human. And no matter who or what the culprit was, the biggest problem would be finding them in such a huge city with no outside help or knowledge.

Regardless, someone had to do that job and it just so happened that these two were the perfect candidates. So far, they were ones of the very few Tracers that worked with Akaba Reiji and actually cared about the future of this timeline.

Ventus and Levant entered the elevator and started doing their own thing while waiting for it to reach the first floor. The ninja duelist was leaning against the wall with crossed hands while the grey haired boy was doing something with his Duel Disk.

"Can you believe it man? We are going to fight a criminal!" Ventus shouted existed. "We are warriors of justice now! That's so cool!"

"Before that we will need to find him." Levant reminded him while working on his D-Pad. "Our Duel Disks has a tracking system, but I have no idea what to track with it."

"Isn't there another way to do it?"

"Other than playing detectives? Well, I'm trying to figure out if this device can catch the frequency of Kurosaki's Duel Disk. Since the Xyz Dimension use a different type the trick would work, but… No. It doesn't have this kind of function. Damn it."

"Ho, so it seems that the culprit has thought about that as well? So they aren't some amateur criminal, but worry not for I, the warrior of justice Ventus, am here!" Ventus shouted clenching his fist and lowering his head.

Thankfully the door of the elevator opened and allowed Levant to make a quick dash for it. While Ventus was a very productive duelist his personality was a bit too over-the-top which often irritated the more peace loving half of this strange duo.

So, as Ventus continued his speech about being a 'warrior of justice' and such, Levant noticed four familiar faces approaching them. It was the three siblings and the girl that followed them; just great more problematic people to put up with. At least this time around it was going to be Reiji the one dealing with them, so that made the grey haired boy smile a bit.

"Took you long enough to show up." Levant said with a casual tone.

"Hey, we just woke up and came here! We didn't even have time to eat breakfast because of this!" Evan replied with a sharp smirk.

"I see, well, have a good time." Levant replied and opened the elevator.

"Wait, you aren't coming with us?" Avice asked.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Ventus waved his hands then clenched them into a fist and looked down just like before. "While you chat with Reiji, I and Levant will go out to bring justice."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaahhh." Evan trailed out as he pushed the rest of his family into the elevator. "Have a good time with that and if you ever get in any trouble remember to call… literally anyone else but not me! Bye, bye!"

With that he slammed the elevator's door before the other two Tracer's faces in a rather rude manner. Levant shook his head to express his unpleasantness at how surly the other Tracers in this world were. What happened with the times when men were gentlemen and women were ladies?

"That was just rude." Levant commented then turned on his heel, and went toward the exit of the building.

* * *

"So why exactly did we came here?"

Levant's eyes rolled at his partner's question. The two were currently on the location from the footage that Reiji had showed them, looking for any clues that they could use to locate the culprit's whereabouts, but other that the deep cuts on the walls of the buildings there was nothing else to indicate that something had happened there. There weren't many options about how to do the job in the first place; Kurosaki didn't really use the apartment that Reiji gave him so this was the only place that could hold some traces about where the Xyz residents were, yet there was absolutely nothing useful.

Or so Levant thought until his gaze landed on a very interesting and easily to miss small blue crystal that was lying on the ground. It was so small that the Otherworldly Duelist had to carefully move it with just the tip of his finger to make sure that it won't shatter, but it all paid off because there was an even smaller, black dot on the ground beneath that seemed to have been burned by something very, very small.

"Bingo." Levant smirked and took out his D-Pad.

"Hmm? Did you win something?" Ventus asked and stepped beside his friend. "Err, what are you doing with this?"

"Do you know how our Duel Disk locate Fragments?" Levant asked.

"Um, do I need to?"

"Listen, we Tracers, just like Fragments, hold a certain amount of a special substance inside of us body that bounds us to this timeline and gives us our current appearance. It's exactly that what our Duel Disks catch when they warn us about nearby enemies. The trick is that Tracers have far less of that substance in their body and the radiation that comes out of us is far weaker and the device is programmed to activate only if that limit is surpassed."

"So you are reprograming it!" Ventus with his palm with a fist.

"Exactly." Levant nodded and soon the screen of the Duel Disk turned to a map that showed two glowing red dots and a line that extended beyond the coverage of the map. "And it's done! Now, because the radiation that is being radiated from our bodies' remains for half a day you could say that we found the steps of the culprit."

"So you two aren't from this dimension either."

Levant and Ventus gazes sharpened as they looked up and saw Kurosaki standing not far away, staring at the two with such a cold look in his eyes that it made them feel uneasy. It wasn't a secret that they were from a completely different reality, in fact Reiji already knew that and that's why he trusted them with operations that involved other possible Interdimensional guests. The problem was that since there were dimensions that really didn't like one another – Xyz and Fusion – if they were to mistake the two for agents of the opposite side thing would get dirty and that's the last thing Levant wanted to deal with.

"Yeah and we work for Reiji." Ventus classified. "I don't know if you remember us but we learned that you are going to join the Lancers as well."

"Akaba Reiji send us to find you." Levant added as he stood back up. "Have you heard that someone else has started to attack LDS?"

"Yes, I did." Shun nodded. "That's… something that I'm trying to figure out as well. You two shouldn't interfere with it."

"Everyone from LDS already knows that there were two separate people who did the past attacks on students and staff." Levant shared causing Kurosaki's eyes to widen in surprise. "We already know that you didn't come to Standard alone and that you are currently trying to find your friend. Am I wrong?"

Kurosaki's glare sharpened but he eventually sighed. "For two days now I was trying to contact my comrades but none of them answered back. I also tried to look for them at the spots where they usually are, but there was no one."

"Well, I think I found a way to track them down." Levant replied. "But are you sure that nothing strange had happened before they disappeared?"

"I talked with my best friend not long before they disappeared. He told me that something strange was going on and asked for my help. I'm starting to think that something had happened to them."

"I think I have an idea about what that could be." Levant nodded. "If I'm right then the reason why your friends disappeared lies in something that I and Ventus have the needed equipment and knowledge to deal with. I know that you are a lone work but if you want to get your friends back you will need to put up with us for this one."

Shun didn't gave a response and just stepped toward them. Ventus glanced toward Levant who gave an affirmative nod and the three headed toward where the Duel Disk was telling them to go.

* * *

"Well, now that's a bad thing to happen."

Levant sighed a bit irritated due to the trait they had to follow reached the docks where it suddenly split into two. This wasn't strange for the grey haired duelist because he remembered that the only other person that came with Kurosaki was Yuto and according to this it meant that both Shun's missing comrade and the Fragment that is responsible for it were close by.

"Well, time to split up I guess." Levant turned to his companions. "I guess you two could take one path while I take the other."

"Nah, Kurosaki can come with you." Ventus replied and ran ahead. "Ninjas work better alone than in groups."

"You didn't let me calibrate your Duel Disk!" Levant shouted after, but it was too late. "Tch, he never listens to me anyway. So I guess that it's up to us to do the rest. Right Kurosaki? Kurosaki?!"

Levant started swinging his head left and right as the Xyz Remnant that was next to him has suddenly disappeared, but thankfully he found him walking down the other alley and ran after him.

"Hey you can't just walk on your own!" Levant shouted.

"I'm going to deal with the rest." Shun replied. "Someone like you would just get in my way."

"Didn't you listen to what I said before?! Only I and Ventus know what is going on! Even if you find them the most you could do is made them to attack and possibly kill you!"

"My comrades would never do such a thing."

"Oh they will." At this Shun turned around and grabbed Levant by the collar.

"You don't know anything about us! Even if we don't always agree with one another my comrades would never betray me! Only we know what each one of us had lost! We came here with the same purpose so if you dare talk about them again I will…"'

"You are a real idiot." Levant replied and slapped Shun's hand causing the Xyz Duelist to drop him. "They won't be able to really recognize you! Because right now your friends are probably brainwashed into thinking something completely different! They were mean to lure you out and kill you!"

"How do you know all this?!"

"It's very simple actually." Levant answered. "There are things out there that are far more dangerous than Academia. Creatures that you could never defeat and that have the powers to control your mind. My Duel Disk is specially made to detect and destroy them, so when I say that you need me I really mean it."

Shun narrowed his eyes then he took out his own Duel Disk and put it on, activating it. For a moment Levant was afraid of what was going to happen next, but then he heard the sound of footsteps closing to their location and quickly put on his own Dueling device.

"Someone is coming." Levant said the obvious line.

"Actually there are five of them." Shun replied causing the former's eyes to widen.

That so wasn't part of the plan.

* * *

At the same time in a different part of the docks Ventus was walking slowly while maintaining a fighting stance and being mindful about any suspicious movements. Nothing had showed up so far expect for a black cat (hey it's Evan!), but the Ninja Duelist knew better than to let his guard down. He still remember the incident with that Malik doppelganger that almost killed him back then. He couldn't also say whenever that nagging sensation of being watched was because he was starting to get paranoid or because it was true.

"Who are you?!" Ventus flicked as a voice shouted and a duelist with black and purple hair suddenly stepped out of from the shadows. "You… you are from LDS right?!"

"Err…" Ventus smiled silly as he tried to come up with something.

"About time another one of you showed up." Another voice spoke and a girl with pink hair showed up.

"How are you doing this?" Ventus shouted, irritated. "Are you two ninjas as well?"

Yuto ignored the question and turned toward the girl. "What are you doing here, Koharu?"

"I couldn't just let you go out there on your own." She replied and looked down. "Not after that Kurosaki betrayed us and joined forces with Academia!"

"I think you are mistaken here." Ventus raised his hands to show that he means to harm.

"Shut up!" the girl yelled and activated her Duel Disk. " _ **He**_ already showed me to truth! LDS is indeed involved with Academia! And not just that, but it's working alongside You Show which is training Fusion Soldiers for another invasion!"

Ventus' only response to that was to active his Duel Disk. There was no point to try and talk with this girl right now as he could clearly see the blue lines on her neck. Levant had once told him that high class Fragments have the ability to mind control other people so that meant that right now Koharu, as Yuto called her, was just a puppet that executed someone's orders. As a warrior of justice he couldn't let such a crime go unpunished so he had to save the girl from the evil influence and then go and destroy the real villain who stood behind everything.

"Now we are talking." Koharu smirked and activated her own Duel Disk.

"Wait." Yuto shouted. "If you are going to duel then I will too!"

Koharu nodded and the two turned toward Ventus. "Then since it's going to be a 2 vs 1 you can get the first turn."

"Two versus one, huh?" a fourth voice said.

Ventus turned around and saw a guy approaching the three while holding his hands into the pockets of his jackets. The intruder had dark eyes, black hair whose sides and back jut upward in the shape of wings and there were green lines streaking down while the front arches down covering half of his left eye. He wore a black and yellow jacket over a grey shirt, black pants with yellow lines, and black shoes. But Ventus paid more mind to the smirk on the guy's face and he didn't know why, but he wanted to kick him in the face because of it.

"Hikaru!" Yuto and Koharu shouted in unison.

"So you remember me?" the boy said as he activated his own Duel Disk which was yellow body with a matching blade. "I'm so touched."

"Xyz Duel Disk…" Ventus mumbled.

"All this time you were alive…" Koharu said in disbelieve. "But why didn't you show up until now? Where have you been?!"

"Um, can I remind you that I don't know any of you?!" Ventus shouted.

"Don't worry, Tracer." Hikaru said causing the boy to glare at him. "You don't need to know who I am as none of you three is going to get out of here alive."

Ventus gritted his teeth underneath his mask. That guy didn't seem to be controlled by a Fragment yet he talked like that and knew about Tracers. Could he actually be one of them? But if that was the case then why did he just threatened to kill him? There were too many questions that needed an answer right now, and the situation was already too tight for any new ones to appear.

"Let's settle this with a Battle Royale!" Hikaru said entering the command in his Duel Disk.

"Duel!" all four of them yelled as the fight began.

 **『** **Koharu Hand: 5 & Yuto Hand: 5 (VS) Hikaru Hand: 5 LP: 4000 (VS) Ventus LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Ladies first." Koharu said as she drew her card. "I will start this off by activating the Continuous Spell, **Wishes Incorporated**! By its effect if I control no monster's I'm allowed to Special Summon one 'Wishes' monster from my hand! Come out, **Magician of Wishes**!"

 **Wishes Incorporated** (Spells) Continuous

 **Once per turn: if you control no monsters: Special Summon 1 "Wishes" monster from your hand. You cannot Special Summon any other monsters, except by Xyz Summon, during the turn you activate this effect.**

A humanoid figure made of light wearing a white costume with a golden chains floating behind its body appeared on the field and took a fighting stance.

 **Magician** **of Wishes**

 **Level: 4|Attribute: LIGHT|Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1** **500/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **Effect: An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card on the field as Xyz Material gains this effect.**

● **If it is Xyz Summoned:** **Inflict** **5** **00** **damage to your opponent** **.**

"Next I Normal Summon _Knight of Wishes (Lv4, ATK: 1600)_ and overlay my two Level 4 monsters!" Koharu shouted raising her hands into the air. Both of her monsters then turned into yellow energies and a portal opened in front of her as the monsters flew into it. Putting a hand on her chest Koharu then started to chant.

" _Hope, the enigmatic force that unites us, come as the courageous protector of dreams! Xyz Summon! Heavenly warrior of light! Rank 4,_ _ **King of Dreams, Hope**_ _!_ "

A beam of light shot from the portal and a large white warrior appeared on the field wearing a golden armor with four mechanical wings attached to its back. The monster's crimson eyes were glowing from behind its helmet as a halo flew over its head and two large swords were attached to its waist. Finally there were two orbs that circled around it to show that it was a Xyz Monster.

 **King of Dreams, Hope**

 **Rank** **: 4|Attribute: LIGHT|Type:** **Warrior** **/** **Xyz/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **25** **00/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **2 Level 4 monsters**

 **Effect:** **When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; that monster's ATK becomes 0 until the end of the turn, and if you do, it cannot be destroyed by that battle.**

"Then, Magician of Wishes effect activates! As it was used as material for a Xyz Summon I can inflict 500 points of damage to someone! I choose you, LDS scum!" Koharu shouted as a lighting stuck Ventus causing him to step back.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 4000 - 3500 Hand: 5** **』**

"Hey that's not fair!" Ventus protested.

"Since a player cannot attack on their first turn I will lie down those two face-downs and end my move." Koharu replied. "Your turn, Yuto!"

"Leave it to me." the boy nodded. "My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Yuto] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I will start by playing my traps, _Phantom Knights Dark Gauntlet_ and _Phantom Knights Shade Brigandine_!" Yuto shouted as two sets of dark knight armor appeared on his field as monsters with 600 and 800 DEF respectively. "Before anyone of you say anything, _Phantom Knights Dark Gauntlet_ 's effect allows me to activate it from my hand if I control no card and _Phantom Knights Shade Brigandine_ can be activated the turn its set if I have no other Traps in my Graveyard! Next, I overlay my two monsters!"

The two creatures turned into purple lights and flew into the black portal on the ground after which a purple lighting shot up.

" _Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs! Now, descend! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (Rank4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

As Yuto changed a pitch black dragon wearing heavy armor descended from the portal and flew into the air before landing behind its owner and letting out a vicious cry.

"Woah!" Ventus' eyes widen as he saw the monster in person.

"Then I set the rest of my cards. Turn end." Yuto declared as four cards formed before him for a second then disappeared.

"So both of you already called out your ace monsters, huh?" Hikaru said. "Then I should reply in kind. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Hikaru] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"You know, using your aces on the first turn against me wasn't very smart." Hikaru said. "I know both of their effects and how to take them down!"

"I don't know why you are like this." Yuto sighed and clenched his fist. "I have no idea why you are dueling against us right now, but you should remember that just like you know our decks, so we know yours!"

"That's a wrong assumption my friend." Hikaru replied. "You have no idea what I can do now! I activate the spell, _**Overlay Capture**_! I target one Xyz monster on the field and send all of its overlay units to the Graveyard! Then, if there is a monster among them I can Special Summon all of the monsters on my side of the field! You already know the target right, Koharu?"

The girl in question said nothing as the overlay units of her monster flew into a black portal that formed on the ground. Then the two monsters came out on Hikaru's side of the field.

 **Overlay Capture** (Spell) Normal

 **Target 1 Xyz monster your opponent controls that has Xyz Material; send all of its Xyz Materials to the Graveyard, and if you do, Special summon any monster among them to your side of the field. Those monsters can't attack during this turn or activate their effects.**

"Next I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Shock Overlay**_! I target Magician of Dreams and Special Summon my card as that monster!" Hikaru said as a copy of the spellcaster appeared on the field.

 **Shock Overlay** (Spell) Continuous

 **Activate this card by targeting 1 monster you control; Special summon this card as a Normal Monster with the same Type, Attribute, Level, ATK, and DEF as that target. (This card is also still a Spell Card.)**

"Then I overlay my three monsters!" Hikaru shouted and raised an arm into the air. The three monsters turned into streams of yellow energy and shot up in the sky as a galaxy-like portal appeared before him, as the three monsters went inside of.

" _The sky and earth will shake before the white demon's fury! Light with demonic origins, choose the path of an untamed beast feeding from the souls of sinners! Xyz Summon, Rank 4! The savage beast,_ _ **Shiroi Akuma**_ _ **-**_ _ **Berserk Leo**_ _!_ "

A yellow column of light shot into the sky. A giant muscular beast, resembling a werewolf stepped on the field. Two green orbs were staring from behind the golden mask of a lion. The beast's entire body was covered in golden armor with blue cracks on it, possessing spikes on the shoulders and the back of its arms. Its golden tail swung around and the tattered blue cloak on its back finished the horrific look of the creature.

 **Shiroi Akuma** **-** **Berserk Leo**

 **R** **ank: 4|** **Attribute:** **Light|** **Type:** **Thunder** **/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2700/DEF: 2700**

 **3 Level 4 LIGHT monsters**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn, At the end of the Damage Step: if this card attack a monster but did not destroy it by battle: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; This card can attack on the same target again and if it does, it gains 2700 ATK during the Damage Step only.**

"Next, _Magician of Wishes_ ' effect activates!" Hikaru continued. "This one is for you as well, Ninja Guy!"

Ventus sighed as another lighting hit him, causing him to yelp in pain as his Life Points fell further.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 3500 - 3000 Hand: 5** **』**

"You are still using the same deck." Yuto commented.

"Don't be so sure just yet." Hikaru replied. "I set a card and end my turn. Your move Ninja Guy."

"Finally!" Ventus shouted. "I don't know what's the problem between you try, getting hit by a lighting every time one of you play a card is getting irritating! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Ventus] LP: 3000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First I activate _Charge of the Light Brigade_!" Ventus shouted as the card appeared beside him. "By its effect I send the top three cards of my deck to the Graveyard to add the Level 4 - _Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress_ to my hand and summon it!"

A woman with black hair wearing a white and golden robe with a golden rod in her hand appeared on Ventus' field holding 1700 ATK.

"Next, her effect lets me destroy a Spell or Trap card on the field! I choose to destroy Yuto's most right face-down card!" Ventus said as his monster fired a blue laser at the card which shattered. "Next if she destroy a card with this effect _Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress_ changes to Defense Mode!"

"How do you know my name?" Yuto demanded.

"Focus on the duel." Hikaru reminded him. "Such negligence will cost you your life in this duel!"

"Next I play _Solar Recharge_!" Ventus said as another Spell Card appeared on his field. "I discard a Lightsworn monster to draw two cards and then sent the top two cards of my deck to the Graveyard! Next, I Special Summon _Wulf, Lightsworn Beast_ (Lv4, ATK: 2100) from my Graveyard by its own effect! After this I overlay my two level four monsters! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! _Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn (Rank4, ATK: 2000)_!"

Just like with the previous three duelists' when Ventus declared that he is going to Xyz Summon a portal opened before him and the two monsters entered it after which a girl with red hair wearing a white and golden robe with white wings appeared on the Ninja duelist' field.

"There is a big contradiction between duelist and deck with you, isn't it?" Hikaru smirked.

Ventus ignored the comment and continued his turn. "I activate Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn's effect! I use one of her Xyz Materials to send the top three cards of my deck to the graveyard and draw a card for each Lightsworn among them! The card I milled were _Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress_ , _Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden_ and _Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter_ so I draw three cards! Then I set four of them and end my turn!"

"So is that it?" Koharu put a hand on her hip. "First you destroyed my home and now you dare to use our summoning method! But no matter how much you try, your Xyz will never have the power of ours! My turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Koharu] LP: 4000, Hand: 1** **』**

"How nice, I play the Equip-Spell - _Xyz Unit_ and give its power to my _King of Wishes, Hope_ raising its ATK with 200 for every Rank that it has!" Koharu said as her monster's armor turned blue and its ATK raised to 3300.

"I have a bad feeling about that." Ventus said.

"Your feeling is right. She is totally pissed now." Hikaru said.

"Battle!" Koharu declared. "King of Wishes, Hope attack _Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn_! _**Raising Sun Blade**_!"

"Continuous Trap activate!" Ventus countered as his card flipped face-up. "Lightsworn Barrier negates any attack at the cost of milling two cards from my deck!"

A barrier formed around Ventus' monster protecting it from the attack. Good thing that he had this card, because if he didn't, even if Minerva's ability destroyed three cards on the field he would still be an open target for direct attacks for two more turns. Ventus sighed in relief as he sent the two cards to the graveyard, both of which were going to be very useful later on.

"Next I activate the effects of _Wulf, Lightsworn Beast_ and _Felis, Lightsworn Archer_ who were sent to the Graveyard and Special Summon them!" The two monsters appeared on Ventus' field with 2100 ATK and 2000 DEF respectively.

"Lucky one." Koharu clicked her tongue.

"It's my turn." Yuto said drawing his card.

 **『** **Turn 6 [Yuto] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I play The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch!" Yuto shouted. "Using Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon as material I Rank-Up my dragon into a monster one Rank higher!"

"That's the card I was waiting for!" Hikaru shouted. "Counter Trap, activate! _**Rank-Up-Counter Akuma Force**_ to negate your card's activation!"

 **Rank-Up-Counter Akuma Force** (Trap) Counter

 **If your opponent activate a "Rank-Up-Magic": Negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it, then target 1 "Shiroi Akuma" Xyz Monster you control; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Shiroi Akuma" monster that is 1 Rank higher than that target, by using that target as the Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.) The Special Summon of a monster by this card's effect cannot be negated.**

Both Yuto's and Koharu's eyes widened as the spell slowly started to crack until it completely shattered.

"You had a card like that?!" Yuto asked, shocked.

"I told you that my deck has changed didn't I? This card not only negates the activation of a Rank-Up card but then it lets me perform a Rank-Up! Let's go! I overlay my Rank 4, _Shiroi Akuma_ _-_ _Berserk Leo_!"

The golden lion let out a prideful roar as its body slowly began to crack with red veins showing up. After this the monster's armor began to glow and it exploded into a beam of light.

"I activate the trap, _Vanquishing Light_!" Ventus shouted. "I release _Felis, Lightsworn Archer_ to negate the summoning!"

"It's useless!" Hikaru laughed. "The summoning of a monster by the effect of _Rank-Up-Counter Akuma Force_ cannot be negated!"

"He had a card like this in his possession!" Koharu shouted shocked.

" _Above the ground and beyond Hell, the prey will never hide! The hunter of death pierce the sinners with your cursed arrow of light and engrave your fearsome name in this world! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Rank 5! The wild marksman,_ _ **Shiroi Akuma – Wild Archer**_ _!_ "

An orange column of light shot into the sky. A large warrior appeared on the field covered in an orange armor. Two yellow eyes were glowing from behind its helmet which covered its whole face. It hard two large golden rings attached to its back like wings with small crystals attached to its wrists. The warrior held a large brow that had the appearance of outspreaded wings and was decorated with a large, circular blue gem in the middle.

 **Shiroi Akuma** **–** **Wild Archer**

 **R** **ank:** **5** **Attribute:** **Light|** **Type:** **Thunder** **/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2** **8** **00/DEF: 2** **6** **00**

 **2** **Level** **5** **"** **Shiroi Akuma** **"** **monsters**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn,** **During either player's turn, if a card or effect is activated: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 Xyz Monster from your Graveyard, and if you do, negate its effect.** **If this card is Xyz Summoned by** **the effect of a** **"Rank-Up"** **card** **, it gains this effect.** **When this card is Xyz Summoned destroy all face-up Xyz Monsters on the field with a lower Rank than this card, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of their destroyed monster(s). Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this effect's activation.**

"Now I activate _Wild Archer_ 's effect!" Hikaru continued. "As it was summoned by the effect of a Rank-Up card I destroy all Xyz Monsters on the field with a lower Rank! _**Strong Arrow**_!"

Ventus looked down at his cards. What should he do? None of his remaining cards could help in this situation and protect his monster. The only remaining option was to bet it all on that trap and hope for the best. Ventus turned his head to the side as Wild Archer's arrow hit all Xyz Monsters on the field and destroyed them with huge explosions that sent the owner of the monsters rolling on the ground as their Life Points dropped drastically.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 - 700 Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Yuto LP: 4000 - 1500 Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Ventus LP: 3000 - 1000 Hand: 2** **』**

"So easy." Hikaru sighed. "It's been so long since I last saw the two of you. I expected you to have at least gotten a bit less pathetic, but you are still absolute weaklings."

"This duel is not over!" Ventus shouted as he stood up. " _Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn_ 's effect activates! Since she has been destroyed I mill the top three cards of my deck and for every Lightsworn among them I destroy a card on the field!"

"So you are going to bet on the three cards?" Hikaru raised an eyebrow then smirked. "Fine by me."

"But that's not all!" Ventus replied. "I also I chain the two Traps; _Light Spiral_ and _Lightsworn Judgment_! Light Spiral's effect – whenever a card is sent from the top of my deck to the Graveyard by the effect of a Lightsworn monster it banishes the top card of my opponent's deck! And then _Lightsworn Judgment_ 's effect – when its activated I put it on top of my deck! Next, Minerva mills the top three cards of my deck!"

"You annoying little…" Hikaru mumbled.

"Hehe. The cards I milled were _Lightsworn Judgment,_ _Jenis, Lightsworn Mender_ and _Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn_! I now use Minerva's effect to destroy Shiroi Akuma _Wild Archer_ , Yuto's most left set card and the weird girl's left set card!"

"Who do you call weird?!" Koharu shouted as a white portal opened around her card, which flipped face-up to show that it was _Utopian Aura_ before it shattered.

Yuto said nothing as the same thing happened with his _Phantom Knights' Fog Blade_ and Hikaru crossed his hands as a barrier formed around his monster and protected it from the card effect, much to everyone else's surprise.

"What?" The Shiroi Duelist asked. "I activated _**Shiroi Akuma**_ _ **– Sentry Lycanth**_ 's effect. When an effect is activated that would destroy a _Shiroi Akuma_ monster I can discard this card from my hand and negate the destruction."

 **Shiroi Akuma - Sentry Lycanth**

 **Level: 1** **Attribute: Light** **Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a "Shiroi Akuma" monster(s) you control: You can discard this card; "Shiroi Akuma" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects for the rest of this turn.**

"Due to _Lightsworn Judgment_ 's effect when it's sent to the Graveyard by the effect of a Lightsworn monster I can add a _Judgment Dragon_ from my deck to the hand." Ventus finished.

"Now then." Hikaru turned toward Yuto. "I believe that's all you could do, unless one of your set cards is Xyz Reborn, but who do I lie, you don't even run that card am I right?"

"You know our decks just as good as Shun does." Yuto replied. "Why did you disappeared without leaving a trace?"

"Um, we are in a duel here!" Ventus reminded them.

"He is right." Hikaru said and put a hand on top of his deck. "If you are going to waste your remaining time brambling do it somewhere else. My turn! Dra-"

"Wait!" Ventus raised a hand. "Before that at the End Phase _Jenis, Lightsworn Mender_ 's effect activates!"

"Her effect?" Hikaru said confused, then his eyes widened as he saw the ground underneath him began t glow. "Just great…."

Before the Xyz Duelist could have a time to react everything beneath him blow up, launching him into the sky.

"During the End Phase of the turn she was sent from the deck to the Graveyard _Jenis, Lightsworn Mender_ inflicts 500 damage to the opponent." Ventus explained as a warm blue aura formed around him. "And then I gain 500 Life Points!"

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 4000 - 3500 Hand: 2** **』**

 **『** **Ventus LP: 1000 - 1500 Hand: 2** **』**

"Yes!" Ventus shouted. "I drew blood!"

"Screw you too!" Hikaru hissed. "My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Hikaru] LP: 3500, Hand: 3** **』**

"First off I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Yūrei Barrier**_!" A card that showed various monsters made of differently colored armors appeared on the field. "This card raises the ATK of all Shiroi Akuma monsters I control by 200 and allows them to inflict piercing damage! Now, Wild Archer, finish off Koharu!"

 _ **Yūrei Barrier**_ (Spell) Continuous

 **All "Shiroi Akuma" monsters you control gain 200 ATK, also if a "Shiroi Akuma" monster you control attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

The monster's eyes began to glow as it jumped into the air and swung its bow before throwing it toward Koharu.

"You are as aggressive as always." Koharu replied. "I play my Trap, _Xyz Reborn_ to Special Summon _King of Wishes, Hope_ from my Graveyard!"

"But this time it's you who fell for it." Hikaru replied. "I activate Wild Archer's other effect! When an effect is activated I can detach a Xyz Material to Special Summon a Xyz Monster in my Graveyard and negate your effect. Come back, _Berserk Lion_!"

The named monster broke out from the ground beneath Koharu and sliced her card in two before returning to its owner's side of the field. At the same time Wild Archer's bow slashed the girl, launching her backward as the weapon flew back into the warrior's hands.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 700 - 0 Hand: 0** **』**

"Koharu!"

Yuto rushed toward his fallen comrade at which Hikaru chuckled and raised his hand toward Berserk Lion.

"This is a war boy, you can't save everyone." Hikaru said as he stroked his monster's chin. "Destroy him my pet."

In an instant Berserk Lion's eyes began to glow red as it roared and ran toward its target causing Yuto to stop in his tracks and turn around to face the beast.

"Stop that!" Yuto shouted. "I play my Double Trap, _The Phantom Knights of Lost Vambrace_! Their effect reduces the ATK of one monster by 600 and then Special Summon themselves in Attack Position!"

As the Phantom Duelist said that Berserk Lion's ATK dropped from 2900 to just 1700 as two sets of armor appeared on the field holding 600 ATK each.

"Whatever!" Hikaru shouted. "I continue my attack!"

Berserk Lion swung its claws toward one of the armors, knocking it back as the shockwave of the attack knocked Yuto on the ground.

 **『** **Yuto LP: 1500 - 400 Hand: 0** **』**

"Due to _The Phantom Knights of Lost Vambrace_ 's effect Phantom Knight monsters cannot be destroyed by battle this turn." Yuto groaned as he tried to stand up.

"Quick-Spell, _**Demon's Second Call**_!" Hikaru said unamused as new card appeared showing the silhouette of a smiling white demon with a sword in each arm. "When a Shiroi Akuma monster battled but fails to destroy the opponent monster, it gains 600 attack points and gets to attack again on the same target!"

 **Demon's Second Call** (Spell) Quick

 **When a monster you control attacks an opponent's monster, but the opponent's monster was not destroyed by the battle: Target that monster; during this Battle Phase, it can attack once again, and if it does, it gains ATK 600 ATK.**

The beast's claws started glowing and it stabbed the armor through the chest and then swung its large tail to hit Yuto, knocking him out cold.

 **『** **Yuto LP: 400 - 0 Hand: 0** **』**

"What have you done?" Ventus shouted. "You didn't have to be so aggressive!"

"Didn't you hear me when I said that I'm going to kill you all? There is no point in being gentle for that, right?" Hikaru explained. "I set a card and end my turn. Your move, Ninja Boy!"

"I see, you are an evil person!" Ventus replied. "I will stop your evilness in this turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 8 [Ventus] LP: 1500, Hand: 4** **』**

"Got a good card?" Hikaru asked amused.

"Dattebayo!" Ventus shouted. (Btw, if the one who submitted this OC reads this "dattebayo" doesn't mean "believe it" for MY sake!)

"What?"

"When there are four or more Lightsworn monsters with different names in my Graveyard I can Special Summon _Judgment Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!"

"This is going to get bloody." Hikaru groaned as the white dragon glared at him.

"I activate _Judgment Dragon_ 's effect to pay 1000 Life Points!" Ventus continued as a red aura surrounded him, reducing his LP to just 500. "And then Judgment Dragon destroy all cards on the field beside itself!"

The creature roared as it spread out its wings, creating a strong storm that raised all other cards on the field into the air and shattered them.

"But even if you attack now, your Dragon's ATK is lower than my LP." Hikaru reminded him. "Next turn, it's over for you!"

"My dueling isn't that simple you villain!" Ventus replied. " _Judgment Dragon_ may not be strong enough to defeat you, but my deck holds a monster that is! I now tribute _Judgment Dragon_ to Tribute Summon _Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon (Lv6, ATK: 2000)_!"

Hikaru's eyes narrowed and cold sweat began to drip from his forehead. For a duelist to dare call themselves skilled they needed to know not just their own cards, but their opponents as well. Although he hadn't dueled against a Lightsworn deck before Hikaru knew the basic of their play style as well as their boss monsters and a bit more. He also knew that Gragonith had the effect to raise its ATK by 300 for each Lightsworn in the Graveyard and if his math was right, there were more that 5 of those in there right now which meant that it's ATK was way over 3500.

"Battle!" Ventus shouted. "Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon attack the opposite player directly!"

The large dragon threw its head backward, charging a large beam in its mouth before turning it around and firing its attack toward Hikaru, sending the boy flying.

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 3500 - 0 Hand: 1** **』**

 **『** **Winner:** **Ventus** **』**

"You did well, Ninja boy." Hikaru groaned as he sat up and took a card from his jacket. "But next time, I'm not going to lose! _Thunder Flash_ activate!"

A yellow light completely enveloped the area before dying down a few moments later. Hikaru was nowhere in sight. Ventus sighed in relief the quickly rushed toward the defeated Xyz Duelists to help them out. He heard that Yuto was groaning and attempted to help him get up.

"Hey dude! Are you ok?"

"Where is Koharu?" Yuto asked and looked around for his friend.

"She is over there." Ventus replied pointing at her unconscious body. "She took a beating so don't expect her to wake up soon and even if she does she may not act like… wait."

The boy slowly walked toward Koharu and kneeled before her and titled her head to the side so he could get a better look at her neck. Ventus raised an eyebrow in confusion, the blue lines had disappeared for some reason which means that she was no longer under control, but only a Tracer has the ability to do that. Since Hikaru was the one who beat her and also recognized Ventus, could that mean that the guy who just treated to kill all three of them was in fact an ally?

"We need to get her somewhere safe."

Ventus turned toward Yuto who was staring at the Otherworldly Duelist with a worried expression.

"Why are you helping us?" The question caused Ventus to smile under his mask.

"Because you are comrades of our comrade!" The Ninja replied cheerfully and stood up. "We from LDS want the same thing as you, to beat the Fusion Dimension and the Professor, we are on the same side and there is no need to fight one another."

"I don't get it." Yuto shook his head and glanced toward Koharu. "She said that LDS were the enemies and that Kurosaki joined forces with you to save his sister."

"I don't know why Kurosaki joined us, but I know that he did it on his own free will." Ventus replied. "You should know him better than anyone else, right? Would he turn his back on his comrades?"

"No he wouldn't."

"See? Wasn't that hard to think for a bit, right? But, do you remember what happened before you two started attacking LDS?"

"Yes, of course. I wasn't found of the idea, but Koharu kelp on insisting that a friend of hers had gotten information that you were using Shun's sister as hostage to make him turn against us."

"Do you have any idea who that friend could be?"

"She said that it was someone we knew for long, but I found that strange because none of our other friends came with us."

Ventus nodded in understand but then turned away as his Duel Disk began vibrating. He removed it from his wrist and put it close to his ear. "Yes?"

"We got nothing on his side." Levant said.

There were five Duelists lying on the ground around him and Kurosaki, all of which were brainwashed to ambush them and defeat them, but failed miserable before the might of their Xyz monsters.

"Well, I found Yuto and a girl on my side." Ventus said. "It's a long story but there are all ok, are you two going to get here any time soon?"

"We will be there as quick as possible." Levant answered and ended the call, then turned toward Kurosaki. "Ventus found your comrades and they are safe."

"What should we do with these?" the Xyz Duelist asked pointing at the opponents they had defeated.

"Leave them as they are. None of them is going to remember what happened you can trust me on that."

Kurosaki nodded and went ahead while Levant stood behind and looked toward the sky. The puppet master had run away long before they came here and they had no idea what his goal was. All other Fragments were just like ghosts - creatures with no real purpose in this world that just created chaos. This one however was far more than the previous. Yes, this time there was some kind of purpose, the ambush was carefully planned and it never risked to show up. Were those creatures evolving or was that just an exception? What was it trying to achieve? There were so much questions that Ventus didn't know the answer of.

* * *

 **Avice: Hello to the preview section! This time around the author has some big things. In fact he has done the previews for 5 chapters, but doe to spoilers I'm allowed to post only four :3**

 **Chapter** **17: Devil's Performance**

Summary: In You Show everyone is doing final preparations for the Maiami Championship when Yuya challenges Evan on a rematch to show how much he had improved since their last duel. But as the duel between them processes a voice suddenly begins to speak to Evan and then he realizes that this is…

 **Avice: So, pretty basic and forward chapter I guess... But what happened with Ventus, Levant and the Xyz trio? Hmm, something is fishy.**

 **Chapter** **18: Red Eyes of Fury**

Summary: After Yuya and Evan's duel the siblings and Oni went back home when suddenly a person they had never met before confronts them. The person reveals before them the truth about things that had happened in the close past. Meanwhile Levant, Ventus, Kurosaki and Yuto are trying to find out the person who turned their comrades against each other and Sora is challenged by a hooded figure.

 **Avice: What. The. Actual. Fuck?!**

 **Chapter** **19: Night Approaches**

Summary: After Sora's brutal defeat by the hands of Nightshroud Evan's spirits convince him to step in and defend Yuya's friend. The duel begins strong with both sides inflicting serious damage to each other, but soon Evan finds himself overpowered by Nightshroud's monsters and dark powers while his deck keeps calling toward the void that surrounds him. At this time Nightshroud begins to tell him about how Leo used the Tracers to destroy the timeline he came from.

 **Avice: Nightshroud? Ok, I think I'm starting to lose it now. Are we supposed to be Leo's** **henchmen or something?**

 **Chapter** **20: The Berserk Supreme Devil King**

Summary: Pushed into a corner Evan tries to push back the endless assault from Nightshroud while his family and friends are trying to encourage him. But with his soul now sinking into darkness and despair a strange abnormally happens as Evan uses his anger to evolve Phantomus!

 **Avice: Well... Go get him bro!**

 **Chapter** **21: The Maiami Championship: New Beginning!**

 **Avice: So, I'm going to post the title without a summary also, spoilers, the next Omake is going to be in this chapter. Probably. It might be? Ok no spoilers then.**

* * *

 **Well, I have done it now. But hey, atleast I introduced Hikaru again and for those of you who don't know who Hikaru is, well, he was the skills to kill Evan and Avice if he duels seriously, so that guy is a big deal ;)**

 **Ventus: Wait?! I beat someone that strong!? OMG! Then I'm the strongest character in this story!**

 **... H-how did you get here?!**

 **Ventus: Oh, easy. Avice let me in.**

 **Why can't I just put a Barrel Dragon against my head and toss three Heads?**

 **Ventus: So now that we know who is the strongest how about you let me beat Evan in a duel?**

 **Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. HERE!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Anyway, I don't have anything else to add, expect that VRAINS air date is closing by and that I want to give you, my royal readers a preview of tthe VRAINS story that I'm going to work on when the series air. I know its a bad idea to say such things when there are 16 days until the show start airing and we know almost nothing about it, but**

 **Whatever!**

When someone lost everything…

"Where am I?"

In a world she doesn't recognize…

"That's so cool!"

With no friends…

"You are everything I have left now."

And no skills…

"I haven't really dueled before."

Prepare yourself for…

"Create an Avatar?"

A brand new adventure…

"How do I control that thing?!"

Initiating Link...

"Link Summon! The dancing spirit of wind! Grand Ranger Serene!"

 **So that's it. Like? Hate? I'm sure you do, but 'till next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**

 **Avice Out!**

 **Young lady we will have a serious talk about you letting other Characters to enter the A/N.**


	17. Chapter 17

_(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chest alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the tittle with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**  
 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**  
 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**  
 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**  
 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**  
 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**  
 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;  
** _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**  
 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**  
 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**  
 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.  
 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**  
 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**  
 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**  
 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other threes' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,  
** _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**  
 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

Devil's Performance

I sat on a chair in You Show, leaning back with my hood on. Ayu, Tatsuya, Futoshi and Oni were talking out loudly, excited about the Tournament, Sora was talking with Yuzu, probably giving her tips while Shuzou was practically shouting some sort of encouraging speech to Yuya. Consequently I was extremely pissed out and willing to smash someone's head into the pavement outside the building. But don't worry, surprisingly enough, the reason I was angry wasn't because of the people from this forsaken Duel School.

This last few days I just wasn't able to get a good sleep because I had to help the Leo Corporation with analyzing our cards as well as suggestions for their Pendulum cards and such. In fact, Reiji said that our decks were going to serve as the basics for the support that the company is going to create for the Lancers. On that note, I, my sisters and Oni are the first official members for the Lancers, though we will still have to participate in the Tournament as undercover agents and watch out for enemy activity.

Oh, Reiji was also generous enough to help us enter the Miami Championship without meeting the requirements. You see, these three bastards that bullied Reira turned out to have already been qualified for the championship members of LDS and Reiji had kicked them out of the school the moment he learned about that incident. As a thank you, for protecting his little brother he gave us their positions, so now I and Eliz were in the Senior Division while Avice was in the Junior Youth division alongside Yuzu, Yuya and Sora.

"Are you ok master?" Foxy appeared floating near my side along with Wolfy.

' _I have been and worse._ ' I replied, not bothering to look at them.

"You know master, I'm starting to want to be able to materialize in a psychical body already." Foxy whined as she pressed her head against my shoulder.

' _If you find a way to make the Solid Vision feature of my Duel Disk work outside duels, then come back and tell me._ ' I replied as that was the only way for her to gain a body, unless some sort of dark magic was in play.

"Master is so ignorant." Foxy giggled causing me to glare at her. What did she just say about me?

' _What are you trying to suggest with that?_ ' I asked her, not happy at all by her words. ' _You are but a spirit whose only use is to float after me like a lost puppy and annoy me. Without me, you wouldn't even exist._ '

"Aw, not like this master." She replied with a smirk that would only suit a fox like her. "If I gave you all the answers then all you did until now would have been pointless. For now, if you keep on winning that would be enough to make me happy."

And with that, she vanished. I had no idea what she meant with those words, but I didn't care either. Winning every duel? That's why I'm here in the first place, to show everyone here what a real duelist is like. I don't know why, but every time I defeat someone I feel something in me… glowing, like, some sort of new power enters my body and it makes me feel stronger than ever before. I couldn't explain this feeling, but damn, was it great.

"Hey Evan." Yuya suddenly came to me with a smile on his face. I just raised an eyebrow, wondering what the tomato could want from me.

"What?" I asked with a neutral tone in my voice to cover my annoyance.

"I heard that you three have made it to the Miami Championship, so as a celebration for making it, would you duel me?" He asked me hopefully.

"I hardly see how dueling you would be any sort of celebration." I replied, causing Yuya to tilt his head in confusion. "There is a different reason why you want to duel against me, right?" I asked him with a knowing smirk.

"Yep." He nodded, then but a hand on the back of his head with a stupid grin. "Since my lost to you and after witnessing how much the three of you know about dueling, I realized how much I had to improve if I wanted to become a great Entertainment Duelist like my father. I feel that in the last few weeks both I and my Deck have grown, so… I want to show you how much I have improved."

Ok, now I was surprised to hear Yuya's words. Not that I expected a result different from our last duel, but if Yuya had learned to turn the duel into a show like his father instead of focusing onto just putting on a show to take off people's attention from the actual duel, then I would admit that he had improved.

"Fine by me." I sighed, standing up and putting on my Duel Disk. "After you."

"Alright!" Yuya nodded then turned toward the others. "He said yes, guys!"

Most of them began to cheer, expect for Elizabeth and Sora who looked somewhat depressed as they sighed.

"What's wrong with them?" I asked.

"They are probably angry for losing the bet." Avice explained.

"Oh." I nodded in understanding. "Wait, there was a bet?! _"_

* * *

So, after Eliz and Sora paid everyone their bets, I and Yuya walked inside the Duel Room while the rest were watching from the window with Avice trying to start a new bet about which one is going to win. So, I don't want to jinx it, but since most of them are Yuya's friends they would logically vote for Yuya which would mean that by the end of this duel, I and my sister were going to be a lot richer.

"What field would fit such a hot blooded duel? Um…" I looked up at the speaker, sweat dropping as Shuzou seemed to be talking without knowing that we can hear him. "Aha! Action Field, Entertainment Duel, on!"

'There is a Field Spell with that name?' I thought as the field around us turned into a city with glowing lights and glowing inscriptions.

"I remember that one!" Yuya said in amazement. "It was my father's favorite Action Field!"

"I can guess why." I told him, pulling onto my hood to hide my eyes from the damn lights. "Let's get done with the duel before my eyeballs dry out."

"Right." Yuya nodded. "Duelists locked in battle," Yuya started.

"-Action Duel!" I shouted out loud.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Yuya LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Aww, don't be like this." Yuya shook his head.

"You can take the first turn." I told him with a stoic expression.

"Don't be grumpy, this in an entertainment duel." Yuya told me with a smile. "We duel to have fun and smile!"

"Take. Your. Turn." I told him again.

"Ok, ok." Yuya sighed then turned toward the kids. "For my first act, I'm going to summon a new friend of mine. So, give your applauds for _Performapal Skullcrobat Joker_ (Lv: 4, ATK: 1800)!"

A man with spiky blond hair appeared on the field, wearing a black and purple joker outfit with a large hat whose front was shaped like a cartoonish skull. Everyone from You Show, expect my sisters, began to cheer as the monster landed beside Yuya and bowed, taking off its hat.

"Now, Performapal Skullcrobat Joker's effect activates!" Yuya declared. "When he is Normal Summoned he can call out a Performapal, Magician or Odd-Eyes friend from my Deck and add it to the hand." Yuya explained as a card came out of his Duel Disk and he took it. "I add Timegazer Magician to the hand."

'Yuya freaking Sakaki has a Searcher in his deck?!' I thought shocked, but then grinned. Maybe this duel is going to be able to entertain me.

"Next, I set a card and end my turn." Yuya declared with a bow. "Your move." He said with a wink.

"I draw."

 **『** **Turn 2 [** **Evan** **] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"As my opponent controls a monster while I don't, I can Special Summon _**ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon**_!" I declared summoning my monster.

A humanoid created of mostly golden gears appeared on the field with only its waist and upper legs being made of flesh and showing blue skin with multiple scars over it. A knight helmet was covering its head with only two glowing yellow eyes being visible. The monster raised his hands holding two gears which began to spin and transformer into a pair of golden spears.

 **ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon**

 **Level:** **7** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Dragon** **/Effect/Pendulum**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **4**

 **ATK:** **2** **300/DEF:** **13** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. It loses ATK equal to its DEF until the end of this turn.**

 **Effect: If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). Once per turn** **: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; it loses ATK equal to this card's original ATK until the end of this turn.**

"Woah." Yuya exclaimed seeing my monster. "You summoned a Level 7 monster without using other cards."

"And that's just the start." I told him. "Next, I Summon _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

The monster appeared on the field, hiding behind its cape. It held out one of its arms, opening a portal in front of itself.

"Next, I reduce its ATK to 0 to Special Summon ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv. 3, DEF: 500)!" I declared as the armored ghost appeared out of the portal.

I looked at my hand, unfortunately Stream Stun wasn't in it so I wouldn't be able to stop Yuya from using his beloved Action Cards. I had to summon a monster that attacks fast to make sure that Yuya won't be able to find an Action Card in time and block the attack. And the only fast shooter in my deck was...

"I tune my Level Four Stream Supporter to the Level Three Timefrozer Ghost!"

My two monsters flew into the air with Timefrozer Ghost turning into three rings around Stream Supporter which turned into four starts.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lvl.7, ATK: 2400)_!"

A beam of light shot from the sky and fell right in front of me as ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon stepped out of it and roared, aiming its cannons toward Yuya and his monsters.

"Magnificent!" Yuya shouted, clapping at my 'performance'. "Evan's main star already reached the field! What is going to happen next?" He asked excited.

"Well, let me show you!" I said, pointing at his monster. "I activate Clocklord Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can reduce a monster's attack by its own! Take down his joker!"

Clocklord Dragon's eyes glowed as it ran forward, then jumped into the sky with its armor and weapons glowing. It took aim and threw one of the spears toward Yuya's monster. The Joker panicked and began to run around, but eventually, the weapon pierced him through the chest, causing him to fall on his knees, with his skin and clothes turning grey and frozen in time.

"Auch." Yuya winched, noticing the way my monster's effect worked.

"Battle! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon attack Performapal Skullcrobat Joker!" I shouted, pointing at Yuya's monster.

Mystic-Flare Dragon growled, leaning forward, putting its hands on each side of its body it aimed the cannons toward the monster. Gears began to spin and green energy loaded inside the weapons, ready to fire. Yuya took a step back before turning around and running toward a text board, jumping on it; he tried to grab an Action Card.

"Fire!" I ordered. Two green beams shot from the cannons, destroying the Joker and hitting the text board on which Yuya was standing.

Unable to grab the Action Card in time, the boy made a back flip and landed on the ground with a bow despite his Life Points taking a huge hit. Clocklord outstretched its empty hand and the spear it used reappeared into it.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 - 1600 Hand: 5** **』**

"That was a fast attack." Yuya managed to say, knowing fully well that this wasn't all.

"My performance is just starting." I told him before gesturing toward Clocklord. "ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon, attack Sakaki Yuya directly!"

Clocklord Dragon's eyes glowed again as it ran forward with its armor and weapons glowing. It then threw both of its spears toward Yuya simultaneously. If this attack landed, I would be the winner, however Yuya wasn't looking around for Action Cards this time around which meant…

His set card!

"I play Performapal Pinch Helper!" Yuya pressed a button on his Duel Disk causing his Trap Card to flip up. "When my opponent Declare a direct attack I Special Summon a Performapal from my Deck to protect them! Come, _Performapal Cheermole (Lv. 2, DEF: 1000)_!"

The strange mole appeared between Yuya and the spears, bracing itself as the weapons pierced through its body, destroying it.

"Jeez, your actors are scaring the audience with those dangerous performances." Yuya joked as he placed Cheermole into the Extra Deck.

"My monsters love dramatic effects." I replied to the joke, taking two cards from my hand and showing their backs to Yuya. "I'm not here for fun, but to judge whenever you are worthy of following your father's dueling so take this seriously. I set two cards and end my turn."

This time Yuya's smile dropped and he looked at me with a more serious expression. It seems that brining his father into this had finally made reason to go through his stubborn skull and into the brain.

"My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3** **[Yuya] LP: 1600 Hand: 5** **』**

Yuya looked at the card he drew and his eyes widened, a huge smile forming onto his face again. "Got it!" He said taking two cards from his hand. "Using the Scale one, Stargazer Magician and the Scale eight, Timegazer magician, I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Above Yuya appeared both of his monsters inside tall columns of blue light along with a giant version of his pendant that swung in-between the Pendulum Scales. It was the same as when I or my sister do a Pendulum Summon but with different colors. I felt a sharp pain piercing through my chest and took a step back. Remember that strength which I felt whenever I defeat someone in a duel? I felt the exact same one, like, reacting to Yuya's Pendulum Summon.

"Now I can Special Summon Levels 2 to 7 monsters simultaneously! Sway pendulum of my soul. Draw an arc of light across the aether! Pendulum Summon! Come forth, my monsters!"

Four lights fell from the sky, landing in front of Yuya as they turned into Performapal Cheermole (Lv. 2, DEF 1000), Performapal Skullcrobat Joker (Lv. 4, ATK: 1800), Performapal Silver Claw (Lv. 4, ATK: 1800) and of course Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2500). The pain in my chest began stronger, it felt like my body was torn apart and burn at the same time. I gritted my teeth, trying to withstand the pain and the sudden wave of negative emotions that ran through me. I wasn't sure whenever my body or mind was going to give up first into this torment.

" _Combine us! Give us strength!_ " A deep voice suddenly spoke directly through me and simultaneously to that I heard Odd-Eyes' cries.

"Are you ok master?" Wolfy suddenly appeared beside me with a worried expression.

" _Give us the power of the Supreme King!_ " The voice along with Odd-Eyes cries became louder.

I had the ability to hear the voices of the Duel Monsters, so could that have been Odd-Eyes' voice that spoke to me? But it was making no sense! What power? What Supreme King? Why is it calling out to me when I clearly have no idea what this damn dragon wants from me?

"Next I play Odd-Eyes Fusion to fuse Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with Performapal Cheermole!" Yuya declared as his two monsters fell into a whirlwind of multiple colors.

" _Dragon with diachronic eyes! Become one with the good spirit of hope and ascend to a higher world! Fusion Summon! Avenge the fallen! Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon_ _(Lv. 7, ATK: 2500)!_ "

Out of the vortex appeared a completely new version of Odd-Eyes. The one red scales that covered the dragon's body were now replaced by green and white ones with adornments around them. The horns on its back were replaced by four golden and white wings.

'Another new Fusion Monster.' I thought a little annoyed by how easy he was getting those.

"Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon's effect activates!" Yuya shouted, raising his hand. "When its Special Summon I return an Attack Position monster you control to the hand! I choose ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon and since it's a Synchro monster it goes to the Extra Deck instead!"

Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon let out another cry and spreaded its wings as a black vortex opened behind Mystic-Flare. My monster tried to escape its range, but eventually, the vortex sucked it in, returning the monster into the card which I then had to put into my Extra Deck. That however didn't worry me since I still had a monster and two set cards to protect my Life Points from Yuya.

"Battle now!" Yuya jumped on the back of his dragon. "Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon attacks ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon!"

His dragon roared again and flew into the air, throwing its head back before firing a green energy beam toward ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon as my monster crossed its spears and prepared for the impact.

"Did you forget about my set cards?" I asked pressing the screen of my Duel Disk. "I activate Time Shift to negate the attack and change all monsters on our fields to Defense Position!"

"Nice try!" Yuya shouted from atop the dragon. "But I activate Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon's other effect!"

"Other effect?!" That couldn't be good.

"Yep, when the opponent activates a card or effect I can return a face-up Pendulum monster from the Extra Deck to the Main Deck and negate your card." Yuya explained. "I return Performapal Cheermole to negate Time Shift and continue my attack!"

Another vortex opened under my trap and pulled it in, before shattering it. With my card negated, Vortex Dragon's attack continued, the beam pierced through my monster's body, destroying it at once. Wolfy whistled and I narrowed my eyes as the attack dropped my life points.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 - 3800 Hand: 2** **』**

"The kid has some fire." Wolfy commented. "It's not every day someone gets rid of all your playmakers in a single turn, right master?"

' _He was definitely upped his game from our last duel._ ' I agreed.

"Silver Claw attack Evan directly!" Yuya told his monster. "When Silver Claw attacks all Performapal Monsters I control gain 300 attack points!"

Both Silver Claw and Skullcrobat Joker gained a yellow outline as their attack raised to 2100. Silver Claw ran toward me and outstretched its claws, jumping for my head.

"Master!" Wolfy shouted, panicking.

' _I know._ ' I replied calmly. "I activate ChronoDevil Steam Maiden's effect from my hand!"

A large clock gear formed in front of me and started spinning, blocking Silver Claw's attack and pushing it back after which a girl with orange hair appeared on my field with the gears spinning around her as she rested in Defense Position with 1500 defense points.

"Since you monster declare an attack while this card is in my hand I can negate it and then Special Summon her." I explained as Steam Maiden winked.

"Amazing call." Yuya exclaimed. "But I still have Skullcrobat Joker's attack!"

The monster in question jumped into the air and launched itself toward Steam Maiden at an extremely high speed. Then, just as it was about to collide, the joker landed right in front of my monster, kneeling like a knight and took her hand, kissing it. Immediately, Steam Maiden's face turned a bright shade of red before shattering into multiple pink hearts that slowly vanished.

"What the actual heck was that?" I asked.

There was a strange feeling, I couldn't determine whenever it was confusion, amazement or disgust. Or maybe all three at once. All those monster holograms were starting to get a bit too realistic for my taste.

"With this I end my turn." Yuya declared, bowing.

"His duel style has changed by a significant amount since last time." Wolfy commented, though I already noticed that.

Unlike before, this time Yuya is dueling with more caution, clearly trying to minimalize the need for activating an Action Card, which I will probably stop him from using. He is trying to not give any openings even while attacking. In other words, this duel with Yuya was existing, it thrilled every cell of my existence. This duel right here was truly entertainment for me.

"My turn!" I shouted, drawing.

 **『** **Turn** **4 [Evan] LP: 3800 Hand: 2** **』**

I looked at the card that I just drew and found that it was just the thing I needed to get rid of Yuya's new dragon.

"I activate Convert Darkness!" I played the card that I just drew. "By its effect I can pay 1000 Life Points to Special Summon Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer directly from my Deck!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 3800 - 2800 Hand: 1** **』**

"I activate Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon's effect!" Yuya countered taking his final Pendulum Monster from the Extra Deck. "I return Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to my Deck and negate your spell!"

Four mini-tornadoes shot from Vortex Dragon's wings, surrounding me and shattering my card as I fought to keep my legs on the ground.

"I play Magical Pendulum Box!" I declared, playing a card that showed a pendulum swinging back and forth. "I draw two cards and if they are both Pendulum monster, they are added to my hand, but if they are anything else I have to send them to the Graveyard!"

"That's a risky move." Yuya commented, and boy was he right.

I closed my eyes and drew the two cards before slowly opening one, to look at what was in my hand. My luck was usually pretty bad so if the cards I drew were anything good, but not Pendulums I was probably going to break my own neck. But thankfully I didn't have to go that far and turned around to show the cards I just drew; both of them were Pendulum monsters.

"Amazing!" Yuya exclaimed surprised.

' _The Goodness of luck is with me today._ ' I thought with a smirk on my face.

"I wouldn't call it luck master." Wolfy said, crossing her hands as she floated near me. "The more duels you win, the stronger your bond with us becomes. As long as you remain strong, the ChronoDevils will stand beside you!"

I nodded at those words and returned my focus to the current duel. Still, knowing that I wasn't alone in this battle was somewhat calming.

"I, use the Scale one, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and the Scale seven, _**ChronoDevil Timescale Champion**_ , to set the Pendulum Scale!" I shouted as two red columns raised around me with the monsters hovering inside of them.

Since you guys already know Foxy, I'm just going to give a brief summary of what Timescale Champion looked like. It was a girl with tanned skin, black eyes and short pale hair. She wore a bronze armor with gears keeping the separate parts together, a short purple skirt and a scarf that trailed behind her like a cape. In her left hand was a huge shield with overlaying gear as its emblem and an oversized clock arrow in the other like a sword.

 **ChronoDevil** **Timescale Champion**

 **Level:** **5** **|Attribute: Dark|Type:** **Pyro** **/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **7**

 **ATK:** **1900/** **DEF: 1** **3** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect: If a "** **ChronoDevil** **" card is activated in your other Pendulum Zone: You can draw 1 card.**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn: You can target 1 other Pendulum monster you control; this turn it can make a number of attacks on monsters, up to the number of Pendulum monsters currently face-up on your field. Pendulum monsters you control, expected the targeted monster cannot attack during the turn you activated this effect.**

"Due to Timescale Champion's effect, whenever another ChronoDevil is activated in the Pendulum Zone I get to draw a card." I said, doing just this before throwing my hand upward. "Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost and ChronoDevil Steam Maiden!"

"So this is going to be a duel of the Pendulum Summons?" Yuya suggested as he grabbed Odd-Eyes' horns and leaned forward. "Okay, let's do this!"

I nodded, although it wasn't my intention to turn this into a contest of who has the better Pendulum Deck – which is obviously me – I had to admit that I was a bit curious of how well the founder of Pendulum Summoning would perform against another deck with the same ability. Plus that, I wanted to see if Yuya had discovered the potential that lied beyond his pendulum.

"I activate Timefrozer Ghost's effect to negate Performapal Pinch Helper's effects!" as my monster's hands shot toward the trap, turning it grey.

"Evan has noticed that my trap is a continuous one." Yuya said, turning toward our audience. "What he is going to do next, I wonder."

"Let me give you a hint then. I'm going to take a note from your book and follow my Pendulum Summon with a Fusion Summon!" I said and forward with my monsters following after me. "I activate Timeline Fusion and fuse ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost with ChronoDevil Steam Maiden!"

My monsters moved in front of them and their bodies began to merge with one another, creating a huge portal of multiple colors in front of them.

" _Ghost dwelling with the rusty armor! Cross your future with the maiden of protection to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight, ChronoDevil Grey Reaper (Lv. 8, ATK: 1700_ )!"

Grey Reaper flew out of the portal and swung its scythe, hitting the ground with it. I jumped onto its weapon and my monster lifted it up, launching me into the air. I made a front flip in midair, landing on the rooftop of a building.

"That was a great Fusion Summon, but your monster is too weak to take down any of mine." Yuya reminded me.

"Indeed, but that's where the true potential of my deck lies in." I told him. "ChronoDevil's powers comes from supporting one another. Even though Grey Reaper stands alone on my field, it is never truly alone! I activate my Continuous Trap, Pendulum Switch!"

"Pendulum Switch…?" Yuya repeated with a confused expression.

"With its effect I Special Summon ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy from the Pendulum Zone!" The column which held her disappeared and the monster landed next to me with a wink. "Foxy's effect increase the attack of my monsters by their total level times one hundred!"

Grey Reaper landed at my other side and put its scythe on its back, it held outs its hand and I put mine on top of it. I then took Foxy's hand in my own as well, a golden aura surrounded her before passing through me, it moved to the Grey Reaper.

 _ **ChronoDevil Grey Reaper, ATK: 1700 + 1200 = 2900**_

 _ **ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, ATK: 700 + 1200 =1900**_

"Now we are stronger than them!" Foxy exclaimed with a dangerous smile.

"Battle Phase! ChronoDevil Grey Reaper attack Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon!" My monster took its scythe and flew off as I and Foxy jumped onto its back.

Yuya looked around, spotting an Action Card and Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon flew toward it the other monsters following from below. I however, couldn't allow him to reach that Action Card so I tapped Grey Reaper. My monster understood and flew downward, passing between Yuya's Fusion and his Pendulum monsters, it raised back up and swung its scythe. I jumped off my monster, landing next to the Action Card, I grabbed it just as Grey Reaper slashed through Yuya's fusion, destroying it.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 1600 - 1200 Hand: 0** **』**

Yuya yelled as he fell toward the ground head first. I was just about to order my monsters to catch him when the performer flipped midair and landed of Silver Claw's back. I sighed in relief with my monsters floating near me once again.

"ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy attack Performapal Silver Claw!" She nodded to and jumped off Grey Reaper's back; she ran after the wolf on all four.

" _Sis is having a lot of fun._ " Wolfy sighed. " _I want to join too!_ "

' _Let's not have you two over do it._ ' I replied, not really carrying, there was an important duel that I had to win right now. ' _Meanwhile you could do something useful and find out why Odd-Eyes summon affected me last time._ '

" _That mystery you try to unravel is no mystery at all, mortal._ " Grey Reaper spoke up.

' _Ah yes, how could I forgot that you guys know everything._ ' I rolled my eyes. ' _Oh, maybe it's because you don't want to tell me anything!_ '

I didn't even care if they had any sort of response to that. I just looked down and saw Yuya, riding Silver Claw, had headed for an Action Card when Foxy landed in front of them, smashing her hammer into the ground. The force of the hit caused the ground to break apart and debris shot into the sky, launching Yuya and his monster as well.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 1200 - 1100 Hand: 0** **』**

Skullcrobat Joker jumped, grabbed Yuya while he was still falling and landed safely on a good distance from my monster before putting Yuya down on the ground. Foxy put the hammer on her shoulder and returned to my side.

"Because Silver Claw is a Pendulum monster I add it to my Extra Deck." Yuya reminded me. "And during the end of this turn, the attack boost given by Foxy will disappear as well."

"True, but your monsters attack isn't enough to defeat me." I reminded him; and even if it was, I still had the Action Card I took from Yuya. "I end my turn."

 _ **ChronoDevil Grey Reaper, ATK: 2900 - 1200 = 1700**_

 _ **ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, ATK: 1900 - 1200 = 700**_

"It all falls down to this draw." Yuya said, putting his fingers onto the top card of his Duel Disk. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **5 [Yuya] LP: 1100 Hand: 1** **』**

"At this moment I activate the other effect of Pendulum Shift to return Foxy into my Pendulum Zone." I declared as my monster jumped back into the red column. "And due to Timescale, since I activated a ChronoDevil in the Pendulum Zone I draw a card."

"And I activate Spiral Flame Strike." Yuya said, playing a Spell card that showed Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon attacking. "By its effect I add the main star of this show, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, to my hand."

I felt the pain in my chest slowly returning, cold sweet ran down my face and I had no idea why this was happening. Even while the monster was in Yuya's hand I could still feel its presence and knew that it was crying out toward me, but I had no idea why.

"With the already set Pendulum Scale, I Pendulum Summon!" Yuya declared. "Come, from my Extra Deck, Performapal Silver Claw and from my hand, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon."

Upon hitting the field, Odd-Eyes raised its head and let out a loud cry, the pain my chest increased and now it felt like my body was on fire. I had to try hard not to lose the strength in my legs and accidentally fall from the horrible pain.

"Let's battle!" Yuya smiled as he jumped on Odd-Eyes' back. "First, Silver Claw attack ChronoDevil Grey Reaper!"

The wolf barked and charged forward as both its and Skullcrobat's attack points raised by 300.

 **Performapal Silver Claw, ATK: 1800 + 300** **2100**

 **Performapal Skullcrobat Joker, ATK: 1800 + 300** **2100**

"I activate Foxy's Pendulum effect!" I said, while fighting against the pain. "This turn Grey Reaper cannot be destroyed by battle and all damage I take from battles involving it are halved!"

Silver Claw jumped onto my monster and slashed at it, knocking the scythe out of its hands. I fell on my knees, not from the attack, but because of the pain that burned through every bit of my flesh.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2800 - 2600 Hand: 2** **』**

"Next is Skullcrobat's turn!" Yuya exclaimed as Odd-Eyes jumped and he grabbed an Action Card. "I activate Bi-Attack to double Skullcrobat's attack points!"

 **Performapal Skullcrobat Joker, ATK: 2100 * 2** **4200**

"Grey Reaper isn't destroyed due to Foxy's effect!" I reminded.

"But you still take the damage!"

Indeed, as Skullcrobat Joker hit Grey Reaper the power of the impact knocked me back and I fell on my back with a groan.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2600 - 1350 Hand: 2** **』**

"And last, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon attack ChronoDevil Grey Reaper! Spiral Strike Burst!" I slowly raised onto my knees in time to see the attack coming toward me and my monster. "When Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon battles a Level 5 or higher monster the damage is doubled."

I had no time to brace myself as the blast hit Grey Reaper and the impact stuck me and the force flung my body into the air. I was in no physical condition to do anything so my body simply hit the ground with so much force that it made me cough. The setting of the solid vision holograms was supposed to be set on a safe number, this was most likely the job of Odd-Eyes' spirit. I slowly looked up and saw Yuya staring at me confused with Wolfy and Foxy looking down at me worried. Odd-Eyes ability would have dealt me enough damage to get me out of the game under normal circumstances, however thanks to my monster's Pendulum effect the damage was halved; I was still in the game.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1350 - 550 Hand: 2** **』**

" _Master! Master are you ok?_ " Wolfy asked putting her hands on my shoulder, though I couldn't feel her because she was just a spirit.

"What happened?" Yuya asked confused and turned to look at the side where the others were supposed to be. "The attack inflicted real damage to him!"

"I don't know!" I heard Shuzou's voice. "The pain settings are within the safe limits."

Odd-Eyes threw its head to the side and roared, a strong headache stuck my head, I wanted to cry out in pain from it.

" _Give us the power, revive our kin_ again!" I heard Odd-Eyes shout in between its roars.

" _Enough!_ " Wolfy shouted and looked down at me. " _You owe nothing to this beast! Destroy it!_ "

I raised my hand for Wofly to stand down then slowly stood back up. Every inch of my body was in intense pain and I could barely move; but I wasn't down for the count yet. Odd-Eyes has a reason to say all of this and I had to find out what it was. I wanted to know what the ChronoDevils were keeping back from telling me.

"Are you ok, Evan?" Yuya asked me.

"Don't worry." I said raising my Duel Disk to my side. "I just lost focus and forgot to do anything when the impact from the attack took me up."

Odd-Eyes was the only monster whose attack was able to hurt me in this duel, Yuya and the others would buy this excuse since neither of use took any real damage during the rest of this duel. I only had to make sure that Odd-Eyes won't have the chance to attack again.

Yuya nodded and jumped from Odd-Eyes, grabbed an Action Card that levitated above the field and landed on his dragon.

"At the end of the Battle Phase the attack of Silver Claw and Skullcrobat Joker return to normal. I activate Action Card: Bi-Burn!" Yuya said as a card that showed a flame with the number two in it appeared beside him. "If I control two monsters with the same original ATK I can release one of them to inflict you its attack as damage!"

Skullcrobat Joker was shattered into sparks which were absorbed into the card, it launched a stream of fire directly toward me. I raised my Duel Disk toward the fire, three gears shout forward and formed a barrier that absorbed the flames into my Duel Disk.

"I use ChronoDevil Steam Maiden's other effect to banish her from my Extra Deck to negate the damage." I explained to Yuya with the spirit of said monster standing beside me. "Afterward I gain Life Points equal to the canceled damage!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 550 - 2350 Hand: 2** **』**

"Aww, come on!" Yuya sighed in disappointment, then quickly returned to his go-happy personality. "Well then, there is nothing else I can do now, so I end my turn."

"I won't go down easy, Yuya." I said. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn** **6 [Evan] LP: 2350 Hand: 3** **』**

I looked at the card and smiled at the sight of Phantomus, my ace monster. With this card, I was sure to win the duel.

" _In your condition you won't be able to withstand another attack from Odd-Eyes._ " Grey Reaper said as it swung its scythe. " _We need to settle it this turn._ "

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to think the situation through. Yuya had two monsters, set Pendulum Scales and one activated trap; there was nothing among those cards that could surprise me. However, Yuya is extremely fond of using Action Cards to gain the upper hand, there is no way for me to guess which card he will use to counter my strategy.

Then I saw the answer. The cards I had played as well as the cards in my Deck lined up, showed me the path to victory. I opened my eyes again and looked forward with confidence.

"This duel really made me smile, Yuya." I told him. "But now we have to end this duel with a bang! Pendulum Summon!"

The red pendulum appeared into the sky and began to swing back and forth as two spirals of light shot from the sky and landed beside me.

"From my Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv. 3, ATK: 1300)_! And from my hand, _Supreme Devil King, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_!"

As my monsters appeared, the gears on all ChronoDevils both on my field and Pendulum Zones began to grind and they eyes glowed.

" _Finally showed up, Hell Slayer._ " Odd-Eyes roared, but I ignored it for now.

"First, Chrono Phantomus' effect reduces the attack and defense of all your monsters by 500! _Chain of Degrading Souls!_ " a black mist covered Yuya's monsters as the effect kicked in.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, ATK: 2500 – 500 = 2000/DEF: 2000 – 500 = 1500**

 **Performapal Silver Claw, ATK: 1800 – 500 = 1300 /DEF: 700 - 500 = 200**

"After that I activate **Chrono Reborn**!" I declared, playing a card that showed ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost raising from a graveyard of gears. "With it I revive _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ from my Graveyard!"

 **Chrono Reborn**

 **(Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 DARK monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it, but sent it to the Graveyard during your second End Phase after activating this effect. If a DARK monster(s) you control would be** **destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from your Graveyard instead.**

"Next I reduce Stream Supporter's attack to 0 in order to Special Summon ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy from my Deck!" I shouted as the animal girl appeared on my field with 1400 defense points.

"I activate Grey Reaper's effect, equipping it to Chrono Phantomus!" I declared as the former mentioned monster merged with its scythe and Phantomus took the weapon.

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 + 1700** **4200**

"After that I use Pendulum Shift's effect to Special Summon ChronoDevil Timescale Champion!" One of the red columns disappeared and the warrior landed beside the other monsters. "Next, Timescale Champion's effect activates! I target Chrono Phantomus and it can attack a number of time up to the number of Pendulum monsters I currently control, but other Pendulum monsters cannot attack this turn!"

"This means that Phantomus can attack four times!" Yuya exclaimed.

"I'm not done!" I shouted. "I tune my Level Four _Stream Supporter_ to the Level Three _Wild Timer Wolfy_!"

My two monsters flew into the air with _Wild Timer Wolfy_ turning into three rings around _Stream Supporter_ which turned into four starts.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lvl.7, ATK: 2400)_!"

A beam of light shot from the sky and fell right in front of me as ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon stepped out of it and roared as the other monsters stepped forward, forming a line.

"I use Timefrozer Ghost's effect to negate Performapal Pinch Helper. Lastly, I activate Convert Darkness' effect from the Graveyard, banishing it and Timeline Fusion to add a Spell Card from my Deck into the hand! I activate _**Forged Devils**_!" The card I activated showed a silhouette surrounded by gears which were connected with one another through an electric current.

 **Forged Devils**

 **(Spell)** **Continuous**

 **If your opponent activates a Spell or Trap Card during the Battle Phase: Place 1 Forged Counter on this card. All DARK monsters you control gain 500 ATK for each Forged Counter on this card. During the Battle Phase, you can remove 3 Forged Counters from this card and discard 1 Spell or Trap card from your hand. For the rest of this turn, neither player can activate a card of the same time, also, the effects of all face-up cards on the field that are of that type are negated, except this card.**

"Battle! Mystic-Flare Dragon, destroy Silver Claw! Electro Storm!"

Yuya grabbed Odd-Eyes' horns and turned around, riding the dragon, he grabbed the nearest Action Card.

"I activate the Action Card **Bomb-n-Boom**!" Yuya answered back as both of our monsters exploded. "When you attack my monster this card destroys both and we take damage equal to our monster's defense points!"

'I should have attacked Odd-Eyes instead.' I thought as that would have reduced Yuya's Life Points to 0.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 1100 - 900 Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Evan LP: 2350 - 650 Hand: 1** **』**

"Now Forged Devils' effect activates putting a Forge Counter onto itself!" I explained as my card and monsters began to glow. "Then all monster I control gain 500 attack for each Forge Counter!"

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 4200 + 500 = 4700**

 **ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost, ATK: 1300** **\+ 500 = 1800**

 **ChronoDevil** **Timescale Champion, ATK: 1900 + 500 = 2400**

"Furthermore, Mystic-Flare's effect lets me add a Spell or Trap to my hand." I said, adding Timeline Overlap. "Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer attack Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! _**Grey Reaper Slash**_!"

"I play the Action Card – Evasion!"

Odd-Eyes stepped to the side and swung its tail, slapping Phantomus in the chest. My monster flew back and rolled across the field before finally stabbing the scythe into the ground to stop. He shook his head and stood back up.

"Forged Devils' effect puts another Forge Counter onto itself!" I reminded Yuya as my monsters' attack raised once again.

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 4700 + 500 = 5200**

 **ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost, ATK: 1** **8** **00** **\+ 500 = 2300**

 **ChronoDevil** **Timescale Champion, ATK: 2400 + 500 = 2900**

"Now, the second attack! Take him down, Phantomus!" I ordered my monster.

Yuya jumped off Odd-Eyes, made a backflip and grabbed another Action Card. The dragon stopped running and outstretched its tail for Yuya to land onto it. The performer then jumped onto Odd-Eyes' back once again and activated the card he got.

"I play the Action Card Encore! Its effect lets me reuse Evasion to let my star dodge your attack."

This time Odd-Eyes ducked to avoid the scythe's blade. Afterward the dragon raised its head and fired a beam that Phantomus dodged by take a step to the side and flew back, to increase the distance between itself and Yuya's ace.

'Age has affected you, hell slayer.' Odd-Eyes roared toward Phantomus.

"Sorry Evan but I won't go down without a fight!" I narrowed my eyes at Yuya's words.

"I put a third Forge Counter! Afterward I discard the Action Card – Miracle from my hand and remove all three of Forged Devils' counters to negate the effects and activations of all Spell Cards until the end of this turn!"

The moment I put the Action Card into the Graveyard Forged Devils released a wave of energy that froze the entire field around us, turning it grey. Foxy closed her eyes as she and Grey Reaper's scythe were affected as well, they fell into slumber.

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 5700 – 500*3 - 1700= 2500**

 **ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost, ATK:** **28** **00** **– 500*3 = 1300**

 **ChronoDevil** **Timescale Champion, ATK: 3400 – 500*3 = 1900**

"This is the end! Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer attacks! _Double Void Slash_!" My monster dropped its scythe and launched itself forward, slashing through Odd-Eyes with its arm blades.

The dragon threw its head back and cried out in pain before falling down on the ground along with Yuya who rolled of his ace's back and groaned.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 900 – 400 – 0 Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

After the duel ended I took off my hood and walked toward Odd-Eyes. The pain in my chest increased with each step and my head felt like something was jabbing needles into it. Despite the pain I made it to the dragon and looked down at it with Phantomus standing by my side. Odd-Eyes slowly raised its head to look at me.

" _We are sick… of being used by… humans._ " Odd-Eyes roared, weakly. " _Bender of reality… we superimpose our wishes… with your… profound power._ "

' _I promise to answer your wishes once I find the answers I seek._ ' I closed my eyes.

The field and our monsters began to disappear and the pain that stuck me eased once I promised Odd-Eyes to give what it wanted. Perhaps, there was some sort of connection between my situation and this dragon. After the field completely disappeared and moved to Yuya and gave him a hand.

"That was a great duel." Yuya said cheerfully. "Though it seems I still have a long way to go before I manage to defeat you, don't I?"

"Don't get discourage." I told him, putting my hand into the pockets of my hoodie. "You almost got me today and at the rate at which your dueling evolves, it won't be long before you manage to surpass me."

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course. I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it." I lied, patting Yuya on the shoulder.

After that we walked out of the duel arena and were immediately greeted with everyone from You Show clapping and complimenting us for the great duel. Shuzou began to cry as he gave a speech about how proud he was of Yuya and our 'hot blooded duel' and Sora surprisingly wasn't there despite being with the others when the duel began. I pushed Yuya to the kids and let him deal with everyone while I turned to walk out before any of them catch me.

"Hey Evan." Shit!

I sighed and braced myself for their stupid compliments and such. However, when I turned around, none of those came my way, instead there was just Yuzu with her hands crossed behind her back and a small smile.

"Yes?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I- I just want to thank you." She told me and turned to look at Yuya. "After each duel with you, I notice that Yuya grows up. Not only as a duelist, but also as a person. So, thanks for that."

"It was just a duel…" I sighed and turned around to leave. "If Yuya has grown, I have nothing to do with it."

No one else from You Show bothered me after that, I left the room and walked down the corridor, thinking about my duel with Yuya and Odd-Eyes words. The dragon called me bender of reality, did it mean the fact that I was a Tracer? It was possible, since Duel Monsters didn't have the limits that we humans had. I turned the corner that leaded toward the exit and almost crashed with my sisters which were standing there with crossed hands.

"What happened there?" Eliz asked immediately.

"I have no idea." I shrugged. "Odd-Eyes spoke to me and wanted me to give it some sort of supreme power. How did you find out?"

"I felt it too." Avice replied, pointing at herself. "When Yuya summoned his dragon I felt my chest going on fire. Sis had to cover me so the others won't notice, but it hurt like hell. Also, when the duel ended your pocket glowed for a moment, did you cheek it?"

"My pocket what?" My eyes widened at that and I reached out to touch it. "The only thing that I have there is the blank-! ...card."

I still had the card, but it was no longer blank. Somehow in my pocket I had a completely new Pendulum monster that I have never seen before. And if that wasn't ominous enough, the monster's name was: Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon.

"What. The. Fuck?"

* * *

 **Avice: Hello to the preview section! There is nothing new time around since the author hasn't posted in months, but here is a small reminded of where we are so far.**

 **Chapter** **18: Red Eyes of Fury**

Summary: After Yuya and Evan's duel the siblings and Oni went back home when suddenly a person they had never met before confronts them. The person reveals before them the truth about things that had happened in the close past. Meanwhile Levant, Ventus, Kurosaki and Yuto are trying to find out the person who turned their comrades against each other and Sora is challenged by a hooded figure.

 **Chapter** **19: Night Approaches**

Summary: After Sora's brutal defeat by the hands of Nightshroud Evan's spirits convince him to step in and defend Yuya's friend. The duel begins strong with both sides inflicting serious damage to each other, but soon Evan finds himself overpowered by Nightshroud's monsters and dark powers while his deck keeps calling toward the void that surrounds him. At this time Nightshroud begins to tell him about how Leo used the Tracers to destroy the timeline he came from.

 **Chapter** **20: The Berserk Supreme Devil King**

Summary: Pushed into a corner Evan tries to push back the endless assault from Nightshroud while his family and friends are trying to encourage him. But with his soul now sinking into darkness and despair a strange abnormally happens as Evan uses his anger to evolve Phantomus!

 **Chapter** **21: The Maiami Championship: New Beginning!**

 **Avice: Again, no spoilers for chapter 21!**

* * *

 **A/N: Hey! Took me long enough right? Sorry, sorry. I got stuck with an author block and nothing I write came out like I wanted it too. Plus that I couldn't come up with a way of how to do this duel. I literally had to boost Yuya's dueling by 200 to make it look like he has some sort of change, poor tomato xD**

 **Big thanks to** **ScalchopWarrior for coming up with the chant for Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon! This chapter wasn't going to come up for atleast a week more if it wasn't for Scal.**

 **Anyway, now that Vrains is finally out I have to say that damn, I LOVE that show and the Link Summoning is so far my most favorite summoning method. The cast is amazing and Yusaku with his jackass personality reminds me so much of myself. The most relatable YGO protagonist I have seen so far.**

 **So, that's all for tonight. Leave a review and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	18. Chapter 18

_(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chess alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the title with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**

 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**

 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**

 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**

 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**

 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**

 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;**

 _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**

 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**

 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**

 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.

 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**

 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**

 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**

 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other three's' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,**

 _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**

 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

Red Eyes of Fury

The night had just came down over Miami City. The light of the moon and stars were prevailing over the darkness of the sky. Then there were also the lights of the city's buildings, almost impossible to miss, they stood there as a symbol of the liveliness of the city, even during the latest hours of the day.

Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni had sat on a bench near the local park, eating some fast food that they had brought for dinner. After the end of the duel between Evan and Yuya the four were met with even more questions that needed answers. They waited for the others from You Show Duel School to suggest ending the classes for today – of which there were none actually – and ran here because none of the siblings felt like cooking after what happened.

"So, you know that I'm not into this weird card game." Elizabeth said setting her ramen noodles aside for a moment. "Can you explain to me how a blank card turning into a monster works? For that matter could you also explain how cards suddenly appear into our Extra Decks out of thin air?"

"It's usually explained with magic or aliens." Avice told her. "Corrections, it's connected to magic or aliens, but it's never explained."

"Then why did both of you feel Odd-Eyes'… let's call them feelings, but I and Oni felt absolutely nothing?" Elizabeth asked.

"Maybe because it's picky?" Evan suggested, leaning back onto the bench.

"That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard. And stupendously enough you are the biggest idiot here."

Evan rolled his eyes and stood up. He walked to the closest bin, threw his thrash and turned back to Elizabeth with his hands crossed. She was overthinking it, those things were pretty usual for this world. Plus that they get free cards so he did see a problem there. More unnerving for him was what Odd-Eyes had told him, he hadn't told his sisters about the ability to hear Duel Spirits because Elizabeth was most-likely going to think that he is crazy, but those words were eating at his mind. Evan couldn't understand why, but he felt sympathy and even care for the huge red dragon. The feeling was small, but it was still there and that annoyed him.

"I feel like we are focusing on trivial things right now." Avice sighed as she followed Evan. "We already have a plan, to follow the flow until we get clues about our mission as Tracers. Let's just work on that for the moment. Akaba Reiji and his company are already helping us by studying dimension traveling and giving us access to their data. We have nothing to worry about there."

"That's not calming me down." Elizabeth replied. "Reiji hasn't told us anything yet, but we still have to design cards for his Lancers. I'm starting to believe that he is tricking us."

"He knows how to manipulate people I will give him that much." Evan put his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "But he is also smart enough to not underestimate the people he works with or against."

"Oni thinks that nii-chan and nee-chans must focus more onto the Miami Championship!" Oni grumbled.

The little girl's words caused the others to turn their attention to her. The siblings smiled and sat around her with Elizabeth patting Oni on the head. In their arguing the trio had forgotten what their priorities were. They had no clues to lead them to the answers of their questions and brainstorming constipation theories would just waste their time.

"You are right." Elizabeth told Oni and smiled. "We must train hard for the Championship."

"Big brother already got a duel against Yuya, it would be only fair if we duel against Sora and Yuzu." Avice told the girls with a cheerful smile on her own. "I call dibs on dueling Sora. I want to show him who the true fusion master in that school is."

"It's strange how the candy lover suddenly disappeared during Evan's duel." Elizabeth mentioned.

"Oni thinks that he got a message and had to go." Oni explained to the rest. "Oni managed to see a glimpse of his Duel Disk's message box before he wandered out."

"I'm not worried for him. Call me paranoid, but whenever I see Sora I get that weird feeling that he is hiding something." Avice replied. "I mean his outfit reminds me of GX and that definitely says something."

The other just shrugged at that and didn't say anything in return. Neither Elizabeth nor Evan had paid much of an attention to the sweet eater's activities. Despite spending some of their free time with Sora and even gave a few tips for his teaching of Yuzu how to Fusion Summon they didn't know much about him personally, except maybe that he was kind-hearted, smart, skilled duelist and sometimes a bit of a jerk but in a cool way. In fact, he and Yuzu were probably people from You Show whom the twins would rank as their friends, simply because they showed to be acting a bit more mature when it comes to the important stuff that the rest of their schoolmates.

Elizabeth caught in her peripheral vision the glimpse of a person that she hoped to never cross paths with again, who made her fear what duels could actually do. Perhaps it was just a natural response given how their last encounter ended, maybe this time would be different as she now knew more than before, but she guessed not. Evan put a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder and pulled her back, hiding her behind himself, Avice gestured for Oni to get back as well and stood up. Making her way toward them was Koharu – armed with her Duel Disk which was hard to spot under the combat green cloak she wore – the girl seemed a bit uneasy and her movement was fast-paced. She didn't use the red scarf to hide her face either, despite the obvious placement of security cameras, which made the siblings feel further concern.

"Greysons." Koharu stopped in front of them. "I need your help."

* * *

"How many times do I need to tell you to let us handle this!?" Levant snapped at the uncalled extras.

Kurosaki stared at the grey haired boy with stone eyes and crossed hands while Yuto and Ventus stood at the side, each of them ready to restrain their respective partner if the argument went too far.

"I swore to avenge all my comrades that fell by the hands of Fusion!" Kurosaki shouted and pushed Levant back. "This fight is mine, not yours!"

"I keep telling you, this wasn't the doing of the Fusion Dimension!" Levant squeezed his fist in anger. "The ones that mind controlled your comrades are times more powerful and dangerous than anything you had ever faced. If you and your friends go chances are that they will turn you against us again with their mind games."

"I don't know how I got mind-controlled, but I remember that the person who took me and Koharu used a Xyz monster." Yuto suddenly spoke up.

"That's not possible!" Kurosaki protested. "Our comrades would never turn against us!"

"Just because someone is a Xyz user that doesn't make them a friend, nor does the use of Fusion make someone immediately evil." Ventus reminded the Xyz user. "Anyone could be taught how to use those summoning methods."

"Even so, how could you be immune to being mind-controlled?"

Levant sighed dramatically and bite his lip. Traces could be mind-controlled as well, though only by stronger Fragments. It all came down to a person's mental state and the strength of their will, no one was completely invincible and anyone could lose control and be controlled by the Fragments under the right circumstances.

"We aren't. When they attack your mind, they don't try to subdue your consciousness or anything like that." Levant lowered his head and looked at his fist. "Instead they use you darkest emotions and just… tell you to do horrible things. Of course, you will do them, not because you are forced to, but because the world they make you see consist of only things that you fear and hate. Without their influence you have ruined enough lives in your search for revenge, I fear what would happen if they caught you."

Yuto walked up to Kurosaki and put a hand on his shoulder. "Let them handle this, we must save Ruri."

"Right." Kurosaki looked back at his friend and nodded. "But I want to know what they sent Koharu to find."

"I sent her to find the Greysons." Levant had heard the Xyz Duelist's question and smutty answered it.

"I have heard that name before." Yuto narrowed his eyes. "Koharu once took me with her when she tried to eliminate them."

"I have seen them in action." Levant said. "They are strong individually, but when they duel together the bond they share together as siblings, like, takes a form and turns them into a force to be reckoned with. You can be sure that we will fix everything."

Shun nodded, the two Xyz remnants turned around and walked off, leaving the Tracers alone with each other. After he made sure that there was no one in sight Ventus walked closer to Levant.

"How do you know so much about Fragments?" Ventus asked in a low tone.

"I have been at this longer than you and… I used to have other partners before you as well." Levant replied.

"I'm sorry man."

"Don't be. This is our reason to exist in this world, we should expect things like this to happen all the time."

"But it still hurts, right?"

Levant looked Ventus into the eyes, his expression cold and stony with emotionless, like a machine. Would he say that it didn't hurt him to lose a friend? No, he turned and walked off as well, leaving the question open for debate.

* * *

Meanwhile at another place away from the liveliness of the big City, the docks at the very end of Miami were liveless with darkness reigning over them, then only sound was the cool night breeze and the echo of someone's steps.

Sora was walking through the darkness with a relaxed expression as he ate the sweets that he loved so much. The blue-haired boy suddenly came to a halt and his eyes carefully observed his environment with a sharpness, unusual for a small boy. Sora took a lollipop from one of his pockets and put it into his mouth as he smirked.

"You were looking for me." Sora said, despite being the only person there. "It began to be sort of boring for me to keep up this mister nice guy persona."

"You all are like that." A voice whispered from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Two glowing red eyes opened on the ground behind Sora and slowly began to raise up without making a sound as the two dimensional shadow slowly turned into a three dimensional human with a strange black mask on their face. A black overcoat with raised shoulders, and gold and green trimmings formed from the darkness as the creature took the form of a young man with short brown hair.

Sora smirked and jumped over the new arrival, landing behind them, he activated his Duel Disk and swung it, aiming for the masked man's back. However, instead of that the zapping sound of electricity was head as a red energy blade collided with Sora's blue one. The masked man took the opportunity to jump several feet away from his opponent before raising his black shield-shaped Duel Disk. He knew that Sora's attack was mean to provoke him, but he was less than interested in the blue-haired boy's games.

"You are fusion as well?" Sora asked, looking at his opponent's unusual Duel Disk.

"Don't compare me to those basic vermin." The masked man replied. "My power was, and still is, far beyond the understanding of mere insects."

"So you are a traitor." Sora replied with a smirk and took a card from his pocket whose artwork showed a horrified boy, though it lacked a name or any other type of text on it. "The professor will be more than happy when he hear that I had single-handedly dealt with the bastard who was taking down our spies in Standard."

"You aren't even on the level of the dirt in the ground I stand on." The masked man responded. "And your so called professor is even less of a threat for me!"

"What are you saying? We haven't even began the duel, though I think that I may play with you for a bit before ending your suffering. But if you beg and please me enough I may give you the honor of being dealt with by the Professor himself."

"What I desire is to see all of you burning under the ruins of Academia as I took back what that bastard stole from me and rip of his hearth with my hands. And I will start by taking your soul into the shadows!"

"Before that you will have to defeat me." Sora reminded him with a wide grin on his face. "I was in the middle of watching a duel when I had to come here. You better be strong enough to be my opponent."

"Be careful what you say, your words may turn out to be just right."

Sora and the masked man looked at each other as they put their hands onto their respective deck.

"Let's Duel!" The two called out as they both drew their five cards.

 **『** **Sora LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Nightshroud LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I go first." Sora said with a kind smile that completely opposed the dark look in his eyes. "I summon _Edge Imp Tomahawk (Lv. 4, ATK: 1800)_!"

The fiendish tool appeared on the field with two glowing red eyes filled with despair as its multiple blades formed an open mouth.

"I activate Tomahawk's effect to send _Edge Imp Frightfuloid_ from my hand to the Graveyard and inflict 800 points of damage!"

The blades on Sora's monster glowed and it shot them toward Nightshroud, hitting him in the chest with enough strength to force him take a step back. Despite that the man stood there and acted as if nothing had happened.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 4000** **–** **3200 Hand: 5** **』**

"But I'm not done yet!" Sora called out as he played another card. "I play _Frightfur Patchwork_ to add _Edge Imp Sabers_ and _Polymerization_ from my Deck to the hand!"

The two cards popped from Sora's Duel Disk, the blue haired boy took them and showed them to Nightshroud with a grin on his face, and then showed _Fluffal Bear_ that was in his hand all along.

"I play Polymerization to fuse _Fluffal Bear_ and _Edge Imp Sabers_!" Sora threw his hands to the side as the two monsters appeared over him and flew into a Fusion portal that opened behind him.

" _Claws of the demon! Fangs of the beast! Become one and reveal a new form and power! Fusion Summon! Appear, horrifying beast that shreds everything! Frightfur Scissors Bear (Lv. 6, ATK: 2200)!_ "

A frightening hurt bear toy with scissors popping from its stomach and glowing purple eyes jumped out of the portal and landed in front of Sora, hitting the ground before itself the beast laughed.

"How are you going to match this, deserter?" Sora asked as he gestured toward his Fusion Monster. "I set a card, turn end."

"As I expected, nothing special from an Academia Spawn." Nightshroud said and drew his sixth card. "My turn!"

 **『** **[Turn 2] Nightshroud LP: 3200 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will give Academia credits that they managed to taught their students of how to take down unarmed enemies." Nightshroud commented. "But in front of true power you are harmless puppies!"

"Why don't you play your cards then?" Sora asked back. "I'm going to enjoy proving you wrong."

"Oh…" Nightshroud chucked at those words. "I activate _Cards of the Red Stone_. By its effect I sent Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my hand to the Graveyard and draw 2 cards. Then I send Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon from my Deck to the Graveyard."

Sora narrowed his eyes. His opponent was able to draw two cards and set up his Graveyard by playing just one card.

"I Summon the Black Stone of Legend and tribute it to Special Summon another copy of _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_ from my Deck!"

A red stone appeared on the field and then broke apart as a completely black dragon with red-eyes and flames coming from its mouth appeared on the field with a mighty roar.

"So you managed to summon a strong monster from your Main Deck." Sora said mockingly.

"I'm not done yet." Nightshroud replied. "I activate Silver's Cry to Special Summon a Dragon Normal Monster from my Graveyard! Revive, _Red-Eyes Black Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_!"

A second black dragon with red eyes materialized next to the first one, though different in appearance. The two monsters stared down at Sora whose smirk only widened at the sight of the vicious dragons. He wasn't scared from those beasts, not yet.

"Now that there are two Level Seven monsters on the field, the requirements are meet." Nightshroud said out loud.

"It can't be…" Sora's eyes widened; there was only one summoning method that required multiple monsters of the same level…

"I use the Level Seven _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ and _Red-Eyes Black Dragon_ to build the Overlay Network!" Nightshroud raised his hand over his head.

The two dragons stood still as their bodies turned into purple lights which flew into a galaxy portal that opened in-between where they used to stand.

"Awaken darkness gathered, released your destructive flames! Bright hell this world and burn to ashes everything that opposes you! Xyz Summon! Rank 7! Metal dragon of hellish flames, _Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon (Rank: 7, ATK: 2800)_!"

A thunder fell from the sky as the ground in front of Nightshroud opened up and flames bursted out, a dragon covered in black metal came out of the fire and breathed out fire, its crimson orbs burning with rage as it stared at the blue haired boy that stood in its path. Sora took a step back at that.

"So you are one of them." Sora said, excitement in his voice. "You are a Xyz user!"

"I'm more than a mere duelist." Nightshroud replied. "I activate _Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon_ 's effect! I use an Overlay Unit to Special Summon _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_ from my Graveyard! _Return Flame_!"

Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon bite onto one of the Xyz materials that orbited around it and fired a stream of fire onto the ground before itself. The flames exploded upward and Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon reappeared.

"Battle." Nightshroud ordered. " _Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon_ attack _Frightfur Scissors Bear_! _Inferno Metal Blast_!"

The dragon roared and threw its head back, then fired a stream of molten metal toward the deformed bear. Sora just laughed and pressed a button on his Duel Disk, causing a bubble to form around his monster.

"I activate _Frightfur Defender_!" Sora said as the trap flipped face-up. "The destruction of my Frightfuris negated and it gains 800 attack points!"

"But you still take the damage!" Nightshroud reminded. "And with Flare Metal Dragon's effect you take 500 more damage each time you activate a card effect! _Metal Explosion_!"

The fire blast immediately split into multiple smaller ones that launched themselves toward Sora, hitting the blue-haired boy in the chest and shoulder before knocking him on the ground.

 **『** **Sora LP: 4000** **–** **3500 - 2900 Hand: 0** **』**

 _ **Frightful Scissors Bear, ATK: 2200 + 800 = 3000**_

"Next, Red-Eyes Flare will attack _Edge Imp Tomahawk_!" Nightshroud ordered its second dragon, destroying Sora's monster.

 **『** **Sora LP: 2900** **–** **2300 Hand: 0** **』**

"I set a card, turn end." Nightshroud finished.

"Heh, you aren't half bad for Xyz." Sora laughed as he stood back up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. "I was playing nice on you, but now, I want to go all out."

"Go all out?" Nightshroud chuckled a little to himself. "With your hand at zero? Your defeat has been foreseen ever since we began this duel."

* * *

And while a ferocious raged on the docks, back at the part the siblings were heavily confused by the new arrival and her request to them. They had a bit of a hard relationship with Koharu; she tried to murder all of them once and Elizabeth had to be hospitalized because of that. Gently speaking, her request for help from them raised concern and skepticism. The chances for this to be a trap were high and taking her down now that she was alone would be the most logical and safe action.

"You said what?" Evan raised an eyebrow.

"Please." Koharu bowed her head. "I need your help!"

"I don't think I understand what exactly is going on here." Avice said, crossing her hands. "Last time we met you were dead set on killing us all and now you come here asking us, of all people, to help you out?"

"I'm sorry for that." Koharu raised her head slightly and there were tears in her eyes. "I- I wasn't myself when I did it. He tricked me into attacking you and now, he is trying to do the same with others too!"

The siblings looked at each other, the expressions of all of their faces were neutral. The trio was still skeptical of whenever what Koharu told them was an honest apology or an act to get them into a trap. Evan and Avice wouldn't mind if it was the later, with their dueling skills it was going to be just like an exercise.

"Who is he?" Elizabeth asked after a few seconds.

"A shadow…" Koharu said. "He tricked me into thinking that he was ally, a friend. I didn't even realize when or how he did it, but he made me believe in every word that he told me and do whatever he wants. He was the one who ordered me to kill you, told me that you were spies sent by Fusion to hunt us down."

" _That's a pretty interesting description._ " Sola – Avice's ace – appeared beside her owner in spirit form.

Evan and Avice glanced back toward the monster's spirit at the same time and somehow failed to notice each other's gaze. Even since Evan found his ability to talk with spirits he avoided telling his sisters about it and believed that they would think him crazy if he mentioned about it. Same was with Avice who believed that she was the only one of them to have this ability and therefor found telling her order siblings about it as an insignificant action. Sola looked at the siblings and grinned as she leaned against a street lamp.

" _If what the pretty Xyz girl told you is right then that's probably an, as you call it, Fragment and a stronger one as well._ " The spirit explained. " _Those creatures are corrupted to their core and naturally have the ability to corrupt others either by merging with them directly or controlling their minds._ "

"We believe you." Avice told Koharu after hearing the explanation from her Spirit. "But before we do anything, you said that he controlled you. How did you break free from him?"

"Two duelists who said that they were hunting it rescued me and my friend by defeating us in a duel and then, I don't know what they did, but their names were Levant and Ventus. They told me to look for you and get your help."

"I believe they could have called us themselves if needed." Evan replied.

"Ask them, not me!" Koharu shouted back. "All I know is that the shadow wanted us to act as decoys and hunt down Fusion users."

"Hunt down Fusion users…" Elizabeth repeated the line. "Could that explain why Sora ended earlier today? What if the shadow is targeting him now?"

"It's possible." Avice nodded in agreement and turned to Koharu. "Quick, where do you meet that shadow most often?"

"He always hides in the shadow and pops out of anywhere. But the first and last time I got in contact with him was on an isolated part of the docks. Given how many duelists ran around there during the day it's actually a good spot for hiding."

"Lead us there." Evan said and put a hand over Koharu's own.

The girl looked up and nodded. She stood up from the bench and began to walk with the siblings and Oni following shortly after her. They weren't completely convinced that Koharu was on their side, still, there was a chance that Sora's life was indeed in danger and they had to help him. If nothing else, Sora getting injured or killed could cause the rest of You Show to pull back from the tournament; that was a risk that Evan and Avice didn't want to take.

* * *

Back at the docks Sora was pushed into a corner. With just _Frightfur Scissor Bear (Lv. 6, ATK: 3000)_ on his field, he had to duel against Nightshroud who had _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_ , _Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon_ _(Rank. 7, ATK: 2800)_ and a set card.

 **『** **Sora LP: 2300 Hand: 1 (VS) Nightshroud LP: 3200 Hand: 3** **』**

"I summon _Fluffal Owl (Lv. 2, ATK: 1000)_!" Sora exclaimed as a yellow and brown owl with glasses flew onto the field. "I activate Fluffal Owl's effect! When it's on the field I can Fusion Summon without a fusion card!"

"Whenever you activate a card effect the effect of Flare Metal Dragon inflicts 500 points of damage!" Nightshroud pointed out.

Red-Eyes opened its mouth and fired another barrage of small fire blasts which hit Sora several times. The Fusion duelist yelped and fell on his knee, with one of his eyes closed from the pain inflicted by the dragon's attack.

 **『** **Sora LP: 2300** **–** **1800 Hand: 0** **』**

Sora stood back up and raised his hands, despite the pain. The fusion portal opened behind him once again, Fluffal Owl and Frightfur Scissor Bear flew inside, and he began to chant.

" _Fury of bear, bird of prey! When the two combines the most ancient of beasts appears! Fusion Summon! Wild ghost-cave beast that bares fangs at all! Frightfur Sabre-Tooth (Lv. 8, ATK: 2400)_!"

A dark blue sabre tiger toy with multiple purple blades piercing through its body appeared on the field with a maniacal laugh.

" _Frightfur Sabra-Tooth_ 's effect activates!" Sora exclaimed. "When its Fusion Summoned I can Special Summon a Frightfur Fusion Monster from my Graveyard ignoring summoning conditions! Revive, _Frightfur Scissors Bear (Lv. 6, ATK: 2200)_!"

"Whenever you activate a card effect the effect of Flare Metal Dragon inflicts 500 points of damage!" Nightshroud reminded.

 **『** **Sora LP: 1800** **–** **1300 Hand: 0** **』**

"That doesn't matter! With Sabre-Tooth on my field all Frightfur monsters I control gain an attack boost of 400 points for each one!" Sora explained as both of his monsters gained a yellow aura.

 **Frightfur Sabre-Tooth, ATK: 2400 + 400*2 = 3200**

 **Frightfur Scissors Bear, ATK: 2200 + 400*2 = 3000**

"Battle, battle, battle!" Sora shouted and pumped his fist forward. " _Frightfur Scissors Bear_ destroy _Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon_!"

The bear laughed then ran forward and jumped into the air. It raised its paw and slammed it down onto the dragon's head. Red-Eyes roared in pain and fell on the ground before exploding.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 3200** **–** **3000 Hand: 3** **』**

"When Scissor Bear destroy a monster by battle its effect activates!" Sora added. "It equips the destroy monster to itself and gains attack power equal to the monster equipped by this effect!"

Nightshroud stared blankly as the spirit of his Red-Eyes appeared on the field and got sucked inside the bear's mouth, raising its size and attack power at the same time.

 **Frightfur Scissors Bear, ATK: 3000 + 2800 = 5800**

"I'm not done!" Sora laughed. "Next, _Frightfur Sabre-Tooth_ will destroy _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_!"

"I chain Return of the Red-Eyes to your attack!" Nightshroud interrupted as his face-down card flipped face-up, revealing itself to be a Continuous Trap. "Once per turn, if I control a Red-Eyes monster I can Special Summon a Red-Eyes Normal Monster from my Graveyard! Revive, _Red-Eyes Black Dragon (Lv. 7, DEF: 2000)_!"

"But my attack still continues!" Sora reminded his opponent as Sabre-Tooth jumped onto the dragon and tore it apart.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 3000** **–** **2200 Hand: 3** **』**

"You see now? Those weak Xyz monsters stand no chance in front of my Fusions monsters!" Sora told him and took another lollipop from his pocket, biting on it.

"Then perhaps I should defeat you with another kind of monster." Nightshroud replied.

"What's that? You really believe that there is still a chance for you to defeat me? Don't you understand how ridiculous that sounds?"

"My turn!"

 **『** **[Turn 4] Nightshroud LP: 2200 Hand: 4** **』**

"I activate the Magic Card, Polymerization!" Nightshroud exclaimed as the card appeared on his field.

"Polymerization?" Sora gritted his teeth. "How dare you…"

"I fuse Red-Eyes Black Dragon on my field with Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon in my hand."

Red-Eyes raised into the sky as a meteor-like dragon appeared beside it and the two flew inside a Fusion portal. Nightshroud threw his hands to the side and looked up.

"Legendary dragon of darkness, become one with the flames of your kind! Ignite ruin over this world and cover the sky in ash! Fusion Summon! Dragon born from the fire of hell! _Meteor Black Comet Dragon (Lv. 8, ATK: 3500)_!"

A huge black dragon with rocks covering its body appeared out of the portal. There were cracks between the rocks with red magma floating through them. Its wings and entire black were on fire as well, just the appearance of the monster made Sora feel like he was set on fire.

"Impossible." Sora took a step back, unable to move his eyes away from the dragon. "But… Its attack power isn't high enough to defeat my monsters!"

"I activate _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_ 's effect."

In an instant, black shadows came from Nightshroud's feet and formed a circle around Sora, taking any chance the Fusion duelist may had to escape.

"When Meteor Black Comet Dragon is Fusion Summoned I sent a Red-Eyes monster from my hand or Deck to the Graveyard and inflict half of its attack power as damage to you." Nightshroud said and took a card from his hand. "I discard the 2800 ATK Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from my hand and half of that is 1400."

* * *

Koharu and the siblings reached the docks and began to search together. They looked around and shouted out Sora's name to no success. They ran to the empty warehouses at the end of the docks when they heard an explosion and then Sora flew past them, hitting hard the ground a few meter away.

"Thank you Goodness of Convenience for blessing us with this convenient arrival." Evan said looking up at the night sky.

"Sora!" Elizabeth yelled and ran to help the candy-lover.

Sora himself was in a very bad shape. He was bruised and his clothes were all dirty, the boy barely managed to keep his eyes half open as the girls came to help him up.

"What happened?" Avice asked.

Sora didn't respond and just meekly raised his hand to point into at Nightshroud who was walking toward them with his Duel Disk activated, but no cards on it. Shadows raised from the ground and began to surround the kids with each step he took.

"The edgy guy from GX?" Avice raised an eyebrow.

"That's pretty cool." Evan replied. "You girls take care of Sora, this one is mine."

The white haired boy put on his cat hood and took his Duel Disk, putting it onto his arm. Evan then walked toward his opponent, an unknown power causing the shadows to back off when he got closer to them. The two stopped eight feet away from each other and raised their Duel Disks, strangely, Evan's didn't turn into Fragment hurting mode, which made the boy wonder what exactly his opponent was.

"Ok mister edgy. I'm afraid that you have to stop now." Evan told him.

"I think not." Nightshroud replied. "You are your family are on my list as well as that insect you are protecting."

"But why? I don't remember doing anything bad to you."

"It's simple." Nightshroud pointed at Evan. "You are Tracers and Tracers are those who brought ruins to the four dimensions. And on an individual level, you and you sister are simply a threat for everyone."

"W-what?!" Evan took a step back. "Sorry buddy, but I think you got it all wrong."

"Then prove it through a duel." Nightshroud exclaimed. "I challenge you to a Shadow Duel, devil!"

"Well a duel is what I wanted anyway." Evan smirked, ignoring the part where he got called a devil. "Let's do this."

A circle of darkness formed around the two, so that no one could come out or in until the duel reach a conclusion.

"DUEL!" both of them shouted.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Nightshroud LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

* * *

 **Avice: Hello to the preview section! There is nothing new time around since the author hasn't posted in months, but here is a small reminded of where we are so far.**

 **Chapter** **19: Night Approaches**

Summary: After Sora's brutal defeat by the hands of Nightshroud Evan's spirits convince him to step in and defend Yuya's friend. The duel begins strong with both sides inflicting serious damage to each other, but soon Evan finds himself overpowered by Nightshroud's monsters and dark powers while his deck keeps calling toward the void that surrounds him. At this time Nightshroud begins to tell him about how Leo used the Tracers to destroy the timeline he came from.

 **Chapter** **20: The Berserk Supreme Devil King**

Summary: Pushed into a corner Evan tries to push back the endless assault from Nightshroud while his family and friends are trying to encourage him. But with his soul now sinking into darkness and despair a strange abnormally happens as Evan uses his anger to evolve Phantomus!

 **Chapter** **21: The Maiami Championship: New Beginning!**

Summary: Two days have passed since Evan's duel against Nightshroud, he finally wakes up and wonders with his sisters whenever what Nightshroud told them about the Tracers was true. At the same time the Maiami Championship finally begins and suddenly Akaba Reiji gathers his allies...

 **Avice: Finally, the summary for chapter 21 is out!**

* * *

 **A/N: I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I wasn't sure whenever I should give Nightshroud a Xyz monster given that he is from the Fusion Dimension, but I believe it goes with the fact that he is an enemy of the Proffesor and Academia. Also, I'm not sure which characters from previous shows I should use in this story so this Nightshroud isn't** **Fubuki Tenjoin...** **I just hope it turned out alright.**

 **On another note, yesterday I saw that there was going to be another pack of Legacy Support of older Decks and boy, oh boy are those cards just awesome. I just want to use them in this story!**

 **You don't understand I really want to!**

 **So, thanks to everyone for the follows and favorites, also thanks to** wsa1997 **and** duskrider **for their reviews. Also, I'm happy that someone thinks that Fragments and Tracers make some kind of sense.**

 **That's all from me for today. Follow/Favorite/Review and 'till next time everyone.**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	19. Chapter 19

_(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chess alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the title with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**

 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**

 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**

 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**

 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**

 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**

 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;**

 _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**

 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**

 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**

 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.

 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**

 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**

 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**

 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other three's' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,**

 _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**

 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

Night Approaches

 **Evan's POV**

'How comes I and my family always end up in the center of every goddamn mess?' I thought.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's about how I'm going to duel the literal incarnation of evil for some blue haired kid who is probably going to die from diabetes before the age of sixteen. Of course there was also the fact that Nightshroud threatened my family, so I guess that this would be a good enough excuse to kick the ass of one of my favorite GX villains.

"You know, I realize that a duel between you and me would be epic, but do we really need to do this?" I asked the masked man. "You know far more about all this that any of us, so couldn't we be allies instead of enemies?"

"And what reason would I have to partner up with another small bug?" Nightshroud asked me. "You don't get it kid, this isn't just about revenge."

"What is it about then?" I cried out.

"I want your darkness."

"My darkness?" I scratched the back of my head, then quickly jumped back and wrapped my hands around my body. "I think you should take me out for a dinner before asking for such things!"

Surprisingly, Nightshroud didn't reply back and instead he just stared at me. With those emotionless eyes of his mask it felt like there was a pair of red eyes staring right at my back, like a predator. The black flames that surrounded us began larger, completely hiding Avice and Eliz from my view. I could still hear them shouting my name, but I didn't mind it much because of the shadow arms that began to reach out from the flames. The moans and curses of the countless restless souls that those dark flames have consumed before began to echo in my head.

"I think that I should begin to keep my mouth shut from now on." I said to myself.

"Don't let a bit of dark magic scare you, master!" Foxy came out of my shadow and slapped the dark arms with her hammer. "That weakling needs to pay for hurting your friend with its live!"

"I'm flattered that you think I stand a chance against literally darkness itself." I told Foxy then turned toward Nightshroud. "But seriously dude, why must you attack me? I mean, there is that one fast food store right next to the park whose prices are calling out for the Shadow Realm…"

"You can act as a fool all you want, but destiny has chosen this duel to happen." Nightshroud pointed at me. "And destiny cannot be escaped."

"Then there is one last thing I want to say before we begin."

"And what would that be?"

"Screw destiny, I got card games!"

There were a few seconds of silence and Nightshroud pulled up his mask to rub the space between his eyes. I got a clear view on his face and what surprised me was that the guy behind the mask wasn't Asuka's brother nor that other creepy dude from the finale.

"…Your entire existence embarrass me." Nightshroud eventually said and put his mask again.

"Duel!" We shouted in unison.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will start." Nightshroud glanced at his hand. "I summon _The Black Stone of Legend (Lv. 1, ATK: 0)_! Then I release it to Special Summon _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_ from my Deck!"

I took a step back and watched in awe the new monster that appeared on Nightshroud's field. I knew all the Red-Eyes monsters as well as every card that Nightshroud used in his duels during GX and that wasn't one of them. Could it be that Konami has made actual new support for the Deck?

"Then I set two cards and end my turn." Nightshroud gestured as two cards appeared by his feet. "Your move, Tracer."

"I draw." I said, getting my sixth card.

 **『** **[Turn 2] Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 6** **』**

I looked over my hand and thought about what I can do. This guy was using a Red-Eyes deck, therefor I should be expecting a lot of high attack monsters and a huge amount of effect damage. Best approach would be to do a One Turn Kill and don't give him any time to react.

"I summon _ChronoDevil Summit Hornet (Lv. 3, ATK: 1000)_!" I began as a giant insect appeared on my field. "Then using its effect I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Unknollow (Lv. 1, ATK: 100)_. Then by the effect of Unknollow I Special Summon _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lvl.4, ATK: 1800)_ whose effect activates as well, letting me reduce its attack to 0 in order to summon _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lvl.3, ATK: 1300)_ from my deck with its effects negated!"

With one Normal Summon and three effects my entire field was almost filled with some familiar faces. It took me some time to realize it, but ChronoDevil literally had a built in engine for summoning several monsters from the Extra Deck at once without the need to Pendulum Summon at all.

"It seems that numbers are on my side." I said behind my wall of monsters.

"Their attack power is nowhere near my Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon." Nightshroud pointed out the obvious and I rolled my eyes in response.

"Well, true strength comes from the numbers."

"True strength comes from the will. And right now, my will is to destroy every single Tracer there is."

"I almost feel bad for putting a premature end of your will, almost. Back to the duel, due to Unknollow's effect when a monster is summoned by its effect Unknollow copies the Level." I explained to my opponent as Unknollow's level became 4. "Then I activate _**Gear Repair**_."

The artwork of the Spell card I activated showed ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost being forced to enter some room filled with gears and machinery by ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy while ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy stood at the side wiping sweat off her forehead with her hammer in hand.

 **Gear Repair (Spell) Normal**

 **Send 1 DARK monster from your hand to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "ChronoDevil" monster with the same Level from your hand or Deck.**

"I discard _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ and Special Summon _ChronoDevil Time Psycher (Lv. 3, DEF: 300)_." Multiple gears appeared before me and combined into the monster. "Next, _Time Psycher_ 's effect lets me draw a card for every ChronoDevil on my field!"

My monsters all raised their heads and looked up as a giant gear appeared over them. The top five cards on my deck glowed and flew through the gear before returning to my hand, returning its size back to six.

"That's not enough!" I shouted. "I activate _Timeline Fusion_ to fuse _ChronoDevil Summit Hornet_ with _ChronoDevil Unknollow_!"

The black flames around me flew over my field and formed a giant vortex which gained color as my monsters were sucked inside of it.

"The undertaken supporter of time! Cross your future with the unknown dwelling in our past to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight, _ChronoDevil Grey Reaper (Lv. 8, ATK: 1700)_!"

The Fusion monster reaped by my side holding the scythe over its shoulder. Of course Grey Reaper wasn't enough to defeat Red-Eyes and Nightshroud. _Stream Supporter_ and _Timefrozer Ghost_ seemed to realize what I had in mind as they nodded to me.

"I tune my Level Four _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter_ to the Level Three _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_!" Here it was coming, an old favorite of mine! "Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lvl.7, ATK: 2400)_!"

Next out came my second in command. _Mystic-Flare_ spread its wings and roared at Nightshroud. With this I had 4100 damage on board, however those set cards needed to be dealt with before I could attack.

"I activate _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ effect, as all monster I control are DARK I can revive him from the graveyard! Then I overlay my level 3 _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ and _ChronoDevil Time Psycher_!" After Fusion and Synchro its turn for Xyz! "Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! _ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)_!"

"I was starting to wonder when you were going to call me out, mate!" Void Lancer swung his spear as he spoke.

"Concentrate, this time our foe is extremely dangerous." Grey Reaper warned.

"Come on, we are the ChronoDevil. We were born to win battles like this."

I looked between my monsters fascinated. I couldn't hear their voices before, but with every day, or more correctly, with every duel I win, more and more of my ChronoDevil deck starts to… become a larger part of me.

"I activate Void Lancer's effect to detach both of its Overlay Units, preventing you from activating those set cards on your field. _Voided Zone_!"

"Your entire being is made from darkness." Nightshroud said as he looked down at his cards which became grey.

"You mean awesomeness! 'Cause I activate Grey Reaper's effect and equip it to Void Lancer!" I threw my hand forward.

My monster threw its scythe into the sky and merged with it. The weapon flew toward Void Lancer who caught it with his free hand and held it alongside his spear.

 **ChronoDevil Void Lancer ATK: 1800 + 1700 - 3500**

"Battle Phase! _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon_ , attack _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_!" My dragon fired its cannons and Red-Eyes replied with a fireball, the two attacks crashing into one another

"But both monsters have the same attack power." Nightshroud pointed out. "They will destroy one another!"

"Normally, that would be the case." I agreed with him. "But in this battle of wits, my monster has the advantage of cannons! _Time Nullify_!"

The safeguard of my dragon's cannons fell off and its beams triple in strength, easily overpowering the opposite side. My attack hit and completely incinerated the Red-Eyes dragon.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 4000 – 1600 Hand: 2** **』**

"An effect, I see." I gritted my teeth as Nightshroud commented unfazed by the large amount of damage I just did to him. "I activate _Red-Eyes Retro Dragon_ 's effect from my hand! I Special Summon it along with _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ that you just destroyed."

A fire dragon shot out of Nightshroud's disk and hit the ground, creating a circle of flames as the monster I just destroyed appeared alongside a smaller version. Both of them had a blue aura around them showcasing that they were in defense position with 2000 and 1600 defense respectively.

"So much for ending it in one turn." I gritted my teeth annoyed. "Then Void Lancer, take down Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon! _Ray Explosive Lance_!"

My monster swung its spear and then threw it through Red-Eyes' chest before slashing through its waist with the scythe.

"Next Grey Reaper's effect activates!" Void Lancer threw the scythe into the air as my Fusion Monster reformed and took his weapon. "When the equipped monster finish battling Grey Reaper can reappear on my field! Now, destroy Red-Eyes Retro Dragon!"

Grey Reaper swung his scythe, cutting off the dragon's head then made a large jump and return to my side of the field with my other monsters.

"Do you still think that defeat is my destiny?" I asked.

"This is a duel of darkness." Nightshroud gestured toward the shadows. "Progress and advantage mean nothing here."

"Darkness is right." Grey Reaper turned toward me. "The duel could turn around any time, stay focused."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say. I end my turn here."

"For all the rumors about Tracers being a formidable opponent that I have heard, you are nothing more than kids with a huge amount of power in your hands and no discipline or idea how to use it." Nightshroud crossed his hands. "You are simple humans, easy to corrupt and manipulate."

"I still don't get it!" I shouted back. "You said that Tracers work for Leo Akaba, that they are part of Academia's army! How many like us are out there? Where can I find them? I need answers!"

"You won't get answers from them." Nightshroud shook his head. "Tracers are nothing more than Fragments, relics from an older age."

"You know everything about them, don't you?" I narrowed my eyes. "You knew about us all along, you just didn't do anything before because…" I paused for a moment, of course, the reason why Nightshroud became active just now was so obvious! "Academia tried to get you involved, didn't they?"

"No, they didn't want me to take part in that silly war of theirs." Nightshroud shook his head. "They simply wanted me out of the way, wanted my power to create a secret weapon that would eliminate all opposition in every dimension. They tricked Leo into thinking that I'm an enemy and before I knew it that idiot sent the Tracers toward me. The bastards caught and almost killed me. This mask, is the only remain of my essence now."

"So because of that you came here trying to kill me?" I asked, curiously.

"Of course not." Nightshroud waved it off. "Tracers are murders, marauders. They bring despair to this world and that's what made me powerful. The invasion of the Xyz Dimension? Around seventy-nine percent of the destruction and casualties were work of the Tracers. But for all their… Destructive capabilities and dueling skills they are just humans. After I got imprisoned into this mask the darkness they bring to this reality is barely enough to maintain my existence." Nightshroud paused and then turned to point at me. "You on the other hand…"

Yeah, I got it. I looked down as Nightshroud began to talk about me, it was hard to believe that so much darkness could be existing inside my soul. I didn't want to believe that such a thing could be possible, but at the back of my mind, a certain though made Nightshroud's words to sound move realistic and possible. In the GX anime the only person who managed to defeat Darkness true form was the holder of the Gentle Darkness, Judai so it was hard to imagine that normal duelists, as many as they might me, could manage to do such a thing. Only someone with unnatural abilities like a Tracer of Fragment could stand a chance, so that part of his story is true.

Could it be that the reason I and my sisters were brought to this world be to destroy it? Every time I duel I can feel that desire inside of me to go all out, to become stronger, to defeat everyone within my sight. Even now it's hard to tell whenever the idea of me being some sort of destructive force that endangers everyone scares me… or makes me like it more.

"You alone hold enough darkness to return my former body and power." Nightshroud held out his hand to the side. "And by the end of this Shadow Duel, all the strength that you have will be mine."

"You got to give it to him, if nothing else he is at least confident in his abilities."

"Shut the fuck up, Lancer."

"And you are always the one with a bone, Reaper."

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I stared at the wall of dark flames before me, with nothing but the hope that they would soon die out and my brother would walk out of there alright. I tried to find a way past, but that was just a waste of time as the fire wasn't a normal one. My sister was kneeling behind me, talking to Sora, trying to keep the candy lover from passing out while Koharu and Oni stood there as well, watching the sinister flames with just as much concern as me. I had always believed in my brother, looked up to him as a role model, but in a situation like this when we are just a few steps away from each other yet couldn't hear nor see each other I feel scared.

I couldn't communicate with Foxy or Wolfy either, my Astral Angel monsters were at a loss too. I felt that Koharu's gaze has turned to me, but I didn't return it. She was probably giving me a sympathetic look, but I hate those, I hate when people feel sorry for me, because when they do… Something bad must have happened.

"Avice, Elizabeth!" I turned to the source of the voice and saw Levant and Ventus running toward us.

"What happened here?" Ventus made a gesture toward Sora and the flames as he asked that, but I didn't care much. "Did you get attacked by a Kaiba or something?"

"Where is Evan?" Levant asked us, but when he looked at the flames I noticed that his eyes widened ever so slightly, indicating that he found the answer of his own question. "What is going on?"

"Ask him!" Koharu turned toward Sora and pointed at him. "When we came we found this Fusion scum and then a man dressed in black suddenly attacked us! The boy got into a duel to save this spawn of hell!"

I bite my lip and tried to keep myself from saying anything, but what Koharu had already told them was a lie. My brother was in this situation because she wanted us to help her, Sora was innocent in this situation; she was the one that brought us to Nightshroud.

"Hey, hey no need to get violent!" Venus waved his hands in front of Koharu, then gestured toward Sora. "He is already wounded enough and without you giving him salt. Plus, I might not be an expert, but when it comes to hellish black flames of death it usually isn't the job of Academia."

"He got a point." Levant walked up to me and crossed his hands, studying the flames. "The Fragment detector of our Duel Disks hasn't activated so it's not something we know about."

"It's Nightshroud." Levant gave me a questionable look as I mentioned that name, but he knew that my words were true; I wouldn't have a reason to lie about that to him. "It seems that this demonic bastard was existing in the Fusion Dimension and now he is hunting them."

"Well, that makes things easier for us, doesn't it?"

"According to him Academia is using an army of Tracers to destroy the other dimensions. He attacked us as soon as we came here and my brother accepted to duel him in order to protect the rest of us." I felt so bad for not joining him in the duel.

"A Shadow Duel…" I glanced at Levant, surprised that he knew about Shadow Duels, but I didn't let that bother me much and returned my attention to the flames before me. "We won't be able to get past these flames until a victor is decided." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Keep your strength for after the duel ends, ok?"

I nodded and look down at my Duel Disk, something within my Deck was glowing, but no one else seemed to notice that phenomenon. I picked my _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ which was the source of the strange light and in an instance the Duel Monster formed in spirit form beside me, looking at the flames with a serious expression, something that was rare to see on her. After a bit she sighed and turned toward me.

" _You brother has gotten himself into a big mess, those flames can even cut the connection between Duel Spirits_." Those words, hearing that my brother was in real danger, caused a burning pain in my chest. " _But don't worry young one, since Phantomus is your brother's spirit partner I'm sure that everything is going to be fine._ "

Yeah, she was right. The ChronoDevils would never fail my brother, thanks to Sola my spirit raised a bit. I nodded to her with a slight smile and the rest of my Astral Angels appeared beside me as well, looking at me and most important of all, giving me hope.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"My turn!" Nightshroud declared and followed with a dramatic draw of his card.

 **『** **[Turn 3] Nightshroud LP: 1600 Hand: 3** **』**

The black flames around us trembled a bit and Nightshroud looked at the card he drew. I didn't like how long he was taking there. Following anime logic the card he got definitely wasn't a dead draw, but I had no idea how bad it could be for me.

"First I use the effect of _The Black Stone of Legend_ to return _Red-Eyes Retro Dragon_ to the Deck and add Black Stone to my hand."

'He is recycling his resources.' I thought, narrowing my eyes. 'Black Stone's summoning effect cannot be used the same turn, so that won't be a problem for now.'

"I activate _Red-Eyes Fusion_!" The flames behind Nightshroud exploded upward and regained their usual orange color. "I fuse, from my deck, _Red-Eyes Black Dragon_ and _Summoned Skull_!" The two monsters appeared at the sides and then fell inside the flames as a pair of red-eyes appeared from within.

"Legendary dragon of darkness, revive with the power of the undead demon! The black flames of your soul, burn through the flesh of the sinners! Fusion Summon! Tear through the fire of hell! Level 9! _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon (Lv. 9, ATK: 3200)_!"

I stared in awe as the Black Skull Dragon retrain appeared on the field covered in black bones and red flesh. The beast roared with the flames on its head reaching the tip of its wings, a part of the black fire that surrounded us began to circle around the monster whose eyes glowed brighter as that happened.

"I so want that dragon." I muttered and noticed the rest of my monsters staring at me. "Well excuse me for being a diehard fan of the Summoned Skull Beatdown deck, will you?"

"I cannot Normal or Special Summon any other monsters the turn Red-Eyes Fusion is activated." I sighed in relief to those words. "Battle! _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ attack _ChronoDevil Void Lancer_! _Molten Demon Flare_!" The dragon opened its mouth and fired a fireball infused with demon magic.

"Don't think that only because I have no set cards' I cannot counter the attack!" I reached out for a card in my hand.

"But you can't. When Archfiend Black Skull Dragon attacks you cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the damage step!" Nightshroud pointed out as the attack came into contact with my monster.

"Kkkyyyyaaaaaahhhhhh!" I heard Void Lancer screaming as the card molted through his armor and then exploded, taking him out as expected.

What I wasn't prepared for was that the explosion hit me as well and I felt all of its strength and heat, the ground beneath me cracked and then I was blown off my feet and crashed into the ground with a yelp. The pain in this duel was real.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 2600 Hand: 5** **』**

I tried to get back up, but suddenly a bolt of pain ran through my left leg, causing my body to collapse once again, though this time my hands managed to told me into a kneeling position. I took a deep breath and looked down at my legs, only to find that my pants were tattered and my left knee was burned badly.

"At the end of the Battle Phase the other effect of _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ activates and I return Red-Eyes Black Dragon into my deck to inflict its attack as damage to you." Nightshroud showed me the card before shuffling it back into his deck, a circle of flames formed around me as that happened. " _Black Demon's Revenge_!"

I threw my head back and screamed as the fire shot through me, burning my flesh, the pain almost too much for my mind to handle. After I don't know how long the flames finally disappeared and I felt onto my face, unable to even feel the pain of hitting the hard ground due to the amount of pain that was already preoccupying my mind.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2600 – 200 Hand: 5** **』**

"Are you done already?" With much effort I managed to turn my head a little, enough to see Nightshroud staring down at me with a black shadow around his body.

I would have clutched my fist in anger, if my body could move enough to do that, but even breathing was causing me suffering. This is so sick… fucked up… screwed… and I'm at the lost. Sorry Avice, Eliz, your big brother failed you again.

 _ **I haven't lost yet!**_

My eyes widened as I heard a voice speaking directly into my head. It wasn't my spirits, no, I could feel it; the voice that spoke was MINE.

 _ **I can never lose! I'm unbeatable!**_

My deck began, no, a single card within it began to glow. The voice was right, I couldn't lose here, there is still much that have to be done. Avice, Elizabeth and Oni, I had to be there for their sake. My body began to move on its own, feeling the pain as if every single one of my muscles was getting torn apart with every move, I gritted my teeth, ignoring that and put my hands at each side of my body, supporting it as I rose back up and leaned my head to the side.

With my Duel Disk raised to my chest level I looked back to Nightshroud who seemed both shocked and a little afraid of me. I chuckled despite the pain and tried to move my right hand, raising it enough to look at my cards.

"I never felt so much pain in my life…" I began to speak and the black flames began to circle around me as well. "Because of that… I will give you a double."

* * *

 **Avice: Geez, six more days and it would have been TWO months without any updates.**

 **DT: I'm sorry?**

 **Avice: You better be! Anyway, to the preview section! Today we have:**

 **Chapter** **20: The Berserk Supreme Devil King**

Summary: Pushed into a corner Evan tries to push back the endless assault from Nightshroud while his family and friends are trying to encourage him. But with his soul now sinking into darkness and despair a strange abnormally happens as Evan uses his anger to evolve Phantomus!

 **Chapter** **21: The Maiami Championship: New Beginning!**

Summary: Two days have passed since Evan's duel against Nightshroud, he finally wakes up and wonders with his sisters whenever what Nightshroud told them about the Tracers was true. At the same time the Maiami Championship finally begins and suddenly Akaba Reiji gathers his allies...

 **Avice: The exact same thing as last time? 'Kay then.**

* * *

 **So after nearly two months of me wondering whenever Nightshroud should destroy Grey Reaper or Void Lancer (yeah, that's the part that took me so long!) as well as wondering whenever I should put the new Red-Eyes support from Legendary Duelists into this I finally made my decisions! I believe that some of you guys expect all of the latest support, which is why I once got** **criticised for now putting Toadally Awesome in a chapter that came out 6 months before the card (for God's sake people, really?) but I'm not going to use the latest Red-Eyes support due to several reasons!**

 **1\. The new equip theme they have going is better, but its made more for the Link Era with the way it focuses on protecting and powering up a SINGLE boss monster.**

 **2\. The new support is more... how to put it... Something that Joey Wheeler/Katsuya Jonouchi would use rather than Nightshroud.**

 **Sorry if that disappoints anyone, but** **I hope that in the future, if Konami release more Red-Eyes support no one is going to come back here and** **criticised me for not having precognition.**

 **I'm not going to talk about the chapter because what would be the point in writing it if I'm going to just put a summary in the end. What I'm going to do however is use this section to thank** SillyEmber **and** fireredtie **for favoriting the story as well as thank to** LunaSoraYamiMoonlightCrystal **(Now that's a name I would rather not try to pronounce ten times in a row...) for both favoriting and following the story.**

 **That's all for today!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	20. Chapter 20

_(Evan, Elizabeth and Avice are shown floating within an empty white space as memories of the past life played in the background, showing Elizabeth standing with a hand over her chest as she is looking away from her siblings, then the memories show Avice playing chess alone and finally Evan sitting in the corner of his room watching the clock. Suddenly the background started changing colors and the siblings open up their eyes which started to glow and the three got replaced by the title with three pendulums swinging behind it.)_

 **These spinning gears show no sign of stopping,**

 _(Evan is shown leaning back against a wall with his cat hood on while the shadow of Leo Corporation falls on him.)_

 **Ever since I created this hell by trying to keep everything in balance.**

 _(Avice is seen standing on the roof watching the starts, then the scene changes to Elizabeth watering a flower.)_

 **Acting half out of playfulness, a god brought us to a world atop a game board:**

 _(Scene shows Avice Evan and Elizabeth looking surprised before smiling as the camera turns to show Yuya and Oni checking their cards, while Sora and Yuzu are talking with the kids.)_

 **No, no, no game, no life!**

 _(The siblings along with the You Show Duelists looked toward the camera and nodded before running off.)_

 **So we toss away a lukewarm sense of peace,**

 _(Reiji is watching over the city from his office. Then a boy with grey hair and a boy with red and black hair are shown walking through the city, chatting .)_

 **To carve our part out of the steps of glory.**

 _(Yuya and Evan step toward and all lights fall on them while the camera zooms out showing that they are in the center of a stadium with everyone cheering for them.)_

 **Reflected in our eyes is a fate of absolute victory.**

 _(Yuzu and Elizabeth Tribute/Xyz Summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda.)_

 **Everything is going as planned;**

 _(Avice and Sora are standing back to back calling out their monsters as Astral Angel Golden Knight and Frightfur Bear appear beside them.)_

 **We'll change everything with an untainted blank space.**

 _(Scene moves from Koharu to Yuto to Shun then a shadowed figure appears and a Red-Eyes Black Dragon is shown going against the Xyz Trio.)_

 **We are maverick; we don't need a savior!**

 _(Quick shots show Yuya dressed as a clown facing against Strong Ishijima, Elizabeth doing exercises late at night, Avice reading a book and Evan sitting under a tree, playing with a black kitty.)_

 **No matter how unfair the odds,**

 _(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth then look up as three D/D/D Doom King Armageddon attack them all at once.)_

 **All we can do is win**.

 _(A beaten Evan looks up and smirks with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing behind him. Avice and Elizabeth do the same with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer protecting them.)_

 **Our strategy and talent render us undefeated.**

 _(The siblings are shown declaring an attack as their three aces flew toward the D/D/D Doom King Armageddons and fused into a single force that lighted the area and changed the screen to white.)_

 **It's time to have fun with these reborn lives,**

 _(After the battle ended Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look back and see the You Show Duelists along with the grey and the black haired boys running toward them.)_

 **Only believing in ourselves.**

 _(We then see the three siblings and Oni in a new duel with ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy in the Pendulum Zones while ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon was standing along with the other three's' Fusion, Xyz and Ritual monsters.)_

 **There's no opponent stronger than the darkness lurking in your heart,**

 _(The screen changes from the shadowed figure, to Reiji looking at a screen inside a dark room and finally at night time another figure with a cat hood and glowing yellow eyes is glaring down toward the city.)_

 **And as long as you don't yield to it, you'll be impossible to defeat.**

 _(The scene finally shows Avice, Elizabeth, Oni and everyone else from You Show taking a picture in the park while Evan is sleeping on the branch of a tree behind the group.)_

* * *

The Berserk Supreme Devil King

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"So, why is nobody trying to climb up a warehouse and jump into the flame circle?" Ventus asked the others, getting weird looks from Oni, Koharu and Levant while Avice and Elizabeth had their own problems to take care of.

"I realize that you might not be thinking that far," Levant took a deep breath and pressed his hands together. "But if 'jumping over the flames' was a way for someone to enter or escape a Shadow Duel, then no one would be standing there dueling for dear life instead of running as far away as possible."

"How do you know that? No one has tried to escape a Shadow Duel in the anime, have they?" Ventus leaned forward and squeezed his fists, hoping the others would see the logic behind his words.

And indeed, Levant put a hand under his chin in thought about it. "You might have a point there." He muttered and paced in a circle. "No one backs down or runs from a duel no matter how dangerous it might be, so we never got to know if your method could work." Levant his palm with his fist and turned toward the Lightsworn duelist. "You are going to try it!"

"Nope." Ventus crossed his hands into an 'X'.

" _Being always surrounded by humans can be so bothersome at times._ " Sola sighed and crossed her arms over one another. " _Back during my time they fought demons and ancients spirits. Now everyone just uses us as a circus attraction for their Action Duels._ "

" _But it's always good to have a bit of peace and fun instead of destroying civilizations, isn't it?_ " Sina asked the fairy spirit with a bright smile on her face.

Sola looked at her spellcaster partner and then narrowed her eyes. " _I'm starting to miss my stone table back in Egypt._ " She said out loud enough for Avice and Sina to hear her before returning back inside her card.

Sina shook her head in disappointed and returned back to Elizabeth's deck. The older Greyson was with Sora, standing over him and checking his pulse every three minutes while asking him underwhelming questions like what his name was, what date it was, and the all too familiar:

"How many fingers do you see?"

Sora gave her a look that could be read as 'Are you for real?' but ultimate decided to go along, despite seeing how stupid it was. "Listen, I'm not sure what you are trying to prove or if you are trying to trick me, but it would be hard to give a wrong answer when your hand is clenched into a fist."

Elizabeth glared at the blue haired boy then changed her hand into another gesture. "How many do you see now?"

"One. Also that's just rude."

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

I took a deep breath and await for Nightshroud to finish his turn. For now my body was able to stand upside, but the intense pain was running through every cell of my existence and I knew that it was just a matter of time before I lost all of my strength and collapsed. The strength of will was the only thing that kept me on my feet. Everything I could hope for at the moment, was that the moment I faint wasn't going to come too soon.

"I will give you that the strength of your soul and mind were able to withstand longer than most of my previous opponents." Nightshroud commented, with a smirk on his face. "Take your move."

"You are going to make me blush with those warm words." I joked, maybe if I distracted my mind from thinking about the pain it would make my body hurt less. "I draw!"

 **『** **[Turn 4] Evan LP: 200 Hand: 6** **』**

"You might have managed to get back control over you Trap Cards, but that sentimentality made you forget something important about my deck. ChronoDevils work best in team! Do it, Grey Reaper!"

Grey Reaper's eyes sparked as he threw his scythe into the air and fused with it. Mystic-Flare Dragon flew up to catch it and roared as a black shadow appeared behind its back.

 **ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon ATK: 2400 + 1700 - 4100**

"Battle! _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon_ attacks _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_!" My dragon threw the scythe as a boomerang into the air then fired its cannon at the huge dragon beneath it.

"Due to _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ 's effect your dragon cannot use _Time Nullify_ during the battle!" Nightshroud pointed out as his dragon countered the attack with its fire breath.

"My monster's attack is still superior!" I pointed to the side as the scythe returned and stabbed itself into the side of _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ 's head, allowing my monster to gain the upper hand and blow it to pieces with the cannons.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 1600** **\- 700** **Hand: 3** **』**

Nightshroud was blown back by the power of _Mystic-Flare Dragon_ , but my attack was far from over. Now that the dragon has destroyed a monster by battle Grey Reaper's effect activated and the hooded skeleton reappeared to hold its scythe as _Mystic-Flare_ 's attack power returned to its original value.

" _Grey Reaper_ attack the opponent player directly!" I ordered, to which Grey Reaper nodded and swung its weapon, aiming for Nightshroud's head.

"A reaper, how ironic." Nightshroud swung a hand over the screen of his Duel Disk and a stream of flames rises from the ground, protecting him from my monster. "I activate _Red-Eyes Spirit_!" A pair of red eyes appeared inside the flames and then _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ came out with 2400 ATK.

"Of course it's not going to be that easy." Grey Reaper muttered and landed back to my side of the field. "Keep your eyes open kid!" He reminded me.

Both I and Nightshroud had less than 1000 life points now, so any single attack from here could grant victory. Of course, I had to be the more careful one since Nightshroud's deck focused on strong beaters and large amounts of effect damage, none of which I could withstand for much longer.

"Just to ensure things, I will activate _Return of the Red-Eyes_!" Nightshroud stretched his hand to the side as a circle of black flames surrounded his Continuous Trap. "When I control a Red-Eyes I can revive a Normal Monster from my Graveyard. Of course, I revive _Summoned Skull (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_!"

' _I'm not sure if I should be happy to see my favorite monster being played, or angry that it's played against me?_ ' I thought, getting another stare from my monsters. ' _I mean, my second favorite after all of you guys of course._ ' I quickly corrected myself and thankfully they took my compliment.

"I activate the effect of _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ from my Graveyard to revive it." The rock monster kneeled before me and crossed its hands, as it awaited with 2000 defense. "Then I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Steam Maiden (Lv. 4, ATK: 1000)_ and set five cards." The maiden appeared combat ready along with the five set cards behind her. "With this I end my tu-! Damn it!"

I felt the pain in my body increasing and then I collapsed on my knees, unable to support myself any longer. My body felt cold, I trembled, but despite that there was sweat running down my face, and I know that right now isn't the time to be petite, but I felt extreme thirst. My head raised a bit, to look at Nightshroud who was drawing a card from his deck.

 **『** **[Turn 5] Nightshroud LP: 700 Hand: 4** **』**

"This is a Duel of Darkness, Tracer." Nightshroud said. "Every life point we spent is our actual life and every attack is as real as it looks. Whatever abilities you might have, without control makes you no better than a regular human." Nightshroud's smirk began bigger as he continued. "You lost all hope of coming out alive the moment you accepted this duel."

I gritted my teeth, knowing that the bastard was right about most of it. I can talk to Duel Monster Spirits and might have obtained other dark abilities with my arrival to this reality, but without knowledge and way to control them, I wasn't any different from anyone else that Nightshroud might have fought before. But despite that, who said that only a supernatural being can beat another of its own kind? I have seen Judai beat him several times in the anime without the use of any supernatural powers; no cheating destiny or creating cards out of thin air either, a fair and square victory. So, if he can then I can as well!

"The more you keep talking I begin to notice that your words are trying to encourage me into giving up and forfeiting." The anime Nightshroud never tried to talk down his opponent… "That's not like you, to me your words sound as those of someone scared." Nightshroud clenched his fist and I smirked back. "You are scared of me."

"Your words are doing nothing, but annoying me."

"Then this is going to annoy you even further." I pressed the screen of my Duel Disk. "I activate _Dark Spirit Art – Greed_ and tribute _ChronoDevil Steam Maiden_ to draw two cards!" A magic circle formed around Steam Maiden, turning her into a shadow as I drew two cards. "Thanks…" I muttered, seeing _ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy_ and _ChronoDevil Timescale Champion_.

"Futile move, you won't be able to use those cards!" Nightshroud declared. "I summon _The Black Stone of Legend (Lv. 1, ATK: 0)_! Then I release it to Special Summon _Red-Eyes Black Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_ from my Deck!"

The original version of the legendary dragon appeared at the right side of the _Summoned Skull_ while the retrained was at the left. I had dueled Red-Eyes players online back at my world, so I knew what he was planning on doing next. And I had the perfect counter for it!

"I activate _Dimensional Barrier_!" Oh yes baby, this deck of mine had a Meta relevant card inside it! "I choose one kind of Special Summon and for the rest of this turn, neither one of us can use it!"

"A card like that… So you will block my Fusions?" Nightshroud asked me.

"Don't be naïve! I'm a Tracer, there are things that I have more knowledge about than you think!" I raised my hand a little to point at Nightshroud. "The type I choose is Xyz!"

Nightshroud took a step back, surprised. "You little…" He took a card from his hand. "I activate Red-Eyes Insight and send _Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon_ from my Deck to the Graveyard in order to add a Red-Eyes Spell or Trap Card from my Deck!" I raised an eyebrow, as he didn't show me the card that he added. "I use the effect of _Return of the Red-Eyes_ to revive _Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon (Lv. 6, ATK: 1800)_ from my Graveyard!"

" _He got four powerful monsters!_ " I narrowed my eyes as Grey Reaper pointed out the obvious.

' _Don't worry, I'm ready for that._ ' I reassured my monsters.

"You think that I would attack you?" Nightshroud asked me. "Don't underestimate me, kid! I activate _Fusion Substitute_ to fuse _Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact_ and _Red-Eyes Black Dragon_!"

"A second Fusion Summon?" Well, I did expect him to use it instead of attacking while I have three more set cards, but I didn't think that he might use fusion cards other than _Red-Eyes Fusion_.

" _Legendary dragon of darkness, become one with the flames of your kind! Ignite ruin over this world and cover the sky in ash! Fusion Summon! Dragon born from the fire of hell! Meteor Black Comet Dragon (Lv. 8, ATK: 3500)!_ "

I took a step back and stared at the flaming retrain of _Meteor Black Dragon_. Yes, that's right I know about all two original Red-Eyes fusions and will keep mentioning the word 'retrain' every time I see one!

"When _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_ is Fusion Summoned I sent a Red-Eyes monster from my hand or Deck to the Graveyard and inflict half of its attack power as damage to you." Nightshroud said and a card pooped from his deck. "I sent the 2500 ATK Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning from my Deck to the Graveyard."

A flaming demon appeared over _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_ 's wings and launched itself at me. So, half of 2500 is 1250, doing math would mean…

"I activate _ChronoDevil Steam Maiden_ 's effect from my Extra Deck!" the girl appeared before me and held out a gear that absorbed the flames. "By banishing her I negate your effect damage and gain Life Points equal to its amount!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 200 – 1450 Hand: 2** **』**

"Then I activate _Catalyst Field_!" The space around me and Nightshroud turned blue. " _Catalyst Field_ allows me to conduct my Normal Summon twice during the same turn." He explained the card to me. "Of course, I have no monsters in my hand, so I Gemini Summon _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_."

"Extreme burn damage is in the house." I muttered to myself.

"Battle, _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_ attack _ChronoDevil Grey Reaper_!" My monster braced itself and the dragon charged toward it like a flaming bullet.

"I activate _Emergency Provision_!" I quickly activated my set card. "I destroy _Urgent Tuning_ and _Critical Overload_ on my field to regain 1000 Life Points for each!" My remaining set cards were destroyed, but at least I was able to get some use out of them.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1450 - 3450 Hand: 2** **』**

The aura that surrounded me after the destruction of the cards did heal a bit of my injuries, or at least lessen the pain that I felt from them, but the important part was that this would help me remain in the duel and focus more onto the field before me.

"When _Critical Overload_ is to the Graveyard I can destroy a card on the field!" I looked at the monsters on the field.

If I destroy _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ I will reduce the damage by a lot, but I will leave _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_ on the field and I don't think I have anything strong enough to defeat it during my next turn.

"I destroy _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_!" My trap appeared next to the monster and exploded, taking the dragon with itself. "Then I draw a card!"

"When _Meteor Black Comet Dragon_ is destroyed I revive _Red-Eyes Black Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_!" the black dragon returned on the field and roared at me. " _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ destroy _ChronoDevil Grey Reaper_!"

"Kyyaaahhh!" I cried out as the flames burned my shoulder.

 **『** **Evan LP: 3450 - 2750 Hand: 3** **』**

" _Summoned Skull_ , attack _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon_!" the fiend's lighting hit both my dragon and me, causing me to bite my lower lip.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2750 - 2650 Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon_ 's effect to add _Pendulum Shift_ from my Deck to the hand!" the card pooped out from my Deck and I added it to my hand.

" _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ attack _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_!" I covered my face with a hand as the last of my monsters got blown up.

"At the end of the Battle Phase the effect of _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ activates!" the dragon opened its mouth and a giant fireball formed inside of it. "You take damage equal to its attack!"

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

A familiar loud scream pierced through the silence of the night as a stream of fire raised above the wall that kept the rest of the Tracers outside the duel grounds. Everyone stared at the dark sky in shock and even fear, some of them unable to completely grasp what had happened. Oni fell on her knees and held a hand over her mouth as she fought back tears.

"Brother!" Avice screamed and ran toward the black flames before her.

"Stop!" A voice called out and before Avice could process what happened two hands grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back as the black flames almost burned her.

"Let go of me!" She scream, but no one listened.

Avice turned back with a glare and tried to break free from the hold that Levant and Koharu had on her, but they were stronger and managed to pull her away from the wall. Elizabeth let Sora rest on the ground and then walked up to the others.

"That doesn't look good, does it?" Ventus asked and Avice screamed again.

"Is there really nothing that we could do from here?" Elizabeth asked the others and Levant shook his head.

"I'm not an expert, but once a Shadow Duel is initiated, it cannot be stopped until a winner is decided. By the way, what is going on with your Duel Disk?"

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and then looked down at the device, only to see her deck glowing blue. "What the?" She raised her head and saw a green glow coming from Avice's own deck. "Could brother be…" She muttered and turned toward the fire wall.

Meanwhile inside the Shadow Duel, the flames from _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ 's effect had died down. Evan's outfit was badly burnt and torn apart, and the skin below the cloth was in even worse state, smoke was coming out from his back and his eyes remained open, empty, staring at the endless void that the night sky was.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2650 - 250 Hand: 3** **』**

"Well, it seems like I win." Nightshroud sighed, multiple shadow arms grew from the ground, grabbed onto Evan's legs and began to drag him down.

" _ **Is that your potential, Red-Eyes?**_ "

Nightshroud's eyes, behind the mask, widened and he took a step back as Evan suddenly spoke. The shadow hands that tried to drag him down began to get absorbed into his wounds and a dark figure with a pair of black wings emerged behind the Tracer, with a permanent creepy grin on its face. 'Evan' took a step forward and turned his gaze toward the Nightshroud, the once crimson eyes he had now replaced by dark purple.

" _ **I can never lose! I'm unbeatable!**_ "

Nightshroud frowned an Evan's sudden shout and pressed a button of his Duel Disk. "I activate _Fusion Substitute_ 's effect in the Graveyard! I banish it to return _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ back into my Extra Deck and then draw a card." He returned the card back into his Duel Disk. "Then I set two cards, turn end!"

" _ **My turn then!**_ " the dark entity swung its hand as Evan drew the top card of his deck and raised it over his head, releasing a blinding red light.

 **『** **[Turn 6] Evan LP: 250 Hand: 5** **』**

" _ **I, use the Scale seven, ChronoDevil Timescale Champion, and the Scale eight, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy, to set the Pendulum Scale!**_ " Evan shouted as the demonic entity's wings created a link with the monsters hovering inside of the columns. " _ **Then when another Pendulum Card is activated while Timescale Champion is in the Pendulum Zone I draw a card!**_ "

"Hm." Nightshroud looked at the scales. "With those cards, you can't perform a Pendulum Summon, their scales are too close to one another."

" _ **I know that!**_ " Evan spat and took a card in his hand. " _ **Because of that I activate Pendulum Shift to change Timescale Champion's Pendulum Scale to Five**_!" the monster looked below itself as the number seven was replaced with a five. " _ **With this I can Pendulum Summon monsters whose Level is 6 and 7!**_ " the large crimson pendulum began to swing behind, the shadowy entity moving alongside it.

" _ **Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn through the ether and become my path to victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my fellows! ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2300) and Supreme Devil King, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)!**_ "

A red thunder stuck the field and Evan's monsters descended on the field as Phantomus' eyes glowed a sinister purple color. The shadow entity linked itself with _Clocklord Dragon_ while a black flame came out of Evan's body and shot toward _Phantomus_ , linking the two of them together.

'What is this?' Nightshroud thought as he stared at Phantomus and Evan. 'The monster and the boy's souls are...'

" _ **Phantomus' effect activates! When he is Pendulum Summoned I can reduce the ATK of all monsters the opponent controls by 500! Chain of Degrading Souls!**_ " Evan's monster raised his hand forward Nightshroud's monsters and a black mist formed around their necks causing them to gasp in pain as their ATKs got reduced to 1900 and 2000.

"I activate _**Red-Eyes Supernova**_!" Nightshroud countered as a trap whose artwork showed several Red-Eyes monster descending from a pit filled with magma materialized next to him. "I release a _Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon_ to Fusion Summon with monsters that I control!"

 **Red-Eyes Supernova (Trap) Normal**

 **During the Main Phase: Tribute 1 "Red-Eyes" monster; Fusion Summon 1 Dragon-type monster from your Extra Deck using monsters you control as Fusion Materials. That monster is unaffected and cannot be destroyed by card effects. You cannot Special Summon any other monsters during the turn you use this effect. If a Dragon-Type Fusion Monster would be destroyed by battle, you can banish this card from your Graveyard instead, if you do, during the End Phase inflict 500 damage to both players.**

The _Red-Eyes Black Dragon_ and _Summoned Skull_ moved behind Nightshroud and then fell inside the flames as a pair of red-eyes appeared from within, followed by an angry roar.

" _Legendary dragon of darkness, revive with the power of the undead demon! The black flames of your soul, burn through the flesh of the sinners! Fusion Summon! Tear through the fire of hell! Level 9! Archfiend Black Skull Dragon (Lv. 9, ATK: 3200)_!"

" _ **That monster again?**_ " Evan grunted, annoyed. " _ **I activate the effect of ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon to reduce your monster's attack by its own!**_ " _Clocklord Dragon_ 's eyes glowed and it threw its spears toward _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ 's chest.

"Fail into despair boy!" Nightshroud crossed his hands as _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ grabbed the spears and smashed them before roaring angry at the opposing dragon. "Monsters summoned by the effect of _Red-Eyes Supernova_ are unaffected by any and all card effects!"

" _ **Is that all?**_ "

"…What?"

" _ **Let me show you real hatred!**_ " Evan yelled and pointed at the ground. " _ **As all monster on my field are DARK I revive ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv. 3, ATK: 1200)!**_ " The rock monster appeared on the field and swung its weapon. " _ **Then I banish ChronoDevil Grey Reaper from my Graveyard to return Timeline Fusion back to my hand!**_ "

"Another Fusion Summon?" Nightshroud narrowed his eyes.

"Evolve!" Evan yelled as the black flames flew into his palm and began to fuse into a single purple light.

 _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer_ and _ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon_ were engulfed by the darkness with the later crying out in pain as the sinister power torn its body apart and then forced the remains onto the Fiend. Phantomus grunted as his body merged with the darkness and turned into a large pendulum whose purplish-red color made it appear like it was bleeding, with a pair of sinister crimson eyes watching from within it.

" _ **Hollow soul of the demon king, take the sacrificed dragon master of spears and unveil your true power! The demon king with unrivaled hatred, shatter the chains and raise through calamity! Fusion Summon! Embodiment of my burning soul! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer!**_ "

Evan swiped his hand and a glowing purple card appeared into his hand, the pendulum broke apart and a large warrior clad in heavy black armor emerged with an animalistic roar. The creature that appeared seemed to be human for the most part, it had spiky black hair with a single white stripe running through the left side of it. The monster had large black horns that appeared to be made of the same material as its armor and its eyes were covered by a mask with six orange eyes on it. A pair of metallic wings with orange joins and dark blades serving as feathers floated behind the main body even though they were detached from it. The rest of its armor appeared as black dragon scales covering the warrior's entire body. The hands looked like claws made out of flesh and blood with spikes on the shoulders and elbows, and black gauntlets each of which had a circular blade attached to the back. The warrior's chest armor resemble the head of a dragon with bared fangs and four orange orbs that were similar to eyes. Several long blades were attached to its waist and the foot of its boots were extended, appearing to have a single claw on each of them.

 **Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer**

 **Level:** **9** **|Attribute: Dark|Type: Fiend/** **Fusion/** **Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **4**

 **ATK: 2** **9** **00 DEF:** **20** **00**

" **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer" + 1 Dragon-Type monster**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn: If a DARK Fiend-Type monster you control battles an opponent's Dragon-Type monster; double its ATK until the end of the Damage Step.**

 **Effect: If this card is Summoned:** **Return all set cards on the field to their respective owner's hands, neither player can activate cards or effects in response to this effect. Once per turn: You can target 1 Dragon-Type monster in either player's Graveyard; banish that target, and if you do, until the End Phase, replace this effect with that monster's original effects. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: You can return this card to the Extra Deck face-up, then Special Summon 1 "Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer" from your Graveyard or that's face-up in the Extra Deck (This Special Summon is treated as a Pendulum Summon).**

"You infused the essence of the Shadow Duel with your ace!?" Nightshroud stared ahead in shock as the new Fusion Monster appeared before Evan.

" _ **Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer's effect activates!**_ " Evan ignored his opponent and declared his move. " _ **When he is Summoned, I return all set cards on the field to the hand! Dread Miasma!**_ "

The shadow entity behind Evan flew inside Phantomus, the monster swung his hand and a black cloud appeared on the field, covering Nightshroud's set card which then reformed in his hand.

"I activate _Timeline Overlap_ , Tributing _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ and give half of its attack to _Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer_!" Evan played the last card in his hand. With the dark entity gone, his voice returned to normal, but his eyes still glowed purple.

 **Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer** **ATK: 2900 + 600 - 3500**

"Battle, _Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer_ attack _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_!" Berserk Phantomus stretched out his right hand to the side and the blades that were connected to his waist flew into it, merging together to form an axe. " _ **Calamity Void Slash**_!"

"I banish _Red-Eyes Supernova_ from my Graveyard to negate the destruction of _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_!" A barrier formed around the dragon and shielded it from the attack as Nightshroud took the damage.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP:** **7** **00** **\- 400** **Hand:** **1** **』**

"But due to _Timeline Overlap_ my monster can attack twice during the same Battle Phase!" Phantomus swung his axe once again, destroying the barrier and cut _Archfiend Black Skull Dragon_ in two.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP:** **4** **00** **\- 100** **Hand:** **1** **』**

"Too bad for you, during the end of this turn Red-Eyes Supernova's final effect will deal 500 damage to both of you." Nightshroud pointed out. "Since I'm a supernatural being I could easy take the damage, but you, if your Life Points reach zero then you will die."

"What a lowly trick." Evan sighed and turned his back to him. "Well, Phantomus' other effect now activates." He said as multiple gears orbited around his monster. "Since hatred is sparked by events in the past, my monster can return back to that moment of his existence. _**Rage Reload**_!"

The gears began to spin around at a high speed and _Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer_ roared as his body was engulfed by a light.

"This is your end! _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer_ , attack Nightshroud directly! Double Void Slash!" The Pendulum Monster flew out of the light using his jets and charged at Nightshroud, slashing him with arm-blades.

 **『** **Nightshroud** **LP: 100 - 0, Hand: 1** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

Nightshroud screamed and grabbed his head as the black flames exploded underneath his feet and quickly engulfed his whole body until all that remained was his mask that fell on the ground. The color of Evan's eyes returned to normal as he collapsed and Phantomus raised his blades, the fire that surrounded the two duelists flew into his palms before completely disappearing.

"Brother!"

"Niichan!"

As soon as the wall of fire was lifted by Phantomus, Oni, Avice and Elizabeth ran to the collapsed boy with the others following from behind. The little Greyson kneeled next to her brother and was about to shake and wake him up when she saw the burn scars over his body and moved back, refraining from touching him. Koharu moved beside Evan and put two fingers on the side of his neck, checking his pulse.

"He is alive." She noted and moved back. "Must have collapsed from the wounds, but I don't see any life threatening wounds."

"We better carry him back to the house before anyone else come." Levant proposed and Ventus nodded in agreement.

"What are you saying? We should get him in hospital!" Avice protested.

"Reiji has eyes everywhere." Levant pointed out. "If we put him in hospital he might find out and then there will be questions than neither I nor you would want to answer."

Koharu narrowed her eyes and moved up to Levant. "Talking about wounded… What are we going to do with the Fusion scum over there?" She asked, pointing at Sora who was sitting away from them, recovering from his duel.

"He will probably be up shortly." Levant waved it off. "There is nothing we could do right now."

"Shouldn't we get him secured?" Ventus rubbed the back of his head. "After all, he is an enemy."

"He is not our objective, so I don't want to get in trouble trying to drag him to Leo Corporation. The risk of him to escape is too high and Reiji still doesn't have enough evidence that he is from the Fusion Dimension so our hands are tied."

"That is nonsense!" Koharu protested.

"Yeah, but I at least tried to give it some sort of sense." Ventus smirked and then grabbed Evan's by the hands, lifting him up. "The Fusion Dimension isn't our target of interest right now, so I don't care what is going to happen with this one."

"Be careful, he is wounded!" Elizabeth warned Levant and moved to catch Evan and help carrying him.

Koharu sighed, she didn't like leaving the enemy go away like that, but if the duelists from the Standard Dimension said that there were more important things to prepare for, it would be pointless to try and argue with them. As the group began to make their way out of the docks the eyes of Nightshroud's mask flashed purple for a moment before it shattered and disappeared.

* * *

 **Avice: And one more chapter is complete! Yay! With that there is only one more** **summary** **remaining.**

 **Chapter** **21: The Maiami Championship: New Beginning!**

Summary: Two days have passed since Evan's duel against Nightshroud, he finally wakes up and wonders with his sisters whenever what Nightshroud told them about the Tracers was true. At the same time the Maiami Championship finally begins and suddenly Akaba Reiji gathers his allies...

* * *

 **So... That chapter didn't take too long, thankfully. I'm a little mad at myself for having to make and use a custom Red-Eyes card just to give an excuse for the creation of Berserk Phantomus. Also, specially for this chapter I had to change the effect of " _ChronoDevil Steam Maiden_ " that negates effect damage to a Once Per Turn while it canonically lastes for the entirity of the turn.**

 **Anyway, today I have a question for you guys: What do you think of the new Phantomus monster and the dark** **entity** **that 'possessed' our hero and created the card? Do you like them? What or who do you think the entity was? One thing I can tell you for sure, it wasn't Zarc.**

 **So, thanks for giving me a bit of your time again. Please favorite/follow/review and 'till next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	21. Chapter 21

**It's been a while since I last posted, wasn't it? Probably a month, maybe more. That's the amount of time it took me to choose a song that I like and would suit the story to use as an openning theme. Yep, you heard me right! I took all this time to find a new theme song. I'm also wondering, would you mind if I use 5D's OPs for the Synchro Arc? Because so far 5D's and VRAINS are the only YGO shows whose theme songs I enjoy, know that I'm not going to use ZeXaL or GX for the Xyz and Fusion Arcs respectively. Anyways, the song I choose for this new OP is Scarlet Story by Nano, I choose it because it very well suits the personality and Arcs of two of my OCs... And I just hope that you like it!**

 **Story Start!**

* * *

 **So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

The Maiami Championship: New Beginning!

Maiami City was in ruins, with all the buildings demolished or in flames. The sky is pitch black from the smoke of the burned houses. There are no words to fully describe this terrible catastrophe. The few survivors were all hiding in the ruins of their homes, not daring to look outside. How could they? The streets of the ruined paradise belonged to the monsters and those bright lights that brought smiles to the kids had turned into pitch black shadows that sought another victim to tear apart.

As all of that happened, only a handful of humans dared to stand up against the oppression and walk through the streets ruled by creatures of the darkness. A girl raised a hand over her head, holding the cards and then brought them all down on top of a vivid aqua blue blade. Three beams of light raised from the ground before turning into _Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade_ , _Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein_ , and of course, _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_.

The sorceresses raised their wands and unleashed a ball of light that illuminated the streets of the ruined city for the first time in weeks. The shadows lurking in the darkness all fell on their knees, hissing and screaming, their slowly burned away and disappeared into ashes like a bad memory.

As soon as it all ended Elizabeth stepped forward, her clothes burned and tattered, and raised her hand with the activated Duel Disk, high into the air for the people hiding inside to see it. To lay their eyes upon the buzzing vivid blade and know; there was still hope. That humans would fight for what rightfully belonged to them and come out victorious.

Or burn to oblivion in the fierce flames of their own weakness and defeat.

Both, the radiant light of purity and holiness that scorched the evil carving on the ground, and the wicked darkness that ruled over the skies that brought ruins and death upon the world below its boot, lied their eyes upon the challengers that stood before them, seeking to rebuild what they had deemed malicious and destructive. Even if one was invisible, they felt the presence of two souls that tried to calm their increasing hatred. The two that could match their power and pull them from the throne they sat on, drag gods back down to the dirt and remind their souls that once upon a time, they were mortals too.

"Come out and face me!" Elizabeth shouted toward the black sky that protected them from her gaze.

Both darkness and light remained silent and the dark sky unmoving. Despite their quietness, a response was delivered. A loud scream pierced through the silence and Elizabeth turned her entire body back just in time to see something slamming hard against a half-destroyed wall with Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir lying defeated. A large red dragon with dichromatic eyes walked up to the little fairy and carelessly stepped onto the little monster, crushing its body underneath its feet.

"No…" Elizabeth muttered in shock and horror at the realization of what happened. "How… could you?! Stop this!"

She cried out on top of her lungs and the three sorceresses that stood before her and held their weapons defensively.

In an instant three spiraling laser beams flew through the city, cutting down buildings and survivors until they reached the target. The ground cracked into two under the force of the impact and the three sorceresses vanished within the blinding light. Elizabeth gritted her teeth and fell on her knees with blood slowly dripping from her shoulder and abdomen. Something within her Duel Disk clicked and the blue blade shattered.

"Why?" Elizabeth looked up at the victors with scorching hatred in her eyes. "What did we do to you?"

Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph formed in front of the girl as she asked them a question the answer to which even they didn't know. The two monsters remained silent with only the fiend moving its arm to grab Elizabeth by the neck and raised her off the ground. Phantomus retraced his other hand back into a fist.

Not even a sound was heard after that. Not when the gears on Phamtomus' gauntlet began to work and drew the blade hidden inside. And not when the cold metal pierced through Elizabeth's heart.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

I gasped from the nightmare and shot up into a sitting position, something I rather quickly regretted doing, seeing as pain soared through my entire body as soon as I tried to move. That dream about Phantomus, my very own ace monster, killing off Elizabeth was just too real. Just by thinking about it made my stomach twist.

I took a few minutes to calm down and clear the disturbing thoughts out of my system, then looked around my surroundings. Thanks Ra, what came before my view was the familiar comfort of my bedroom, rather than a depressing, plain white hospital room. I removed the blanket that covered my body and found that all my clothes from the waist up were removed and in their place were put bandages whose amount made me feel like a mummy.

But then again, given the amount of times I got grilled by Nightshroud in our duel, this is like a small scratch compared to what was expected. I sighed and slowly lied back down, there was no reason to be in a hurry, and with those nasty wounds, forget that I would leave this bed any time soon.

"About time you wake up."

My eyes widened from the voice of Eliz coming right beside me and I'm sure that I would have made an anime fall if it wasn't for the fact that I'm already lying on a bed. I turned to the left and there she was, sitting on a chair with her legs crossed.

"Well, if I knew that my beloved sister was waiting for me, I would have woken up earlier." I told her.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, but by the way her lips curved upward I could tell that she was happy to see me too. "The girls were really worried since you didn't woke up yesterday." She stood up and walked over to the door to open it.

"Niichan!" "Big bro!"

As soon as Eliz opened the door both Oni and Avice ran inside with the little girl stopping beside me, while my sister went ahead and jumped onto the bed. There was no point in words, so I just reached out and ruffled their hair affectionately. Oni smiled and leaned forward while Avice grumped and shook her head.

"So, how long have I been asleep?" I asked Eliz while patting Oni's head.

"Nearly two days." She replied. "You also had a fever so I had to take care of you."

"Do you know how worried we were when you went ahead and challenged Nightshroud on a duel?!" Avice shouted at me.

"Come on, everything went ok." I told her. "Well, not everything, but did you really thought that I might lose the duel?"

"Please, just the thought alone is ridiculous!" Avice replied. She pressed her index fingers together and then looked away. "But I'm still you sister so it's only natural to worry."

"Avice…" I muttered. Of course, she was the one who would worry the most about my health. Even though Eliz was my sister too, the bond I had with her wasn't nearly as deep and strong as the one between me and Avice. I couldn't tell why, it just was that way and none of us really had a problem with it.

"Nee, niichan!" Oni put a hand on my shoulder. "What happened inside the fire barrier?"

"Yeah, what happened?" Eliza asked me as well. "While you were dueling I felt something, some sort of dark presence. Then the cards of Sola and Sina began to glow as well."

"Wait, you had that too?" I was taken aback from learning that.

"So it happened to you too?"

"Well, the glowing part, yes, with Phantomus." I nodded. "But inside of a presence I felt a strong flow of power." I looked down and my hand. "I couldn't explain it, but it felt… Great. For a moment, all the pain disappeared and… even though my body felt like it was moving on its own, I had full control."

"What are you talking about?" I sighed at Eliz's question and crawled to the other side of my bed to take my deck, which lied on the nightstand. "This card appeared from the black flames." I explained and gave her _Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer_.

"You obtained a new Phantomus?" She narrowed her eyes, the same way she does when she doesn't believe something. "Anything else?"

"Well, the card pretty much won me the duel and then I lost consciousness, so you tell me."

"I guess not. But there was something strange about your wounds."

"What do you mean?" I asked, though those words made a chill run down my spine.

"They heal… unnaturally fast." I sighed in relief, nothing bad there, but that doesn't explain why my entire body hurts like a bitch. "Well, whatever. Today is the opening of the Miami Championship, so gear up, we shouldn't be late."

"Wait, it's today?!" I shouted, but Eliz just left the room without saying a word. "Just great." I groaned then looked at Oni and Avice. "You should leave too, I'm going to change."

Avice nodded and jumped off the bed while Oni looked up at me.

…Um…

"Why are you blushing?!" I cried out.

* * *

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" I winced and dropped my hands in defeat. The pain I felt while putting on a shirt and hoodie were bad enough, but when I try to raise my hands behind the head to tie hair into a ponytail was just a new level of suffering.

" _Heh, that's just pathetic. See sis? This is why mummies don't have long hair._ " But of course no suffering of mine would be complete if Foxy and Wolfy aren't there to roast me.

"For the love of," I felt Eliz's hands grabbing my hair and then she harshly pulled it back, causing me to hiss as my back hit the backrest of the chair I was sitting on. "If you can't take care of long hair, why don't just cut it?" She asked me and after a few moments moved back "Done."

Normally, if someone else does your hair it would be best to check afterward that they haven't made a fool out of you, but there was no mirror around and I already know that my hands are going to hurt as hell if I tried to reach behind, so whatever.

"Jess, you have never showed so much care about me before." I joked. "It's starting to get creepy."

"Very funny." She hit my shoulder, causing another cry of pain to escape my mouth. "Whoops…" Whoops indeed! "With the speed that those third degree burns heal, you should be fine in a few more days."

"I don't think that my opponents would wait a 'few more days'. Nor will anyone else at the tournament."

"Will those injuries really get in the way of your dueling?" I glared at Eliz after that question. "I mean, you and Avice never use Action Cards so what's the problem standing at once place and dueling from there?"

"But then I will lose points for style."

"Then do as you please." Eliz raised her hands and stepped back. "This is your life to waste, so do as you please, I won't say anything."

"If I were you, I would worry more about myself. After all, your dueling skills are so poor that-Ouch!" I cried out and rubbed my shoulder as she hit it again.

"Don't forget that I too have experience as a duelist!" She crossed her hands. "I had enough time to learn how my Oracle Sister deck works so just watch me!"

I just nodded, arguing with Eliz while I'm in so much pain, and just arguing with her in general, was never a good idea, so I just accepted what she said. With many effort and moans of pain I also managed to stand up from the chair and prepared to leave with the others.

This was going to be the worst walk down the stairs I had in my life…

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

Ignoring the fact that due to Evan it took us fifteen minutes to leave our building, the rest of our walk toward the stadium wasn't anything special. Of course we had a little chatter here and there, I did ask my siblings for their opinions about a few strategies I had thought about and of course we also had the important discussion about what we will eat for dinner and where. Overall, it was really nice, if I completely ignore the three voices inside my head.

" _Hey, hey! What was the Miami Championship again?_ " Sunny jumped on one leg (for some reason) beside me as she asked.

" _It's a tournament._ " Yuki reminded her. " _A duel tournament to be more specific._ "

" _Ooh! I have never been on a dueling tournament, what do I do? Will they let me ride a D-Wheel?_ " Sunny asked, then stroke her chin. " _Actually, can I ride a D-Wheel?_ "

" _You got to be kidding me._ " Hema groaned and facepalmed. " _Out of the three of us, the original had to choose exactly the one with the brain size of a nut to be your secondary deck._ "

" _Hey, that's mean!~_ " Sunny shouted back and turned at me, crying. " _Original, Hema is being mean to me again!_ "

"Come on." Yuki patted the Synchro personality on the head. "The original has to prepare for the Miami Championship as well. If you come inside her brain with me, I promise to make you hot chocolate."

Sunny nodded eagerly and disappeared along with Yuki. Only Hema remained to look at me, before disappearing as well, probably to continue make fun of the Synchro personality, not like I care. These three never stop bickering about all sort of stupid things like some little kids. I'm already wondering where I could buy sleeping pills because, since they don't have physical bodies, the three personalities never get tired and argue even during the night.

But moving on, we eventually made it to the Miami Championship. The opening ceremony hadn't started yet and the whole place was filled with people. And not just duelists, parents with their kids that have come to watch the duelists, it was like the entire city had come here just for that. The outside was also filled with shops, selling all sorts of goods! Not a big surprise given that the Miami Championship is one of the largest tournaments drawing attention from across the glove. What? I just did my research on the subject, that's all!

"This is amazing!" Oni exclaimed in awe, watching from a window inside the building.

"I hope this tournament is worthy for our skills." Avice commented.

"We can beat on that." I nodded. "Anyway, the rest from You Show should be already somewhere in the lobby, so let's not make them wait for us."

"Actually, I think it's the other way around." Evan poked me on the shoulder and pointed somewhere.

I turned toward where he gestured and there was Sora, sitting against a wall, holding the sign of You Show Duel School and eating some candy. Oh, also, he was the only one from the school there. What?

"Just yesterday there were six students and a principal, and today we are down to, one student and a sign." Avice whispered to us as we approached the boy.

I would probably be talking from the name of all four of us, if I said that neither of us felt very comfortable going near Sora, after we learned that he was part of Academia. Despite that he didn't appear to show any care about it and acted like usual even when he noticed us approaching. I could actually understand why he was so calm about the whole shenanigan from two days ago. Sora didn't know that we had an understanding about Academia, its goals, and the four Dimensions, so for him there wouldn't be a way how we could believe Nightshroud. I mean, the candy-lover could push it all as the bickering of some weird and any normal person would believe him.

"Where are Yuya, Yuzu and the others?" Evan asked, to which Sora simply raised his head a little.

"Huh? Yuzu didn't call to tell you?" Sora asked and took another bite from his candy.

"Since we are asking you, I thought that it was obvious." I crossed my hands.

Sora sighed and then made a gesture toward the exits with a lollipop that he held as a stick. "Yuya disappeared when we got on the bus and everyone else is searching for him right now."

"Should we go look for Yuya-niichan too?" Oni looked back at us.

"We should just leave him be." Evan leaned against the wall next to Sora. "I'm sure that he will show up when he needs to. Yuya might be a second rate duelist and entertainer, but he isn't a coward."

"Such a pain, he can be at times." Avice sighed. "I'm sure that right now he is on the bridge over there." She added and pointed outside the window.

I walked closer and narrowed my eyes, trying to focus on the bridge that was in the distance, but no matter how much I tried, it was impossible to see anything without a scope or something.

"You can't see from here." I told my sister.

"Of course. I just had a feeling that he would be there. Don't ask me why or how, I just feel it."

I raised an eyebrow at that, but choose not to question it. All sort of weird things were happening around us lately, and I just started to get used to the weirdness. Plus that, I don't believe that there is anyone who could give a logical explanation to any of it.

"Sora!" We turned as Yuzu and the kids came in, running. "Has Yuya…?"

Sora shook his head, his expression showed that he was used to the question that Yuzu was about to ask. "Nope, he hasn't come here yet."

"Yuzu-oneechan, what should we do?" Ayu asked.

"I called his house and he hasn't gone back there either…" Yuzu looked in defeat. "I can't get a hold of him at all. Where could Yuya have gone?"

"Does it even matter?" Evan interjected. "Yuya is old enough, I'm sure he hasn't just run away, not without a good reason."

"What did you say?" I rubbed my temper as yet another person appeared out of nowhere.

This time it was a girl, probably around ten-twelve years old, with a crystal apple in one hand, and a rather outdated sense for dresses. Just saying.

"Is it true that my darling hasn't come yet?" I and my siblings looked at each other weirdly at the word 'darling'.

"My… darling?!" My brother and sister began to wave their jackets at Yuzu as she suddenly ignited herself…

"Could it be…!" The girl held her crystal apple tightly with sparks forming in her eyes. "Darling snuck off to meet my mother and father!" I pulled Oni closer and covered her eyes…

"What are you talking about?!" Yuzu said, anger burning through her body and her fan ready for attack. "There is no way that could happen!"

"Actually, you don't know what Yuya's taste for women is, so it might be possible." I rolled my eyes at Evan's comment, didn't he care about his safety?

"Don't encourage her!" Yuzu swung her fan at my brother's head, but he stepped aside and dodged it.

"What should we do?" Ayu asked while we watched Yuzu trying to hit my brother. "The tournament's opening ceremony is about to start."

"Don't worry! I will be able to find where darling is with my fortune telling!" The new girl exclaimed, though I don't understand why she had to point at us. It's rude to point at people.

She sat down with her glass apple on the ground and moved her hand over it while, um, chanting "Darling, darling, where you could be? My darling. My sweet darling!"

"This isn't going to get us anywhere." I groaned, it was obvious that the girl was doing this only to irritate Yuzu. There is no way that she could actually manage to pull something like this!

"I see it!" Wait, what?

"Where is he?" Ayu asked.

"That way!" The girl said and pointed out of the window and toward the bridge.

"Don't say a word." I narrowed my eyes and walked past my grinning little sister to join Yuzu. "Good luck out there." I patted her on the shoulder.

"Same to you." She nodded, but from her expression I could tell that she was still thinking about Yuya… "I still can't believe that you, Evan and Avice made it to the Championship in so little time."

"It certainly wasn't easy." I lied. "So, with me and Evan this going to be the first time that You Show has participants from the Senior Division, right?"

"Yeah. I already forgot when the last time that we had such a great line-up was."

"I'm sure that we will be the ones dueling for the first place." Yuzu smiled a little and nodded to my encouragement. "Now then, let's get ready. I'm sure that Yuya will come soon as well."

* * *

As time passed, I began to understand why Yuzu and the others were so worried about the missing tomato. Most of the other schools have grouped up already, yet Yuya was still missing. I even began to hear whispers from bypassers about how he had ran away like his father and such. None of those bothered me, personally, but I could understand why Yuzu (his best friend), and the kids (his only fans) were getting more and more worried.

"Do you want a hotdog?" Evan asked me, holding two with one already bitten.

"Yuya is missing!" I pushed away his hand, offering me a hotdog. "How can you be so calm?!"

"Well you see," He moved closer and whispered the next part into my ear. "If Yuya doesn't show up, then Avice's competition lessens."

I gritted my teeth and then pushed him back. Just, how could he be so cold hearted? How was it possible to exist someone who thinks only about their own benefit; someone who would sacrifice his own comrades like replaceable pawns?

"You are the worst!" I hissed.

"I'm just seeing things on a larger scale." He replied and moved over to Avice. "Here is the hotdog you asked for." He said, giving her the one that he offered me just a few moments earlier.

I sighed and turned back toward the doors, when surprisingly, I saw Yuya running toward us and waving with a smile on his face.

"Hey! Yuzu! Guys!" He shouted as he joined the rest of us. We all smiled at the little tomato boy. Only Yuzu looked like she was going to cry, for some reason…

"I was so worried about you, where did you warden off to?!" She asked him angrily, but Yuya just smiled back and,

"We are entering the stadium soon, right? Let's go line up!" skillfully changed the topic before running off again.

"You really…" I moved in and patted Yuzu's shoulder again.

"Don't worry about it!" Yuya waved her off and then quickly knocked himself into another person; was that what they call karma?

The guy that turned around was pretty big, at least a head larger than my brother. His bulky look and that strange look of his really gave off a bad vibe, and I'm sure that the others felt it too.

"It's been a while, weakling." Oh, he was a bully.

"Y-You are…!" As Yuya voice trailed off I became sure that those two had some sort of history together.

"It was before an important event, so I was certain that you'd ran away!" I narrowed my eyes, not liking that guy's tone, even one bit. "Just like your old man!"]

"What was that?!" Yuya shouted back; I wanted so badly to step in and interfere…

"I'll never accept that someone like you beat Strong Ishi-!"

Just then Avice walked past the large guy, whistling to herself, when she suddenly raised her leg and quickly stepped on his, before continuing. I winced, almost feeling it as the man yelped in pain and grabbed his leg. Plus, since he was wearing those high sandals, I could only imagine how painful it must have been even if Avice is relatively light for her age.

"Oh whoops." Avice looked back with a side smirk. "I should have looked where I go, sowwy." She said in a sweet voice, trying to play innocent.

"You little…" the man groaned and turned toward her, but this time I and Evan stepped before him.

Bullying a schoolmate, as bad as it was, would be one thing, but showing aggressive behavior toward our little sister? Oh, we can beat his ass all over the building and no one is going to be able to stop us.

"Step out of my way, weaklings." the man stepped toward us, trying to intimidate us; how cute.

"Careful there little one." Evan took a step forward as well. "It doesn't matter how big you are, before me insects will always be insects, got that?" My eyes widened at those words; he said them in such a low and threatening voice that, I felt a chill running down my spine, never mind that other guy.

"Why you…" the man squeezed his fist, but just a single look into his eyes showed me that he wasn't as sure as he was in the beginning.

"That's enough, Ankokuji Gen." I looked over at the one who approached this guy.

"Gongenzaka!" Yuya exclaimed.

I raised an eyebrow. Hmm, Gongenzaka… Where have I heard that name before? Ah right, Evan told me about him after I got out of the hospital. A very good friend of Yuya from what I understood. According to my brother he was someone that we should be careful with in case we end up having to duel against him.

"Calling a senior disciple by his name, are we?" I looked between the two men; were they from the same school or something? "You must be a real big shot now, Gongenzaka!"

"You're no longer my senior!" Yep, they had been going to the same school. Or something.

"Players can enter the stadium in a moment." The speakers announced. "All competitors, please line up in front of your respective team placard."

"Hm, I hope you don't get smashed before one of us gets the chance to crush you, big guy." Evan mocked Gen one last time, and then turned away with me, Oni and Avice following after him.

* * *

When the entrance ceremony began my other personalities had to tell me several times to close my mouth due to how amazed and surprised I was. They had put so much thought and money into a card game tournament that my mind could barely accept it. I felt like a part of the Olympian Games, actually I don't think that even they could get close to how amazing this entering ceremony looked. There were so many schools from all parts of the globe and by the way they were introduced, I could tell that none of the other duelists were going to be easy to beat.

" _My Shooting Quasar! I'm going to duel before so many people? I won't be able to make it!_ " I sweat-dropped, listening to Sunny exclaiming and jumping around inside my head.

" _Keep acting like this and the original isn't going to let you out at all._ " And of course there was Hema to make things worse and now I could hear Sunny crying in the back of my mind with Yuki trying to cheer her up…

Despite the difficulties that my personalities represented I still managed to pay attention to the rest of our schoolmates. Yuzu, Yuya and the others were mostly happy, expect when the principal began to cheer and yell. Then, we all felt embarrassed. And by all, I mean everyone except Evan who managed to, not only get the number of the cheerleader that held our placard, but also got a date for tomorrow, in less than three minutes!

I noticed Yuya looking with a serious expression and turned my head toward the same direction. There I found Reiji himself, looking back at us, though his gaze was mostly focused on Yuya. I guess he too saw the potential that tomato boy held, just like us, but still, something about the president of LDS' gaze just set me off and I began to question whenever allying with him was as good of an idea as my brother and sister passed it to be.

Then of course there was the main announcement and the other claptrap that every event has to begin with. I personality didn't mind it that much, but who told Evan and Avice that just because they don't like something, it's automatically okay for them to fall asleep! The picture of me struggling to hold their bodies into a standing position was more embarrassing that the whole Syuzo fiasco just a bit earlier.

Then of course was Yuya's speech and I felt a little bad for not clapping, but my hands were a little busy at the moment; hope that Yuzu beats them with the fan once this all ended.

"Now then, we will announce the first matches!" As soon as the announcer said that both Evan and Avice stood back up; sorry what? "All competitors, please put your registration card into your Duel Disk!" Oh, so those had some kind of task? "The registration card receives communication from the Tournament Operator's computers, and will guide you to your opponent. Of course, it will update when you qualify for the next round of the tournament!"

"Really? That's convenient!" Thanks for saying those words for me, Yuya.

I inserted my card into the Duel Disk and after a few seconds the screen showed the picture of my, um, opponents? Yes, as it turned out, for some reason I and Evan were going to have a Tag-Duel against duelists from some, Fire Island school. They weren't from around here, I could tell you that much.

"Well, that's just great." I sighed. "Are Tag-Duels usually a thing in those tournaments?"

"They are unusual indeed…" Yuzu noted.

"Well, it seems like I will have to see your dueling first hand then, sis." Evan patted me on the back. "What about you, Avice?"

"Someone called Connor Bronson, no big deal." She waved it off.

"Well, my opponent is… Sawatari!?" Yuya exclaimed.

"My opponent is… Masumi!?"

"You mean Fusion Chick." Evan quickly corrected, causing some weird looks from the rest. "What?"

At this point the three of us separated from the others and went to Oni who waited for us with a big smile on her face. Well, at least she was happy, while I and Evan had to learn to work together by the afternoon!

"So, my duel is tomorrow, but I will still stay to cheer for you two." Avice told us.

"I and Ventus will do the same." Levant walked up to us; alone for some reason.

"It appears that your pal is missing." Evan pointed out the obvious.

"He had to prepare for his Duel." Levant explained and turned around. "Anyway, Reiji wanted to speak with all of us, so don't make him wait."

"Oh, believe me, I wouldn't even dream about it." Evan replied smugly and then bowed. "Please, led us to our supreme leader." I had to admit, when he acts mockingly toward authority, I actually break into a little smile.

Of course Levant wasn't so keen of Evan's acting. He just narrowed his eyes and turned around to lead us. As he did we went through the LDS group and grabbed some tall guy in a coat. The trio that lost against You Show tried to question us, but Levant quickly dismissed them and we continued on our way.

"So you four are the Greyson?" the tall man asked us.

"Actually, the three of us are." Avice gestured at us. "Oni is still on a trial period."

"Oni will do her best to become a Greyson!" The little girl shook her head resolutely.

"What about you big guy?" Evan turned his head slightly to look at him. "Any time to go by, or should I call you _D Column_."

The man narrowed his eyes and turned to Levant. "Are those three as good as you put them to be?"

"His name is Kurosaki Shun. He's from the Xyz Dimension." We all smirked a little as Levant choose to ignore the other guy.

"Strange, I haven't seen this one before." Kurosaki just glanced at Evan for the comment without saying anything else.

Levant lead us through the parking lot and then a rather long corridor with a surprisingly small amount of lights, probably to add to the dramatic effect. And just when I thought that no other people were involved in this, we met Koharu – the girl that tried to kill me – waiting for us next to a door. Her presence didn't seem to have surprised only me, because I had noticed Kurosaki's pupils widened a little as well when she came into view.

"I was starting to grow roots from waiting for you to show up." She stared at us and put both hands on her hips. "On this group lies, quite literally, the fate of all dimensions, so couldn't you hurry up a little?"

"Unlike you, some of us had actual work to get done." Levant roasted her and opened the door.

We all walked inside, only to find ourselves in yet another corridor, though this time a more luxurious looking one and after one more door we reached a meeting room with a large circular table in the middle, several monitors on the wall against us and of course, Akaba Reiji already there standing before us with a little kid holding a teddy bear, and a blonde guy next to him.

"Hey Reira!" Oni waved energetically at the little kid, who I guess is Reira.

The kid just looked down, holding its bear tightly and then moved slightly behind Reiji; how rude. This caused Oni's smile to drop, but I quickly patted her on the head. It wasn't her fault, that other kid seemed depressed anyways…

"So that's the Lancers? The complete edition?" Avice asked; I had to admit, it was a little underwhelming.

"Not close. Here are only the preselected members." Reiji answered, fixing his glasses. "I called you today to give you instructions and-"

"Here, here." Evan groaned and threw his next Phantomus card on the table in front of Reiji. "Your researchers can come kiss my scorched bottom for this one."

"Vulgar." Reiji commented and then took the card. "So this is the evolution of Pendulum Summoning?" He fixed his glasses and looked at Evan. "That would be of great use for us. I will make sure that you get your card back before today's duel."

"I surely hope so." I couldn't help but grip my fist, while watching Evan do as he wants.

"I don't understand how Reiji could recruit from a school like You Show." I glared at the blonde haired guy; his voice and facial expression were really annoying to me, for some reason. "Just look at them, I bet that when it comes to real work they will leave the Neo New Sawatari do everything."

"Don't worry about that. Greyson's help already extends beyond a hospital bill." The Sawatari guy's proud head quickly dropped those words.

"Sorry."

"Now that we good that out of the way, there are several things I want each one of you to know." We all nodded and sat down to hear Reiji. "Kurosaki, you already know who's going to be your opponent. I will remind you again, that your task is to just 'test' him, I don't want a scene to happen in front of the people."

"As long as you keep your end of the promise, I will play by your tune." I feel tension between those two…

"The rest of you, just win your duels and be careful. I have reasons to believe that Academia has sent more than one agent, so keep your eyes open at all times." Reiji told us and then gestured toward Koharu. "Meanwhile, Koharu will patrol around the stadium. If any of you pinpoint a possible agent of Academia, do not engage in a duel or try to capture them, unless I personality permit you to do so."

"Is that all?" Avice asked.

"I will get to the rest in a minute." Reiji took out three cards and put them on the table. "Our card designers managed to create the first wave of Pendulum cards; take a look."

I, Avice and Oni moved over to Evan after he took the cards to inspect them. Their archetypal name was Yosenju and other than that there was nothing really interesting about them. Even their artwork wasn't all that great.

"Mediocre." Evan sighed and put the cards down. "Is that the best they could make with the data from my Deck?"

"Those cards were designed after Yuya Sakaki's Pendulum Summoning. We haven't been able to fully stabilize them yet, which is the reason for the narrow scales." Reiji explained to us, while Sawatari collected the cards. "We are still having problems decoding your cards, but a batch designed after them should be finished by tomorrow. Though this new Pendulum-Fusion card you gave me sparked my interest."

"If I and my sisters get the chance to help with the card designing I can promise you that your Lancers will have a full arsenal of Pendulum-Xyz and Pendulum-Synchro cards in no time at all."

"I'm sure that this would be beneficial for all of the Lancers." Levant interjected. "This new Phantomus card shows that Pendulum monsters can be splashed into any kind of deck."

"Yet the first hybrid that we got to witness is merged with the summoning type of our enemy!" Koharu slapped her fist on the table. "Even though I had worked with them, I'm starting to get wary of the people you are associating yourself with Reiji."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked her; we helped her when she asked and Evan almost lost his life because of that. Didn't that count as something for her?

"I saw with my own eyes that the masked man was someone fighting against Academia. He was hunting Fusion users and said that you were his enemy! Two days later, your brother throws us a new kind of Fusion Monster. How else am I supposed to react?"

"I see." Reiji fixed his glasses again. "I understand why you would not thrust in my operatives, so I'm going to explain everything now to avoid any accidents in the future."

"Let's hear it." Koharu narrowed her eyes; I and my siblings gestured for him to continue.

"LDS already knows that Greyson aren't from this Dimension." At that Koharu and Kurosaki turned toward us. "HOWEVER, we also managed to find out that they aren't from the Fusion Dimension. We know that because their cards, unlike any others, appear to be transmitting information to an unknown location, even as we are speaking. We tried to decode, and even follow the energy signature and transitions of the cards. Everything we managed to find out is that the location the information is going to is somewhere beyond the four dimensions."

"What do you mean, beyond?" Kurosaki asked. "Are there more dimensions that even the Resistance is unaware of!?"

"I don't have the answers to this question." Reiji answered and then turned toward us; of course he would do that.

"Too bad then, because we don't know anything about that either." I facepalmed at Avice's comment.

"How can you not know the place you originate from?!" Koharu shouted at us.

"My sister is saying the truth." Evan interjected. "The three of us were just normal kids, living our lives when suddenly some white light appeared before us and then we found ourselves here with decks made from cards that we have never seen before in our lives. All I know is that the location we come from and the one that those cards are transmitting data to, are two completely different places, or even worlds."

"How can you be sure about that, when you don't know the place that you came from?!"

"I do know it!" Evan shouted. "But the place I came from had almost nothing to do with Duel Monsters and our technology is nowhere compare to your dimensions. It's practically impossible for our world to have send us here."

"What are you going to say then?" Kurosaki turned toward Reiji. "You are always appear to be three steps ahead from us."

"Unfortunately, this is a matter about which even I lack enough information." As Reiji said that a screen showing Evan's duel against Nightshroud lightened behind him. "I watched the duel myself, and even send someone to take the mask and deck that this individual called 'Nightshroud' has left behind; for analyzing."

"And?"

"The items disappeared on their own a few seconds after you all left the area. All that remained behind were those." Reiji took two more cards and put them before Evan.

I immediately recognized Summoned Skull as one of the cards – it was the ace of my brother's real deck for many years. It was hard to forget all the times he beat kids boosting about their Slifer or Obelisk on the streets using all sort of combos focusing exactly around that monster. The second card, I couldn't recognize; it was Archfiend Black Skull Dragon, no idea what it was, but the demonic appearance alone made it pretty similar to the Summoned Skull.

"This dragon was Nightshroud's strongest monster." Evan pointed out. "It alone almost killed me more times that I would care to share. I don't believe that, in case he someone managed to reappear, he would leave exactly this card behind."

"Those cards don't transferring data and appear to be completely normal." Reiji explained.

"Then that makes them different from their owner." Levant sighed.

"I agree." Koharu nodded. "That Nightshroud person had powers that even I can't understand. But what does that have to do with what we're talking about?"

"It's simple." Reiji said. "If our dimensions have things that are impossible to understand, then it's easy to accept the explanation that the Greyson gave us about their backstory. As long as everyone shares the same goal to stop Academia, origins don't matter."

"If you are going to trust them, I can't say anything more." Koharu sighed. "Fine then, let's try to get along. Is that all?"

"For now." Reiji nodded. "If anything pops up, I will call you."

Sawatari, Levant and the two Xyz Duelists nodded and left the room. Now, there were just us and Reiji, though he didn't appear bothered or surprised that we choose to remain behind.

"There is still a question that needs an answer, Mr. Akaba." I told him.

"Yes, you are going to ask about the Tag Duel I presume?" So he already know about that?

"I'm just asking how you are going to justify it before the crowd."

"Simply, I didn't do it because of you, if that's what you think." Reiji stood up and turned to leave. "It just so happened that this year the participants of the Senior Division were far more the usual amount, which is why I choose to make the first round for your division a Tag Duel."

"I guess that happens when you give passes to people left and right." Evan commented while taking the two cards that Reiji left behind.

"I don't." Reiji replied. "The places I gave to you three originally belonged to students from my school… Whom I had to expel after I was given evidence about them bullying Reira."

At those words Evan and Avice turned toward each other and smirked. I had no idea why, and I had a feeling that I didn't want to know either.

* * *

 **General POV (Warning a mediocre duel follows!)**

Nearly an hour after the meeting between the Lancers, Avice and Evan were with Levant, eating a hotdog and waiting for the next duel which was going to be Ventus'. Elizabeth and Oni were with the rest of You Show at another part of the stadium, Kurosaki was stalking Sora from the shadows and Koharu would randomly appear here and there while patrolling the area.

"Ventus will appreciate that you are here to watch his duel." Levant said.

"Eh, we got nothing better to do." Avice leaned back and closed her eyes.

"I've some stuff to do after this, so don't hope that I'll stay to talk after the duel ends."

"I guess not." Levant sighed.

Down on the dueling field, the two duelists have just entered. His opponent was some generic black haired guy named Masaya Tanaka. The Action Field formed around them as a castle surrounded by an endless desert.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS)** **Tanaka** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will start first!" Ventus declared. "I summon _Heroic Challenger – Ambush Soldier_ (Lv 1, ATK: 0)." A warrior in a camouflage appeared with a sword. "Then I set a card and end my turn!"

"Then it's my turn!" Tanaka declared.

 **『** **Turn 2 [** **Tanaka** **] LP: 4000 Hand: 6** **』**

"Perfect!" The generic boy began. "I play _One for One_ and discard a monster to Special Summon _Bunilla (Lv. 1, DEF: 2050)_ from my Deck!" a white rabbit with red eyes and, an overall super cute appearance appeared on the field. "Then I activate _Inferno Reckless Summon_ to Special Summon two more _Bunilla_ from my Deck." And so two more rabbits joined Tanaka's field.

"But don't forget that _Inferno Reckless Summon_ benefits me as well!" Ventus reminded his opponent as two more _Heroic Challenger – Ambush Soldier_ appeared on the field in defense position.

"I tribute my three _Bunilla_ to Tribute Summon, _Beast King Barbaros (Lv. 8, ATK: 3000)_!" in an instant the three rabbits disappeared and on their place came a giant human-animal hybrid with a spear and shield. "And when _Beast King Barbaros_ is summoned with three tributes, I destroy all of your card!"

The giant monster leaned forward and released a roar, so strong that it tore through the ground as it went straight toward Ventus and his monsters.

"Nice try!" Ventus shouted and played a card. "I play _Interdimensional Matter Transporter_ to banish one of my _Ambush Soldiers_ until the end of this turn!"

"Wait, why is he using _Interdimensional Matter Transporter_ if he is playing a Heroic Deck?" Evan turned toward Levant.

"He likes to use the disappearance trick to make the monsters look more like ninjas." Levant sighed and leaned back into his seat.

"Furthermore, I use this chain to activate the effect of _Heroic Challenger – Swordshield_ in my hand and discard it!" Ventus added, reducing his hand to just two; just in time as well because one of his soldiers disappeared while the other two got destroyed.

"Now your field is wide open!" Tanaka pointed at Ventus. " _Beast King Barbaros_ will attack you directly!"

Ventus turned around and leaped onto a wall of the castle with the monster following closely after him.

"Furthermore I activate _Extreme Sword_ to increase _Beast King Barbaros_ ' attack by 1000!" Tanaka pointed out; his monster's attack power was exactly 4000!

Ventus duelist jumped down to grab an Action Card. This allowed _Beast King Barbaros_ to jump on the ninja duelist and thrust its spear forward. The force of the impact causing some of the wall they were standing on to fall apart.

"I-is it over already?" the announcer asked, surprised.

"Well, guess I'm out of here now." Evan sighed and turned to leave.

"Give it a moment." Levant stopped him. "We are tracers, and tracers don't lose that easily, do they?"

Evan narrowed his eyes at the comment, if tracers didn't include him and Avice as well, he was going to reply 'Apparently they do' and leave, but that wasn't an opinion anymore. Instead and turned back to the field to see-

"Yeah, that didn't catch me by surprise one bit." Evan commented as Ventus was standing on a tower on a safe distance from _Beast King Barbaros_ , still at 4000 LP.

"A-amazing!" the announcer exclaimed. "Ventus took a full out assault and didn't lose even a single Life Point! Was it the Action Card that saved him at the last second?!"

"Nope!" Ventus showed the card in his hand. " _Heroic Challenger – Swordshield_ simply negates all battle damage I take during the turn I discarded him."

"So that's why you thinned your hand." PRECIOUS GENERIC BOY finally caught on with what was going on.

"Yep! A ninja never comes unprepared."

"Then I set a card, turn end. At this point the effect of _Extreme Sword_ wears off and the attack of _Beast King Barbaros_ returns to normal."

"During the End Phase of your turn, _Heroic Challenger – Ambush Soldier_ returns to my field." Ventus reminded his opponent as a vortex tore through space and time, and his monster jumped back on the field.

"Spectacular! Ventus managed to not only survive the attack of Tanaka without a scratch, but he also got a monster on his side of the field! Would he be able to change the ties of the duel in his next turn?"

"Dattebayo!" Ventus shouted, taking his turn.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Ventus] LP: 4000 Hand: 3** **』**

"During the Standby Phase I activate _Heroic Challenger – Ambush Soldier_ 's effect!" the warrior put his sword in front of himself and then disappeared in a burst of sparks. "I release it to Special Summon two Heroic monsters from my hand and Graveyard. Come to my side, _Heroic Challenger – Swordshield (Lv. 4, DEF: 2000)_ and _Heroic Challenger - Thousand Blades (Lv. 4, ATK: 1300)_!"

Ventus jumped from the tower and made a front flip before landing on the shields of _Swordshield_ who held his weapons up to catch the ninja with _Thousand Blades_ right next to them.

" _Heroic Challenger - Thousand Blades_ ' effect activates!" Ventus took a card from his hand and discarded it. "I discard a Heroic card and change him to defense position to Special Summon _Heroic Challenger - Extra Sword (Lv. 4, ATK: 1000)_ from my Deck!"

A new white and green warrior appeared holding two swords, as _Thousand Blades_ sat down with 1100 defense.

"But I'm not done!" Ventus continued. "I Summon _Heroic Challenger - Double Lance (Lv. 4, ATK: 1700)_ and use its effect to revive the _Heroic Challenger - Double Lance_ I just discarded!" Two warriors in white and grey armor appeared at the edges of Ventus' field.

"You summon five monsters just like that?!" PRECIOUS GENERIC BOY took a step back, a little nervous now.

"That's just the beginning." Ventus raised his hand. "I overlay _Heroic Challenger - Extra Sword_ and the two _Heroic Challenger - Double Lance_! Xyz Summon! _Heroic Champion – Kusanagi (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)_!"

"A Xyz Summon!?"

"Not just one! I also overlay _Heroic Challenger – Swordshield_ and _Heroic Challenger - Thousand Blades_!" the two monsters nodded and turned into orbs of energy.

" _Come forth, sheathed in light! Shining lord who slashes through the dark! Heroic Champion – Excalibur (RANK: 4, ATK: 2000)_!"

"T-two Xyz monsters in one turn?!"

"Yep!" Ventus nodded. "Also, when Extra Sword is used as Xyz material, _Kusanagi_ gains 1000 ATK." The warrior swung its blade as its attack power raised to 3500. "Further, I use _Heroic Champion – Excalibur_ 's effect. By using all of its Overlay Units, Excalibur's attack doubles!"

 **Heroic Champion – Excalibur, ATK: 2000 * 2** → **4000**

"Battle! _Heroic Champion – Kusanagi_ attack _Beast King Barbaros_!" the large warrior groaned and swung its blade.

"I activate my Trap, Mirror Force to destroy your monsters!" a barrier formed around the beast, reflecting the attack.

"I use _Heroic Champion – Kusanagi_ 's Xyz Material to negate the trap's activation and raise my monster's attack by 500!"

 **Heroic Champion – Kusanagi, ATK: 3500 + 500** → **4000**

PRECIOUS GENERIC BOY could do nothing, but grit his teeth as the attack connected and his monster got destroyed.

 **『** **Tanaka** **LP: 4000** → **3000 Hand: 1** **』**

"Next, _Heroic Champion – Excalibur_ attacks you directly!" The red knight nodded and jumped into the air, before bringing his sword down.

"I activate _Big Escape_!" PRECIOUS GENERIC BOY quickly grabbed an Action Card. "This ends your Battle Phase!"

"Then I will just use _No Action_ to negate it!" With that _Excalibur_ 's attack connected.

 **『** **Tanaka LP: 3** **0** **00** → **0 Hand: 1** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Ventus** **』**

"And our winner is Ventus!" the announcer declared.

"See, I told you." Levant turned toward Evan with a smirk.

"Whatever." The red haired boy sighed. "I will go get myself something to eat, again."

Saying that, Evan stood up and disappeared inside the cheering crowd, with Avice following shortly after, but in the opposite direction. Evan walked into a corridor while he thought what to eat next and wondered about the philosophical question of whenever Japanese eat pizza, or not…

As he walked, the ChronoDevil duelist suddenly got the feeling that someone was following. Sweat dripped down his face, for reasons even he didn't know. Evan took a deep breath and then quickly turned around, coming face to face with a hooded figure.

"Yaiks!" He shouted and jumped back into a fighting stance.

"Grayson? Is that you?" The hooded figure asked, before removing its hood…

"Koharu!?" Evan exclaimed in surprise. "Why are you following me?"

"Ah, sorry. I just can't see very well with that hood on." She turned around to point at the garment.

"Then why don't you just go on patrolling without it?"

"…" Koharu thought for a moment, then nodded. "You know, I'm starting to see why Reiji trusts in you. You are pretty smart."

Evan's right eye got a tic, while he watched the Xyz girl turned around and walk away from him. After a moment he sighed and returned to his way to satisfy his growing hunger.

"I'm starting to see how Academia managed to beat them." He muttered under his breath and put on his cat hood.

What he didn't see forever was that a few seconds later a boy wearing a Slifer Red jacket with a similar hood covering his face walked into the stadium without anyone there to oppose or see him.

* * *

 **Avice: At last, a set of new previews appeared! Phew, I thought that my role here was about to end.**

 **Chapter** **22: Tag-Duel! Fire Tribes vs Oracle of Devils!**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth and Evan's first battle begins, and their opponents are overseas students, Andrew Morris and Jaime Charles . Evan tries to take the lead in his team and use his superion experience to defeat their opponents, but his ChronoDevils find themselves unable to respond to the competely different strategies utilized, by the opposing group!

 **Avice: What do you mean brother couldn't deal with those weaklings on his own?! Elizabeth paid you to write this, didn't she!?**

 **Chapter** **23: An Angel Without Her Wings**

 **Summary:** At the end of the first day of Maiami Championship following a victory from Yuzu, next in the Junior Youth group of You Show Duel School is Avice. Armer with her Astral Angel deck, she believes that its destructive power is enough to destroy any opposition. But what happens when her opponent is someone focusing on overwhelming strenght as well. Avice throws all of her strongest combos, but everything falls and she soon finds herself in a corner overwhelmed by her own dueling style!

 **Avice: This is unaccetable! How can both I and Evan be bad at it while Elizabeth isn't?**

 **Chapter** **24: Swing! Pendulums of Fate!**

 **Summary:** It's the second day and Oni's chance to shine comes! However, before her duel, Reiji has given her anew batch of cards that she has no knowledge how to use and because of that she gets quickly overwhelmed by her opponent. Everything seems to be hopeless for Oni, but then a strange thing happens as a pendulum appears in the hands of Avice and Evan, and...

 **Avice: Well, now I'm just confused. What pendulum? What hand?**

 **Chapter** **25: Three Steps to Duel**

 **Summary:** After Oni's duel, Elizabeth and Avice go to check on You Show when they find themselves helping Yuya to get back Gongenzaka's stolen sash. Little did they know that they were all playing in Gen Ankokuji's trap and end up surrounded by henchmen in a 3 vs 4 match.

 **Avice: Listen, give me ten or even a hundred henchemen and the result will always be a win for me. But put Elizabeth and Yuya then I agree that four are going to be trouble...**

* * *

 **A/N: So, well, that was it. I hope you found the duel amusing if anything, truth is, I don't know what to do with the Heroic archetype, they are a Rank 4 Xyz Spam deck and that's where their gimmics end... or so I believe. The Greysons also met with Sawatari and Kurosaki for the first time, Reiji got his hands on a Pendulum hybrid, the Lancers all know that the siblings aren't from the YGO Universe, and a new character just showed up! I won't even tell you to try and guess who he is, because you won't be able to.**

 **Thanks to** Spero Omnes **for following this story!**

 **Also, for the first time in however, I got reviews to respond to!**

 **I hope you don't mind** wsa1997 **and** ScalchopWarrior **but I will respond to both of you at once: First, I'm happy that you liked the original cards, thanks. Now, I hope that this chapter itself gave you a better understanding of Evan's "darkness", but I will mention it here as well just to be clear. This possession doesn't work like the usual** **"dark entity possessing a hero to make them do bad things", but rather than dark entity GIVES Evan to the power to do the BAD THINGS that he wants to do. It doesn't control him, and to the most part, it's the opposite. Because of that Evan isn't going to feel regret over his actions; those were just his true desires.**

 **That was everything from me for today!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	22. Chapter 22

***And now a story of how Diabolic Tracer made his research for the archetypes used in this duel.***

 **DT: So, I had never played with, or against the Brotherhood of the Fire Fist deck before, so I should look up some infor about it to make sure I don't screw up.**

 **Avice: So you are going to read all the info on their Wikia pages and do a real research?**

 **DT: Pfff! Who got time for that, I will just play against the Percy A.I. and copy its moves!**

 **Avice: ...**

 **DT: *After playing Elemental HEROes and completely destroying the A.I. in two turns with Evil HERO Lightning Golem* Nvm, let's go watch YouTube videos!**

 **Avice: ...Again.**

* * *

 **So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Tag-Duel! Fire Tribes vs Oracle of Devils!

 **Evan's POV**

I have to admit, I was worried how my Tag-Duel alongside my sister would go. According to the rules we both shared a single field and Graveyard and I know from experience that in order to be able to build a winning strategy, both partners had to share a good connections with one another. Surprisingly enough, I and Eliz weren't exactly on great terms; yes we were brother and sister, but our views, personalities and the heights we could go to achieve success were completely different. The more I sat here and talk, the more I felt that my place at the moment was beside her, but a part of me just yelled to stay here and shuffle my deck…

"Why the long face master?" Foxy appeared beside me, sitting on the ground with her legs crossed over one another and tail swinging behind her. "I feel that you are worried about the match, for some reason."

"How can I not be worried?" I raised an eyebrow. "I and Eliz aren't the best match when it comes to group activities and Tag-Duels. I'm thinking so hard to find a way we could work together, but nothing comes to mind."

"That's because you are too silly master." I frowned at the insult; how dare she call me stupid?! "If your desire is to win the duel, then you are looking at the wrong place."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Foxy sneered, causing me to want to kick her in the butt all the more, but despite her mocking behavior I managed to keep myself from doing anything to her - for now. However, what she do was something I didn't expect. Instead of saying anything she crawled on all four around me and then leaned against my bad, resting her hands on my shoulders. I couldn't believe it, even though she was supposed to be a weightless spirit, I felt her hands touching me, her breath against the back of my neck and even the heat of her body. She felt absolutely like a living being, not a hologram made from solid vision, but a real one like you and me. She then moved her hand to caress my cheek down to my chin and I felt her head pressing against my shoulder; she was breathing right against my ear.

"Amazing!" She giggled. "Your abilities are growing stronger with each duel that you win. I'm so happy!"

"Get to the point already." I insisted; there was no point in continuing this if the stupid fox was just trying to tease me!

"You, master, created us with the desire to surpass the weak and stand above them." She whispered with a gentle tone that didn't match her previous mocking attitude. "Your twin-sister? She isn't like you. She is weak, so there is no point to try and ally with her, as she is going to make you weaker as well."

"Then what do you suggest, if you know so much?" I asked her.

Though I had to admit, Eliz was weaker as a duelist and would probably never be able to stand at the ground I and Avice stood on. But she was still my sister, I couldn't just leave her! It was my duty as an older brother to look after her and help her when she has the need for it.

"I'm just saying that you don't need to take a weakling into consideration. Instead of working with her, just take the lead and you will surely win with us by your side." Foxy had a point, but… "Of course, after this your sister my get angry at you for acting on your own, but wouldn't a day or two of her sulking be better than falling from the Tournament in your first duel?"

"I guess, but…"

"But nothing." Foxy's touch and warm began to disappear and her voice became quitter. "If you want to protect your sisters, you need to become stronger. And by winning, you will achieve that."

At that moment I turned and tried to catch the damn fox, but her spirit had already disappeared and I stood alone with my Deck. I looked down at Chrono Phantomus who was on top of the other cards, as much as it hurt to openly admit it, Foxy made a valid point that I had to become stronger and I could feel myself forming a stronger bond with the ChronoDevils after every victory. If making Eliz angry was what it would take to secure both of our places for the second round, then so be it.

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

" _I'm ready to duel!_ "

"No."

" _But why!?_ "

"Because I said so!"

" _You are all so mean to me~!_ "

I sighed and rubbed the side of my head, while Sunny began to cry inside my head for the second time today. Seriously, that girl, or rather personality, is just as sensitive as she is energetic. Though it really would be better to let her take my place, she appears like someone who could be able to get around with my brother better than me, but I wanted to do this Tag-Duel personally; to show Evan that even if I'm not on his level, I'm still a Greyson and can hold on my own.

I tapped my foot impatiently, the duel was about to start and our opponents had already arrived on the stage. My brother can a short bit after, running in a hurry with his cat hood covering his head; such a childish taste for clothes he had…

"There you are." I crossed my hands at him. "Where were you hiding until now? I wanted to talk with you about the duel, but you were nowhere to be found!"

"There is nothing to talk about, really. Go there, win, done." He replied and waved a hand at me, before passing around.

"It's not that simple!" I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "This time we will have to work together like a team! Back home, when there were Tag-Duels you and Avice were always the ones to take them. Plus, while your decks work similarly to the ones you used home, mine is completely different, so you don't know about my combos and how they could affect your play-style!"

"Listen, I have thought and know what to do for us to win. Just let me do my thing and don't forget to wave at the kids when we win." I freeze for a moment as I saw Evan's expression when he told me that. He looked so cold, emotionless, it felt more like I was staring heartless demon rather than the brother I spend sixteen years growing up with!

"I'm a duelist too…" I can't just accept a victory that I haven't fought and deserved, as stupid and idealistic as that might sounds.

Those words of mine apparently caught my brother by surprise because he paused for a moment to try and come up with something to say back. But that didn't make me happy one bit, I knew Evan, and I knew that whatever he was going to say wouldn't be nice or pretty. Then, he opened his mouth, I knew that something harsh was coming my way.

"Thanks to everyone for waiting! The next duel is going to begin now!" Instead, the announcer's voice sounded across the stadium. My brother then closed his mouth and turned toward the dueling area.

" _If you want, I can break his shoulder blade._ " As tempting as Hema's suggestion was, I would rather not hurt my brother; he is still family.

"This year, a change in the duels of the senior division's dueling program according to which, the first round for them will be in a Tag-Duel format with the teams being chosen randomly with the partner system searching for students from the same school to face together!"

" _I see, so that means that you and Evan working together was inevitable because you were the only seniors from You Show._ " Yuki pointed out.'

"With that said, let's officially start the first Tag-Duel of the senior division! On the left side are Andrew Morris and Jaime Charles from Fire Island Duel School, Sydney, Australia! And on the right side are Elizabeth and Evan Greyson from You Show Duel School, Miami City, Japan!"

As we all walked into the area, I got a good look at our opponents. Boys that were probably a year or two older than us. The first had spiky orange hair with red ends that resembled fire and tanned skin, while the second had blue hair with a single green streak running down the side and pale skin. They both wore sleeveless orange jackets with some red lining and black jeans; probably that was some sort of uniform. The only difference was that the first had a black single underneath while the second whore a grey sleeveless shirt.

"Now the field that our four duelists are going to duel on is… Jurassic World!" The field turned into a giant jungle with a volcano towering above us.

"Duelists locked in battle!" Jaime started.

"Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!" I followed after him.

"They storm through this field! Behold!" Andrew continued.

"…" Of course my brother just ignored the chant.

"This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling!" So I had to speak instead.

"ACTION DUEL!" All four of us exclaimed.

 **『** **Elizabeth, Hand: 5 & Evan, Hand: 5 [LP: 4000] (VS) Andrew, Hand: 5 & Jaime, Hand: 5 [LP: 4000]** **』**

"I will take the first turn." Guy with the orange hair (apparently his name was Andrew) started. "I Normal Summon _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Leopard (Lv. 3, ATK: 0)_!" A man wearing a dark uniform with blue flames in the form of a leopard behind him appeared on the field. "Then I tribute Leopard to set a Fire Formation Spell or Trap directly from my deck!" the warrior disappeared and a face-down card appeared on its place. "Then I activate it, _Fire Formation – Tensu_!"

"I really don't like Fire Fists." My brother muttered while we watched the guy doing his turn.

"Why?" I asked him.

"Because they are a meta worthy archetype."

"Oh…"

" _Fire Formation – Tensu_ increase the attack of all Beast-Warriors I control by 100, and also gives me the ability to Normal Summon or Set twice per turn! I summon _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Spirit (Lv. 3, ATK: 500 + 100 → 600)_!" A humanoid black fire in a white armor appeared on the field next. "With its effect I revive _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Leopard_ _(Lv. 3, DEF: 200)_ in Defense Position!"

"Okai, they got two monsters, but both of them are too weak, isn't that good?" I asked Evan, but he only shook his head.

" _Spirit_ is a tuner…"

"That's a very good observation." Andrew threw his arm upward. "I tune the Level three _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Leopard_ to the Level three _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Spirit_! Be born, great horseman of the fire brotherhood! Synchro Summon! Appear now, Level 6, _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince (Lv. 6, ATK: 2200 + 100 →2300)_!" On the field appeared a warrior in white clothes raiding a horse made from blue flames.

"And on just the first turn of the match, Andrew Morris has already done a splendid Synchro Summon!" the announcer exclaimed.

"Then, when Synchro Summoned, _Horse Prince_ Special Summons a Level 3 monster from my deck. Come, _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster_ _(Lv.3, ATK: 1500 + 100 → 1600)_!" Is he about to go through his entire monster line-up in just one turn?! "Rooster's effect adds another Fire Fist monster from my Deck to the hand when Special Summoned. I set a card and end my turn."

"Ok, you said that they used a meta deck, so let's first set our field and focus on defense ok?" I suggested.

"My turn!" Evan shouted and drew a card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I summon _ChronoDevil Unknollow (Lv. 1, ATK: 100)_!" a shadowy gear with hollow white eyes appeared on my brother's field. "Then when _ChronoDevil Unknollow_ is Normal Summoned, he lets me Special Summon this guy – _Dark Resonator (Lv.3, ATK: 1300)_!" A second monster appeared, this time it was a demon in a torn robe.

"His Resonator his a Tuner monster, so he will go for a Level 4 Synchro to match the opponent's Level 6?" Hema wondered, but I wasn't sure if Evan hand a Level 4 Synchro in his deck.

"Next, _ChronoDevil Unknollow_ 's level becomes the same as the monster summoned by this effect." The shadow's eyes curved happily as its Level raised to 3. "Now I tune my Level Three _Unknollow_ to the Level Three _Dark Resonator_! Malefic soul trapped in the cursed prison of metallic demise! Unleash your nightmarish aggressiveness! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Six! _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast (Lv.6, ATK: 2000)_!"

"And a response from the Greysons' doesn't come too late! Now both sides have a Level 6 Synchro Monster!" The crowd all broke into cheers at that.

"Is that your best Synchro Summon?" Our opponents laughed. "It has just 2000 ATK! That's not enough to take on my _Horse Prince_!"

"Is that so? Then I will just set two cards." I narrowed my eyes knowing that there was something more to Evan's strategy. "Then I activate _Paradox-Claw Beast_ 's effect! _Reversed Paradox_!" The field around us turned grey and then time began to go backward, returning the set cards back to Evan's hands.

"What did you do?" Andrew asked.

"I changed time." Evan answered. "In other words, I returned my cards back to before I set then and as a bonus, aged your monster for each card returned, to make it lose 1000 attack points." And indeed, _Horse Prince_ appeared to have aged, becoming an old man.

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince, ATK: 2300 – 2*500 → 1300**

"Battle! _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast_ attack _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince_! _**King's Cry**_!"

"What!?" I told him not to be too fast to attack!

Paradox-Claw Beast leaned forward and opened its mouth. The gears that covered its body began to spin and the orb on its chest beat loudly as some sort of green energy began to form inside its mouth. Then, before anyone knew it, the beast unleashed an ultrasonic cry toward our opponents.

"I predicted so much! Trap open, _Fire Formation – Tensen_! This card will increase _Horse Prince_ 's attack by 700 until the end of the turn and also, while its face-up on the field all beast-warrior on my field gain 300 attack!"

"What?!" Evan exclaimed and I gritted my teeth.

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince, ATK: 1300 + 700 + 300 → 2300**

Horse Prince was surrounded by flames which blocked the sound attack and then launched themselves on Evan's monster. I quickly leaped onto a tree to try and grab an Action Card, but before I could reach it, Jaime's hand was already on it. Paradox-Claw stepped back and cried out in pain before falling on the ground and disappearing as it got destroyed.

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 4000 → 3700** **』**

"Damn it. I set a card." Evan gritted his teeth. "At the end of the turn, Paradox-Claw's effect ends and your monster's attack returns normal."

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince, ATK: 2300 + 1000 → 3300**

"Also, the effect of _Tensen_ , so _Horse Prince_ 's attack drops by 700." Our opponent added.

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince, ATK: 3300 - 700 → 2600**

"Great job!" I jumped down and landed next to Evan. "Now we have no monsters to defend us!"

"It's just a minor inconvenience."

"Yeah, as if! Why didn't you listen to me?!"

"Stop shouting. We are at the middle of a duel, so get yourself together." I gritted my teeth as he passed me again. How could he speak to me like that after blowing up our best chance, and probably the whole duel as well?

"Uh, it appears that the Greyson twins are having an argument." The announcer commented. No shit Sherlock!

"Those kids don't know what they are doing." That Jaime guy said. "Anyway, I will take my turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Jaime] LP: 4000, Hand: 7** **』**

"First, I activate the Field Spell, _Fire King Island_." The ground began to shake violently like an earthquake was happening! I fell on my knees and looked up in shock to see that the volcano on the field was began to spill lava and smoke raised into the sky above us. "I summon _Fire King Avatar Yaksha (Lv.4, ATK: 1800 + 100 + 300 →2200)_!" Fire shot from the volcano and fell on the field, transforming into a beast holding a burning stick.

"The suicide squad as well?" I raised an eyebrow at Evan's comment as he began to hit his head against a tree.

"I then activate _Fire King Island_ 's effect to destroy _Fire King Avatar Yaksha_!" The volcano erupted and lava fell on top of the monster, burning it to ashes.

"You just destroyed your own fricking monster!" I exclaimed, starting to understand what the nickname stood for.

"Now _Fire King Avatar Yaksha_ 's effect activates! When it was destroyed, I can destroy a Fire King that's in my hand! Furthermore, _Fire King Avatar Barong_ can be Special Summoned from the hand if a Fire King on the field gets destroyed!" The remaining flames after _Yaksha_ 's destruction set a chain reaction that caused the trees around us to get set on fire; despite that our opponents' didn't appear to be worried. "I destroy _Fire King Avatar Kirin_ and Special Summon _Fire King Avatar Barong (Lv.4, ATK: 1800 + 100 + 300→2200)_! Further, _Fire King Avatar Kirin_ when destroyed lets me send a Fire King from my Deck to the Graveyard."

"I think, that this is enough setting up." Andrew told his teammate.

"There is not much more for me to do anyways." Jaime nodded. "I will then use _Fire Formation – Tensu_ 's effect to Normal Summon a second time this turn. Come, _Fire King Avatar Arvata (Lv.4, ATK: 1800 + 100 + 300→2200)_!"

"Now, battle! _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince_ attack the player directly!" the monster jumped on the horse and unleashed a stream of blue flames at our way.

"I activate _ChronoDevil Steam Maiden_ 's effect!" Evan jumped in front of me and a girl appeared on the field, blocking the attack with her gears.

"I activate _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ 's effect!" the elephant crossed its weapons setting them on fire, and then stroke down _Fire King Avatar Barong_. "I destroy _Fire King Avatar Barong_ to negate your monster's effect and destroy it!"

The flames overpowered Evan's monster and engulfed her in flames before exploding. I screamed as the shockwave send both of us on the ground with fire surrounding us from all sides.

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 3700 → 1100** **』**

"When _Fire King Avatar Barong_ is destroyed I can add _Circle of the Fire Kings_ from the deck to my hand." Jaime showed us the card before adding it to his hand. "Then I declare a direct attack with _Fire King Avatar Arvata_!"

"What is this?!" The announcer shouted. "Is this duel going to end before the second Greyson even got her turn?!"

I gritted my teeth, unable to respond as the elephant crossed its weapons and unleashed another stream of flames in our way. If I knew that Evan would go into the offensive so rashly, I would have at least taken the first turn to build up some good defense.

"I activate _Kurigear_ 's effect from my hand!" The little creature appeared on the field as thousand little gears and blocked the attack before it could reach us. By putting it from my hand into the Spell and Trap Zone I stop you from declaring an attack for the next three turns!"

"Lucky you." Jaime muttered and set a card. "I put a card face-down and end my turn."

"Be careful." Evan turned toward me. "They got us on the ropes."

"And thanks to who?" I asked him. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Elizabeth] LP: 1100, Hand: 6** **』**

I looked at my hand, three-fourths of our Life Points disappeared within a single turn. My Oracle Sister deck focused on defensive maneuvers and Life Points manipulation, but with just 1100, I wouldn't be able to restore us back to full health in a single turn and that would cost me the effects of all Oracle Sisters whose effects require higher Life Points. In other words, half the abilities that my deck had were now locked away from me. As much as I hate to duel like this, I will have to play offensively and put on the pressure of our opponents if I want to make it until Evan's next turn.

"Using the scale 1, **Oracle Sister of Tranquility - Mimi** , and the scale 5, **Oracle Sister of** **Allure – Grea** , I set the Pendulum Scale!" I exclaimed as the two girls raised within the columns of light.

Like most of my other monsters _Mimi_ was a young woman with short pink hair that's pulled back, and green eyes. She wore a short dark green robe over a light blue chest armor, with the lower part of the robe wrapping around her waist and legs to form a skirt. A pair of heavy green gloves covered her forearms while a pair of grey sandals protected her legs. A small golden knife with a red handle covered in white pearls rested on her waist, while a huge pink backpack with green shoulder straps hanged from her back.

Grea was a bit taller, with tan skin, glowing yellow eyes and long red hair floating freely behind her with a ponytail on the side of her head. Her outfit consisted of a short black vest that barely covered her chest, the usual magical robe was light brown in color, wrapped around her waist as black stockings covered the rest of her legs. She also wore black boots with golden spikes at the side and high wheels. But more interesting than the outfit were the golden earrings in the form of a bird with retracted wings. Unlike most of my monsters, this one invoked the feeling of a rebel with piercing in the form of red, pink and yellow crystals that ran down the sides of her waist and several red tattoos which covered her arms, neck and the underneath of her eyes.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Tranquility - Mimi**

 **Level: 4** **/** **Attribute:** **WIND/** **Type: Spellcaster/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **1**

 **ATK:** **1000** **/DEF:** **1400**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn, during either player's turn: When your opponent activates a card or effect that would destroy a Spellcaster-type monster(s) you control; You can negate the effect, and if you do, destroy this card.**

 **Effect:** **While your LP is at least two times lower than your opponent's, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the effects of "Oracle Sister" monsters you control. Once per turn: You can target 1 "Oracle Sister" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it, and if you do, take damage equal to its Level x 200.**

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of** **Allure – Grea**

 **Level: 4** **/** **Attribute:** **FIRE/** **Type: Spellcaster/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale:** **5**

 **ATK:** **1600** **/DEF:** **200**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn, you can pay 600 LP: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; change its battle position (Flip Effects are not activated).**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Summon, you can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. While this card is face-up on the field and your LP is higher than your opponent's monsters with the same name as the target cannot activate their effects. If this card is destroyed while you control no other monsters: For the rest of this turn, you take no battle damage.**

* * *

"With this I can Pendulum Summon monster from Level 2 to 4!" I threw my right arm toward the sky. "Swing Pendulum of Life, be the path of light for my soul and give beginning to a new deity! Pendulum Summon! Arise, _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome (Lv. 4, ATK: 1300)_ and _Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo (Lv. 4, ATK: 2100)_!

"W-w-what am I seeing!?" the announcer rubbed his eyes and looked at the field once again, but no matter how many times he did that, he always saw the same thing. "Someone other than Sakaki Yuya has performed a Pendulum Summon!"

"So, this is a Pendulum Summon?" our opponents looked at my monsters in confusion.

"Yep, but the Pendulum Summon was just to get some set up for our great magic show! Now, call in the assistant for the magic trick." I told them and gestured toward Salome who winked at the audience. She grabbed the ends of her cloak and fluttered it after which _Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade_ appeared behind her and bowed at the audience.

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the new magician. "Where did this one come from?"

"Now, now, magicians don't reveal their tricks, right girls?" all of my monsters nodded in response. The explanation was pretty simple; my _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome_ 's effect let me Special Summon a monster from my Deck when she got Pendulum Summoned from the hand.

"But this isn't the only trick that my monsters are capable of!" I continued and a black cosmic portal appeared on my side of the field. "I overlay _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome_ and _Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade_!" The two spellcasters pressed their hands together and winked before turning into colorful energy streams.

" _Magicians with untamed power! Upswing and reach past the limits of the sky as one! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Caster of thousand spells!_ _ **Oracle Sister of Diversion – Jinx**_ _!_ "

Several lightnings fell on the same spot and out of them came a young woman with glasses and a pink choker around her neck. She had long blue and green hair that floated in all directions and deep blue eyes with a black tattoo of a skull on her left cheek. The woman wore a pink vest with black edges and two light blue capes on each side of her shoulders. An 'X' shaped pink belt held her black baggy jeans. Her feet and partially her legs were protected by armored boots, and a large gauntlet, whose back was shaped like a circular shield, covered her left hand, while the right had glowing blue fingers with electricity jumping from each of them.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of** **Diversion – Jinx**

 **Rank** **: 4** **/** **Attribute:** **WIND/** **Type: Spellcaster/** **Xyz** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **2100** **/DEF:** **1000**

 **2 Level 4 Spellcaster-Type monsters**

 **Effect:** **Each time a Spell Card is activated on your side of the field, gain 500 LP immediately after it resolves. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; return 1 face-up Spell Card you control to the hand, and if you do, activate 1 Spell Card with a different name from your hand.**

* * *

"And now Elizabeth Greyson used the monsters summoned with Pendulum Summon as materials for a Xyz Summon!" the announcer continued to… well… announce? "Combos like those are why the Miami Championship is the best stage for duelists to showcase their skills!"

"So you can summoned from the Extra Decks too?" I nodded to Andrew's question.

"I'm still not done though! I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Oracle Sister Recruitment**_!" The card I activated showed Sola in a town, fixing the torn doll of a crying girl, while Jinx, Iris, and Miranda were in the background, examining other girls' magical potential.

 **Oracle Sister Recruitment (Spell)** **Continuous**

 **Once per turn: You can pay 800 LP; add 1 Level 4 or lower "Oracle Sister" monster from your Deck to the hand. If you have less LP than your opponent, you can sends this face-up card to the Graveyard, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Oracle Sister" monster from your Graveyard, or face-up in the Extra Deck.**

"At this moment, Jinx's effect activates!" I exclaimed and a wave of warm wind ran through the forest we were in. "When a Spell Card is activated she increases my Life Points by 500! _**Warm Storm**_!"

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 1100 → 1600** **』**

"You know, 500 is hardly enough of a boost." I narrowed my eyes at Evan. He noticed that and just crossed his arms. "Just don't get over your head, I don't want us to lose in the first round because of you."

"Look at who is talking." I hissed back at him.

"Don't give me that look. You saw how yourself that they aren't as weak as I expected."

"I activate the Quick-Spell, _Circle of the Fire Kings_!" I ignored Evan and turned toward Jaime as he played the spell that he just added to his hand in the last turn. "I destroy _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster_ and revive _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ from my Graveyard!"

Two circles of flames appeared on the field, one surrounded the warrior and turned him to ashes while the other exploded into a column of fire from which a large chicken flew and cried at us. I gritted my teeth and feel on my knees, feeling the temperature quickly raising after they summoned that monster. Or maybe it was because their last two turns set the entire place on fire…

"I activate Jinx's other effect!" I gestured toward my monster and she raised her hands, absorbing her Xyz Material. She unleashed another stream of wind, toward Recruitment. "By using one of her materials I return a Spell I control back to the hand and activate another one in its place!"

"Not so fast, or did you forget about _Arvata_ 's effect!" I put a hand on my hips as the set _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ on fire and destroyed it. "I destroy _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ to negate your monster's effect and destroy it!"

A worried expression stuck Jinx, I looked down at the ground below my monster, only to see it explode. I yelped as the force of the blast forced me to take a step back and cover my eyes with both hands.

"Now your Xyz Monster is gone and with that any effect that it might have had." Jaime crossed his hands. "What a pity, I expected more from someone who could use both Xyz and Pendulum Summoning."

"Something more, huh?" I looked back and could barely hold back my smirk. The explosion might have looked dangerous, but there was something in it that neither of my opponents' knew. "Too bad, because I activated the Pendulum effect of _Oracle Sister of Tranquility – Mimi_!"

The cloud of smoke left from the explosion suddenly began to diminish and Jinx came from within absorbing the black cloud into her palm. She winked at the audience and blew the smoke to Jaime's side of the field. _Garunix_ reappeared on the field and looked around in confusion as to why it wasn't destroyed.

"The two monsters that should have been destroyed by _Arvata_ 's effect are still on the field?!" the announcer looked at us, mostly me, in confusion. "What sorcery is this?"

"It's a very simple effect." I turned toward the audience. "When an effect is activated that would destroy a spellcaster on my field, _Oracle Sister of Tranquility – Mimi_ can destroy herself to negate any harm that this effect would bright to both of our monsters!" the spellcaster in my Pendulum Zone bowed at everyone watching us and disappeared in a cloud of sparkles.

The audience blew up into applauses at my monsters' little performance and I smiled a little. Magician shows were pretty boring for me as a child, I never really liked them because, after all, magic wasn't real and those tricks were just a smart way for people to lie to others. But the Oracle Sisters, they were different, they were making me love this silly concept that the younger me would probably scroll at me for enjoying it now. But what could I do? The applauses, the cheers, being in the center of the projectors and be loved by others felt so awesome that I couldn't help but feel warm inside.

"With this Jinx's effect continues!" I turned back to Jaime. "I return _Oracle Sister Recruitment_ to activate _Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword_ from my hand!" literally a blue sword shaped as a lighting appeared within Jinx' hands. " _Thunder Sword_ raises Jinx's attack by 800, and since a Spell has been activated this turn I get 500 more Life Points!"

 **Oracle Sister of** **Diversion – Jinx, ATK: 2100 + 800 → 2900**

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 1600 → 2100** **』**

"Then I activate _Oracle Sister Recruitment_ once again!" My monster raised her arms again, hitting me with a warm wave of wind.

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 2100 → 2600** **』**

"You restored half the Life Points we took last turn." Andrew muttered.

"Of course I did!" I exclaimed and clenched my fist. "Defending the weaker and helping them is what drives my deck! No matter how much you beat us, we will always come back, stronger!"

I had realized it a long time ago. This feeling within my chest, the Oracle Sister were different from the deck that I used back in my world. It might sound stupid, or even crazy, but this deck was a part of my, a part of my live, personality, believes is printed on each one of those cards. Because of that I would give all of myself in each duel with this deck!

"I see, so that's how it was." Our opponents' looked at each other.

" _Oracle Sister of_ _Diversion – Jinx_ attack _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_! _**Vacuum Thunder Strike**_!" Jinx raised her sword and wind gusted through the branches of the trees. Black clouds formed above us and thunders fell down on the ground around Garunix, trapping the bird.

"Should I?" Andrew looked over his partner.

"I got it." Jaime reassured. "I play the Action Card – _Zero Penalty_! This makes your monster's attack 0!"

"What are you doing?!" My brother pushed me back. "You are going to get us beaten!"

"Shut up!" I yelled and pushed him back, causing him to wince due to his wounds. "I activate _Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword_ 's effect to change your Spell's target back to Garunix!" A thunder stroke the bird, causing it to fall on the ground with a cry of pain.

"Not so fast!" Andrew jumped on top of his burning horse and then on the branch of a tree, grabbing another Action Card. "I activate _Miracle_! This negates Garunix' destruction and halves the damage we take!"

A barrier appeared around the bird, blocking and reflecting most of the thunders while the rest managed to just shock it a little.

 **『** **Andrew & Jaime LP: 4000 → 2550** **』**

"Next, while I have zero cards in my hand and _Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo_ is allowed to attack! Unfortunately for you, _Garunix_ still has zero attack and the damage halving effect of your Spell reduces damage from only one attack!"

"That may be true, but…" Jaime jumped on the bird's back and flew over us, grabbing another Action Card. "We from Fire Island Duel School have been taught how to deal with such odds. Let me show you, Action Card – Evasion; your attack is negated!"

Elevo jumped on Garunix to slay the beast, but got hit by its wing and fell back on the ground with a groan. Evan turned back to me and crossed his arms unimpressed.

"Don't give me that look." I whispered to him and ran off to find an Action Card alongside my monsters. "I end my turn here!"

Despite our disadvantageous position when it comes to Life Points, we had an edge against our opponents due to the fact that Fire Fist focused on swarming the field with monsters and Continuous Spells while Fire King destroyed its own cards. Unlike their playstyle, ChronoDevils and Oracle Sisters both were built with a multifunctional engine, allowing for a large range of possible combos and plays.

"Then, it's my turn next." Andrew drew the top card of his deck.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Andrew] LP: 2550, Hand: 4** **』**

"I will start by Normal Summoning _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon (Lv. 4, ATK:_ _1800 + 100 + 300→2200_ )! A warrior with the burning orange spirit of a multi-headed dragon appeared. "Then I activate _Fire Formation – Tenki_ to add a Level 4 or Lower Beast-Warrior from my Deck to the hand. I choose _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla_!" He showed us the card before adding it to his hand. "Moreover, when a _Fire Formation_ is activated while Dragon is on the field, I can set a different _Fire Formation_ Spell from my Deck."

Of course, he would use the Fire Fist's infamous Spell and Trap snatching from the deck to set up plays…

"You might have realized it already, but _Fire Formation – Tenki_ increases the attack of all Beast-Warrior monsters by 100!"

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince, ATK: 2600 + 100→ 2700**

 **Fire King Avatar Arvata, ATK: 2200 + 100→2300**

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Dragon, ATK: 2200 + 100→ 2300**

"I activate _Fire Formation – Tensu_ 's effect to summon _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla (Lv. 4, ATK:_ _1600 + 100 + 100 + 300→2100_ ). Next, Gorilla's effect activates; by sending _Fire Formation – Tenki_ to the Graveyard I destroy _Kurigear_!" The gears around us blew up simultaneously with the painted cry of Kurigear being the only thing we heard come from within the smoke.

"I really hoped that this Kuriboh would last at least until my turn." Evan sighed in disappointment.

"I still don't like this back row that you got there." Andrew commented, which forced me to look down at my Duel Disk. Ah right, Evan did set two cards during his turn. "I activate the set _Fire Formation – Gyokkou_ and target your left face-down card. So, while _Gyokkou_ is on the field you can't activate the card targeted by this effect!" Evan's set card materialized on the field and turned grey to show that it was unplayable at the moment.

"They still don't have enough attack power to take us down." Evan commented, seemingly unfazed by having his set card sealed.

"Is that what you think?" Andrew laughed. "I activate _Mystical Space Typhoon_ to target and destroy _Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword_!"

"I don't think so!" I exclaimed and jumped in my monster's arms. She generated a whirlwind and send he flying upward into a tree.

I landed on one of the branches and looked around, having just a few seconds to find an Action Card before _Mystical Space Typhoon_ resolved and took my Spell Card. I leaped onto a nearby branch and barely managed to grab a card that rested there before my legs slipped and I felt head first toward the ground.

"I activate Jinx' effect!" I exclaimed and another stream of wind hit my body, levitating me above the ground. "I return _Thunder Sword_ to my hand and activate another Spell in its place!"

"It's pointless to ever try!" Andrew pointed toward me. "I activate _Arvata_ 's effect - destroying _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ to negate your monster's effect and destroy it!"

"That's what I wanted to hear!" I exclaimed and showed the boys my Action Card. "I play _Invincibility_ to make Jinx unaffected by card effects for the rest of this turn!" My monster crossed her hands and turned around, disappearing into thin air. "Then because you failed to negate her effect, Jinx returns Thunder Sword back to my hand and her other effect increases my Life Points by 500 since a Spell was activated on my field!"

 **Oracle Sister of** **Diversion – Jinx, ATK: 2900 - 800 → 2100**

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 2600 → 3100** **』**

"Even if you managed to avoid our effects, your monsters' attack is now lower than ours." Andrew gestured toward _Horse Prince._ "So let's clear your field and Life Points now. Battle!" Horse Prince charged at Jinx and ignited itself, slamming into her life a burning bullet.

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 3100 → 2500** **』**

I gritted my teeth and turned around to look for an Action Spell with my remaining monster, while Evan remained in place due to his wounds. Come on, come on. Aha! I noticed a card lying on the ground a few meters away from me and ran at top speed to grab it.

"Not so fast!" Suddenly _Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo_ pushed me out of the way, and a stream of fire flew over my head

I hit the ground face-first, wincing from both the pain and the weight of Elevo who was lying on top of me. I raised my eyes and saw that the fire had hit the area where the Action Card was lying, surrounding it in hot flames. _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ landed in the flames alongside _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Horse Prince_ , both of which carried Jaime and Andrew on their backs respectively. The monsters turned toward me, the elephant crossed its weapons, charging a ball of fire.

"Next, _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ destroy _Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo_!" my magician jumped in front of me and took the attack point blank. I closed my eyes and looked away as she was incinerated.

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 2500 → 2300** **』**

"What are you doing?" Evan ran up to me and held up his Duel Disk.

"Well, I was trying to not lose!" I exclaimed back.

"I thought I was clear when saying that you should leave me to do the dueling.-, as you clearly are no match for them!"

"Just shut up!" I exclaimed and pushed him away.

"If you two are done with the bickering, it's still our turn." Andrew pointed out. _"Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon_ , attack the opposing player directly and end this!"

"Tch. I was hoping to save this effect for later." I sighed and pressed a button on my Duel Disk. In an instance a wall of fire formed between us and the attacking monster, blocking off whatever damage I would have taken.

"The fire turned to protect her! How's that possible?!" Andrew exclaimed in shock. Looking around I saw that everyone else, including the audience were confused as to how I managed this.

"Well, look a bit more careful and you will get our answer!" I exclaimed and threw my arm upward.

The wall of flames before me dispersed and _Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade_ landed on the ground, swinging her sword swiftly while winking at the people who watched us.

"That's one of the monsters you used as Xyz Material." Andrew narrowed his eyes. "Was it her effect that saved you?"

"Bingo!" I exclaimed and gestured toward the spellcaster; she bowed toward the audience. "When a player declares a direct attack against me while she is in the Graveyard, I Special Summon her and end the Battle Phase!"

"Hmm, you were prepared in case we break your previous defense." Jaime looked at me a little amused. "That was a pretty smart move."

"But a futile one as well." I narrowed my eyes after Andrew's comment. "We still have the Action Card that you failed to catch and will activate it right now! Action Spell – **Firestorm**!" The card he played depicted a red background with multiple fireballs. "For each FIRE monster in my graveyard you take 200 points of damage! Due to the rules of Tag-Duels, the graveyards of partners are shared so the combine number is 7!"

* * *

 **Firestorm (Spell) Normal**

 **Inflict 200 damage to your opponent for each FIRE monster in your Graveyard.**

* * *

I crossed my hands as seven fire balls fell around me and exploded, one of the particles even hit me in the shoulder.

 **『** **Evan & Elizabeth LP: 2300 → 900** **』**

"Like the warm of the fire already?" Andrew asked us. "I Overlay _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla_ and _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon_!" I heard people from the audience actually gasping and barely withhold the desire to facepalm. If Xyz and Synchro were such a big of a deal, I wonder what kind of Meta game this dimension had. "Incinerate any opposite that comes against your glorious rule! Xyz Summon! Rank 4, _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King (RANK4, ATK: 2200 + 100 + 100 + 300 → 2700)_." A humanoid tiger in armor surrounded by flames appeared on the field with a roar.

"Spectacular! Fire Island Duel School is able to teach its students various summoning methods like LDS!" the announcer exclaimed.

"When _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King_ is Xyz Summon I can set a Fire Formation card from my Deck." A card popped from Andrew's Duel Disk and he played it face-down. "That's all I could do for now."

"Don't worry. I will get them on my next turn." Jaime nodded to his teammate.

"I end my turn here then."

"About time." Evan stepped forward and put a hand on his Duel Disk. "My turn, DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 900, Hand: 1** **』**

"During your Standby Phase the effect of _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ activates from my Graveyard!" Jaime exclaimed.

The ground around us shook, causing both me and Evan to fall down. I looked up and saw a cloud of black smoke rising from the volcano. The ground between us began to crack open and magma rose, burning down the trees and practically everything that was green.

"During the next Standby Phase after _Garunix_ was destroyed by a card effect, it revives and destroys all other monsters on the field! _Phoenix Onslaught_!"

The ground cracked in two and an ignited _Garunix_ shot into the sky. The burning phoenix swooped down upon our side of the field, wrapped in immense flames. I crossed my arms and fell on my knees from the overwhelming strength of the Fire King. Every other monster that was present on the field got consumed by the flames and disappeared into ashes along with most of the jungle. Everything that remained behind was a pitch black ground, and us in the middle of it all.

"H-how could you?" I stood up and looked around the burned field. "You destroy your own monsters as well!"

"That's true, but our monsters are made from flames." Jaime pointed out. "Therefor they are never really destroyed." _Garunix_ 's flames died down and I gasped at the thing that came in sight.

Both _Fire King Avatar Barong_ and _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King_ stood behind the bird with flames surrounding them. I moved my body backward to get more distance between me and the monsters. I saw what he meant with the phase 'made from flames' and I didn't like it at all.

"H-how did these monsters appear on the field?" I demanded.

"Oh that's a simple question." Jaime nodded his head and gestured toward _Barong_ , who by the way was in defense position. "When _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ is destroyed its effect activates to revive a different Fire King with its effects negated."

"As for _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King_ , when _Garunix_ activated its effect, I chained this card to it." Andrew continued and gestured toward a face-up Trap Card. " _Fire Formation – Tenken_ ; it makes my monster unaffected by all other card effects except its own at the cost of negating the effect of the targeted monster. And as a bonus, it increases the attack of all Beast-Warrior monsters by 300."

 **Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King, ATK: 2200 + 300→ 2500**

 **Fire King Avatar Barong, ATK: 2300 + 300→2600**

"That's just adorable." I rolled my eyes at Evan's laughter.

I really don't like mocking my opponents, even less when it's me who barely hanged on the ropes. My entire being suddenly became worried about what Evan would do next. I had never questioned his methods before because he always ended up victorious, but this was different from usual, it was a Tag-Duel, he had to work out strategies and duel together, as a team.

"I play the Spell Card _**Tri-Atom Quantum**_! I banish _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast_ from my Graveyard to Special Summon up to three monsters from my deck whose combined levels are equal or lower to _Paradox-Claw_ , but at the cost of negating their effects!" The gears appeared on our field and transformed into monsters. "Come forth, _ChronoDevil Unknollow (Lv. 1, DEF: 0), ChronoDevil Gear Tuner (Lv. 1, DEF: 300)_ , and _**ChronoDevil Marauder**_!"

While the first two gears turned into a robot and a shadow, the third took a shape close to a humanoid creature in a black bodysuit. A pointy hat with two large horns on the side rested on top of its head. The monster's face was completely hidden from view through a black mask which covered everything except for its pitch black eyes. Large clock gears rested on each of its shoulders like some sort of protection. Instead of arms the monster had robotic extensions, each of which ended with three large sword blades instead of fingers. A single golden clock was coming out of its chest and with each move of its arrows, the sound of a beating heart echoed through the field.

* * *

 **Tri-Atom Quantum (Spell) Normal**

 **Banish 1 "ChronoDevil" monster from your Graveyard, then Special Summon up to 3 DARK monsters from your Deck whose combine Level is less or equal to the banished monster's, also they have their effects negated.**

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Marauder**

 **Level:** **4/** **Attribute: Dark** **/** **Type:** **Fiend** **/Effect/Pendulum**

 **Pendulum Scale: 2**

 **ATK: 1** **6** **00/DEF:** **10** **00**

 **Pendulum Effect:** **Once per turn, when a monster you control attacks an opponent monster: You can change the attacked monster's DEF to 0.**

 **Effect: Once per** **turn** **, if this card attacks a Defense Position monster, it can make another attack in a row. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

* * *

"Three monsters from just one Spell Card?!" Andrew's eyes bulged.

"Don't forget that _ChronoDevil Gear Tuner_ is also, as its name suggests, a tuner." Evan revealed.

"Tuner? Then that means another…"

"What, you didn't think that I had only one Synchro monster, right?" Evan reached out with his hand, then squeezed it into a fist. "This is going to be her grand debut, so be sure to remember the name and appearance of the monster that defeated you. I tune Level 4 _ChronoDevil Marauder_ with Level 1 _ChronoDevil Gear Tuner_!"

Gear Tuner jumped on the ground excitedly, with its body growing brighter until it finally broke apart and a single ring flew into the sky. Marauder jumped over it and fell through the circular opening, turning into four glowing orbs.

"Within the timeless abyss, I call the android with unmoving gears. Open your metal heart and set forth its blazing black flames! Synchro Summon! Level 5, _**ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android**_!"

A column of light burst from the rings, out of which emerged a broken doll. Its body was just like a young girl covered in large cracks that showed the clock gears spinning and grinding inside of her. Her knee long white hair rested motionlessly at her back, in complete sync with her cold grey eyes. This so called 'android' wore what appeared to have been once an elegant frilly white dress, now covered torn apart to showcase the gears of her metal body. Instead of normal human ears, the robot had large, metallic, triangular objects on each side of her head. The robot stepped gently on the burned below her naked feet and remained there motionlessly, just like a doll whose strings were cut off.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil** **Retro-Fractured Android**

 **Level:** **5/** **Attribute:** **DARK/** **Type:** **Psychic** **/** **Synchro/** **Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **9** **00/DEF:** **19** **00**

 **Effect: During either player's turn: You can Tribute this card** **to target 1 Normal Spell/Trap Card in either player's Graveyard; activate that target's effects. If this card is in your Graveyard and you control a Tuner monster: You can Special Summon this card, also you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except Synchro monsters.**

* * *

"And how exactly is this monster going to defeat us?" Jaime raised an eyebrow, both skeptically and relieved by the monster's not so great appearance and stats.

"You will see in a moment, but before that I will activate my set card, that you haven't blocked before – the Trap Card, _**Anomaly in the Dark Dimension**_!"

* * *

 **Anomaly in the Dark Dimension (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 of your banished DARK monsters; Special Summon that target, and if you do, it gains 800 ATK. The monster is destroyed during the End Phase.**

* * *

"With this card, I can revive a banished DARK monster until the end of this turn. And I believe that you can guess which monster I'm choosing." A purplish-blue portal appeared behind Evan and _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast_ ran onto the field with a fearsome roar. "Sadly, _Paradox-Claw_ will have to disappear during the End Phase, but to make up for that, it's attack power increases by 800."

 **ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast, ATK: 2000 + 800 → 2800**

"Unbelievable! Evan Greyson managed to get two Synchro Monsters on the field at the same time!" the announcer exclaimed (No Shooting Quasar Turbo confirmed.) "And one of them is also stronger than both _Garunix_ and _Tiger King_!"

"I'm just getting started." Evan spoke smugly and I crossed my hands. " _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast_ 's effect shall now activate! Once per turn, I return a number of cards from the field to my hand and, and for each, your monsters lose 500 attack!" _Reversed Paradox_!" The field around us turned grey and then time began to go backward, returning Evan's set card, _ChronoDevil Unknollow_ , _Oracle Sister of_ _Allure – Grea_ , and _Oracle Sister Recruitment_ back to his hand.

 **Fire King High Avatar Garunix, ATK: 2700 - 2000→ 700**

 **Fire King Avatar Barong, ATK: 2600 - 2000→ 600**

"Due to _Fire Formation – Tenken_ , my _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King_ is unaffected by card effects for this turn, so its attack won't change."

"Then I won't waste my time to attack it!" Evan cried and jumped on his monster's back. " _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast_ , attack _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ and end this duel!"

"I think that your calculations are off." Jaime pointed out while Andrew jumped on the back of the bird. "Even though _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast_ has more attack points, it isn't enough to take out all of ours!"

"WRONG! I now activate _ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android_ 's effect!" The girl opened her eyes and then suddenly clutched her own chest as her body turned to stardust. "By releasing her, I can activate a Spell Card from either player's Graveyard! And the perfect target is: _Zero Penalty_!" The stardust flew all over Garunix and the beast cried out as its attack dropped to 0!

 **Fire King High Avatar Garunix, ATK: 700 → 0**

"If this attack hits, _Paradox-Claw_ will inflict 2800 points of damage, which is more than Andrew and Jaime's Life Points!" the announcer shouted into his microphone. "Is this the last attack!?"

"Don't write us out yet!" _Garunix_ raised its head, a move which Andrew used in order to jump and grab an Action Card. "Action Card- Encore! I copy _Zero Penalty_ 's effect on your monster!"

"What!?" I gasped as the card fired a blue beam at Evan's monster, reducing its attack power to literally nothing.

 **ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast, ATK: 2800 → 0**

"Due to the rules, if monsters with 0 attack battle, neither of them is destroyed." Jaime exclaimed to us and indeed, the two monsters managed to block each other's attack. "Of course, due to the effect of your Trap, _Paradox-Claw_ will be destroyed during the End Phase, so I guess that you could call Garunix the winner of the battle."

"In your hurry to end this due, you used your monster's effect prematurely and ended up losing two Synchro monsters for nothing." Andrew added.

They were right, if Evan had paid attention to my plays by now, he could have waited for the opponent's response and used Android's effect to copy _Invincibility_ from my Graveyard. This way, he wasn't going to be able beat them with one attack but the huge damage would have given us a much needed advantage. I really couldn't tell what Evan was thinking until now, he had never been so impatient in a duel before, and always waited for the best moment to activate his cards' effect. Were his wounds causing discomfort again?

"Are you ok?" I walked closer to him.

"Just stand back and let me take care of this!" He suddenly snapped at me.

I recoiled back and put a hand over my chest. That… that jerk! I was just trying to help him because he was my brother, and had some pretty bad wounds. But what do I get in return? He yelled at me because I cared for his health.

"It appears that the Grayson twins are having some sort of argument." The announcer commented. "If they don't push their difference aside, the next turn could as well be the last."

" _I can still break his remaining bones._ " Hema suggested.

"Tch. I activate _Oracle Sister Recruitment_ , and set _Oracle Sister of_ _Allure – Grea_ into the Pendulum Zone." Evan played my cards. I looked over to my monster and smiled a little to see her back. "Then I set a monster and a card. Turn end."

"During the End Phase, _Fire King Avatar Barong_ is destroyed and its effect activates." Jaime reminded us, and his monster exploded. "When it's destroyed by a card effect, I add a Fire King from my Deck to the hand." He showed to us another _Circle of the Fire Kings_. "Now it's my turn, and I draw!'

 **『** **Turn 7 [Jaime] LP: 2550, Hand: 2** **』**

"I normal Summon _Fire King Avatar Kirin (Lv.3, ATK: 1000 + 800 → 1800)_ and activate _Fire King Island_ 's effect to destroy it!" As soon as a white horse with green flames appeared, it shattered into pieces and two cards popped out of the guy's Duel Disk. "I add _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ to my hand by _Fire King Island_ 's effect and send _Fire King Avatar Barong_ from my Deck to the Graveyard by _Kirin_ 's effect!"

"At this rate he will go through his entire monster line-up in two turns." Hema stated.

"There must still be something that we could do." Yuki tried to look around.

" _Fire Formation – Tensu_ 's effect lets me Normal Summon a second time this turn." Jaime stated, although he already knew that. "I Normal Summon _Fire King Avatar Arvata (Lv.4, ATK: ATK: 1800 + 800 → 2600)_!"

" _They got two monsters and we got none!_ " Sunny panicked.

"Now battle!" Jaime cried out. " _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King_ attack the face-down monster!"

The tiger roared and held up its right fist, igniting it. It then took a step back and jumped all over the field slapping its arm on top of our face-down card which turned around and _ChronoDevil Unknollow_ came out, crying out as the flames consumed it.

"That's it!" Andrew exclaimed.

"I attack you directly with _Fire King Avatar Arvata_!" Jaime cried out and pointed at Evan.

"That's all that I expected from you." Evan sighed and shook his head. "I activate the continuous trap, Pendulum Shift!" The card that he used in his duel against Yuya appeared on our field. "Once per turn, I can Special Summon a monster from my Pendulum Scales! Come out, _Oracle Sister of Allure – Grea (_ _Lv. 4,_ _DEF:200)_!" The magician girl jumped from the Pendulum Zone onto the field before us, taking the attack instead.

"Lucky you." Andrew commented.

"I activate Circle of the Fire Kings to destroy _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ and revive a second _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ from my Graveyard!"

As the second elephant monster raised from a wall of flames, I turned toward Evan. He wasn't standing next to me anymore. I looked around and there he was, running off toward somewhere. That was the first time since we came here that I saw him so desperate that he began to search for Action Cards.

" _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ attack them directly!" Jaime ordered his monster.

" _If this attack connects…_ " Sunny gave me a worried expression.  
" _Don't worry, we got this._ " I reassured her and turned toward Evan.

He ran as fast as his body would allow him toward an Action Card and reached out to grab it. But then a fireball fell from the sky and the ground around his exploded. I could feel the different personalities within my head all gasping. Slowly, the smoke blew away and everyone lowered their heads. The Action Card remained on the ground motionless along with Evan who groaned and rubbed the back of his neck.

"What the?" I sniggered at everyone's reactions.

Evan had failed to grab the Action Card, he had nothing else that could have saved us in that moment, and logically we would have lost. Yet, the Life Points remained at 900 despite how strong the opponent's monsters were.

"Uh, excuse us, it seems that there is some sort of technical problem with the Life Point-!" I glanced over to the announcer who seemed to be talking with something over the gear in his ear. "I just got a message that there were no technical problems and this is… legitimate?"

The crowd broke into whispers and some glanced toward us. I sighed.

"I guess it's time for the magician to reveal another trick from their sleeves, huh?" I turned toward the audience and threw up my hands to get their attention. "When _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ destroyed my _Oracle Sister of Allure – Grea_ , her effect activated! As she was the only monster on our field upon destruction, all battle damage dealt for the rest of this turn becomes 0!"

"W-what?" I turned toward our opponents and winked to show that I wasn't kidding.

"Very well then. I end my turn." Jaime stated and pointed at me. "Your turn."

" _You got almost no cards in your hand and just two useless continuous cards._ " Hema reminded me. " _This is going to be the destiny draw for both you and your brother!_ "

" _Destiny Draw? I like the sound of this._ " I looked down at my Deck. One card to turn around an entire match? That sounded crazy, it sounded like something that wouldn't be possible, it sounded like…

Something that a Greyson should be able to off!

"Destiny… DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 8 [Elizabeth] LP: 900, Hand: 1** **』**

"During your Standby Phase the effect of _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_ activates from my Graveyard!" Jaime stated and every monster on the field exploded into flames as the bird rose once again.

"Joke on you, we had no monsters on our field for you to destroy." I pointed out.

"I didn't just destroy our monsters." Jaime pointed out and in an instant four new columns of fire rose from the ground. "For each _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ destroyed, I revive a _Fire King Avatar Barong_ from the Graveyard."

"Further, _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King_ 's effect activates as well!" Andrew continued. "I destroy Fire Formation – Tensu, Gyokkou, and Tensen from my field to the Graveyard in order to Special Summon _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla (Lv.4, ATK: 1600 + 300 → 1900)_ and _Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear (Lv.4, ATK: 1600 + 300 → 1900)_ from my Deck." The three Spell and Trap Cards bursted into sparkles from which two armored creatures with fire avatars formed.

"That's a lot of monsters that you got there." I observed, four Level 4s and one Level 7, they weren't playing around. "I activate _Oracle Sister Recruitment_ 's effect to destroy it and Special Summon an Oracle Sister from my Graveyard or Extra Deck!"

My Spell card disappeared in a flash of light and on its place formed a circle of light from which _Oracle Sister of Tranquility – Mimi_ jumped out.

" _Oracle Sister of Tranquility – Mimi_ 's effect activate!" I continued and another circle of light formed on my field. "I revive _Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo (Lv.4, ATK: 2100)_ and then pay 800 Life Points!"

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 900 – 4*200 → 100** **』**

"Two Level 4 monsters…" Andrew rubbed his chin. "Another Xyz Summon?"

"Wrong!" I exclaimed and played the card that I drew. "When there are only two Spellcaster monsters on my field I can Special Summon _**Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia**_!" A small green furry beast with white angelic wings landed on the field and put a palm on its forehead, summoning a giant blue hat with a star in the middle out of thin air.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia**

 **Level: 1** **/** **Attribute:** **WIND/** **Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect/Tuner**

 **ATK:** **200** **/DEF:** **100**

 **Effect: If you control** **only** **2 or more** **Spellcaster-Type** **monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your hand.** **Once per turn, you can target 1 Spellcaster-Type monster you control: The Level of all Spellcaster-Type monsters you currently control become the same as that monster's Level until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"A Tuner monster?!" The eyes of my opponents practically bulged out.

"I activate Tunia's effect to make the Level of all Oracle Sister monsters I control the same!" I exclaimed as the stars on my monster's hat began to glow and multiplied into four.

 **Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia** , **LV. 1** **→ LV. 4**

"Additionally, when a Tuner is on my field, _ChronoDevil_ _Retro-Fractured Android (Lv.5, ATK: 1900)_ can be revived!" A demonic pitch black portal formed before my monsters and Evan's Synchro dragged herself back to the field.

"All preparations are done now! Let's go! I tune my Level 4 _Oracle Sister of Swordsmanship – Elevo_ to the Level 4 _Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia_!" The little beast hide inside its large hat which turned into four rings that Elevo flew through them. " _Magicians of mother Gaia guild us! The bodies and minds of the living shall combine here and now to lead us into a world of enlightenment! Synchro Summon! Level 8! Unrivaled watchman of history!_ _ **Oracle Sister of Enlightenment– Horada**_!"

The column of light was cut in two and a woman with spiky black hair jumped out of the rings. This new magician of mine wore a crow made from flowers on its forehead with a white scarf wrapped around her mouth. Her outfit consisted of a white sleeveless dress with an open chest, a white cape rested on her shoulders with a fur lining that covered her back. A single black metal belt was tied around her waist to hold her green skirt. The woman wore white armored boots and gauntlets with golden blade-like arcs on them. In her arms, she held two blades, their shape similar to swords, but their size, far smaller than any sword I had ever seen.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Enlightenment– Horada**

 **Level** **:** **8/** **Attribute:** **WIND/** **Type: Spellcaster/** **Synchro** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **2700** **/DEF:** **2300**

 **1 Spellcaster-Type Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Synchro Summoned: Negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent currently controls. You can discard 1 Spell or Trap Card from your hand: Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects of the same type until the end of this turn. Once per turn, if this card was Synchro Summoned using only Spellcaster-Type monsters as Synchro materials; you can Tribute 1 "Oracle Sister" monster you control: Add 1 Spell Card from your Graveyard to the hand.**

* * *

"E-Elizabeth Greyson had just pulled a Synchro Summon after successful Xyz and Pendulum Summons earlier in the duel!" The announcer shouted out excited. "It seems like we are entering an age were duelists are utilizing every possibility of the Extra Deck!"

"I activate Horada's effect!" I declared as the woman crossed her blades together and the runes that covered them began to glow. "When she is Synchro Summoned, the effects of all face-up cards you control are negated! _**Darkest Hour**_!"

A wave of light surrounded all cards on the opponent's side of the field and grabbed them. The magic blocked all monsters from moving and reflected the effects of the other cards back to themselves. With that, the effects of all their cards were nullified!

"Next, I tribute _Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia_ to activate Horada's third effect! _**Magician's Heritage**_!" my monster winked to the audience and disappeared in a small explosion of smoke. "I add _Oracle Sister Recruitment_ back to my hand, then discard it to activate Horada's second and final effect; by discarding a Spell or Trap, Horada allows me to stop you from activating Spell or Trap cards during my turn! _**Horada's Ritual**_!"

Horada raised her blades and unleashed a blast of wind that blasted every Action Card on the field away from the naked eye. I clutched my hand into a fist, this was it, I could feel it, the moment before a duel ends, the excitement, the heaviness in my chest and every breath that I take, the bittersweet happiness.

"Battle!" My monster's eyes glowed and she threw her blades in the air, catching them in mid-air, she charged at the opponent. " _Oracle Sister of Enlightenment– Horada_ attack _Fire King High Avatar Garunix_!"

"Did you lose it?! Our monsters have the same attack!" Jaime yelled back at me.

"Not for long! I activate _ChronoDevil_ _Retro-Fractured Android_ 's effect!" The girl opened her eyes and threw her arms to the side, giving into view the metal heart beating within her broken body. The body made of iron began to beat faster and glow, as her whole body turned golden and shattered into billions of sparks! "By Tributing herself, she activates the effect of _Zero Penalty_ within my Graveyard!"

 **Fire King High Avatar Garunix, ATK: 2700 → 0**

My spellcaster cut through the large bird multiple times before jumping back. The creature took a step forward and looked down at my monster before exploding.

 **『** **Andrew & Jaime LP: 2550 –2700 → 0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan & Elizabeth** **』**

As the duel ended the crowd began to cheer and shout our names out loud. My monster turned back and nodded before disappearing alongside the field and all cards that still remained. The announcer had begun to speak about something, but at this point, I no longer cared. Turning toward Evan once again I saw him waving at the crowd, a large smile on his face which I could tell was fake even from kilometers. But of course, his own goal was to get to the top, to win the tournament and become champion no matter whom he might hurt. That was so much… like him.

"Do you want me to break his neck now?" I rolled my eyes at Hema's question and turned back to leave.

"Where are you going Eliz?" A familiar voice called out once I was in the corridor outside the arena. I turned back and there he was, running toward me with the same fake smile as a minute ago. "I should said, you were far better of a duelist than what I expected; you managed to make perfect use of the cards that I felt for you. You know, if this keep up the two of us might have to duel against one another for the first plac-"

I swiftly raised my hand and slapped him across the face as hard as I could. "SHUT UP!" I yelled at him, hot tears began to run down my cheeks but I didn't care about that. I no longer cared about any of this!

"Ouch! What was tha-"

"I HATE YOU!" I cried out at him and clutched my chest. It burned, it hurt, to hold so much hate within my heart was too painful, but I wouldn't stay silent any longer. "I hate you! I hope you weren't my brother because a sister couldn't hate her brother as much as I hate you!"

"W-why are you yelling at me!? We won!" He reached out to grab my hand, but I pushed him away and took a step away.

"That's why!" I continued to shout, my mind didn't care if there was anyone else there to listen, nor what they would have thought. "Everything is about winning with you, isn't it?! You don't care who gets hurt, who gets their heart crushed underneath your feet as long as you win! I don't care about this stupid tournament, nor about winning this duel! All that I wanted was to be close to my family, to you, Avice and Oni, but you wouldn't be able to understand that! You can't understand that I would accept losing this duel; that all I wanted to duel alongside you, be happy along with my brother. All I wanted was for us to _**smile**_ together, but you ruined it!"

"Listen, this is a stupid thing to get mad about."

"For you, anything that isn't connected to your personal goals is stupid!" My shoulders dropped after this last shout, my heart was getting painfully torn apart and I couldn't stand watching him in the face any longer. "What… what does the word 'happiness' even mean to you?"

From the edge of my view, I could see how Evan's head dropped and a soft whispered followed, "You know that the three of you are the only happiness I ever had."

"That's a lie." I replied and left him there to think about my words.

* * *

 **Avice: Just in case you guysh ave forgotten (since it's been so last since the last update) here are the reviews for the next three chapters!**

 **Chapter** **23: An Angel Without Her Wings**

 **Summary:** At the end of the first day of Maiami Championship following a victory from Yuzu, next in the Junior Youth group of You Show Duel School is Avice. Armer with her Astral Angel deck, she believes that its destructive power is enough to destroy any opposition. But what happens when her opponent is someone focusing on overwhelming strenght as well. Avice throws all of her strongest combos, but everything falls and she soon finds herself in a corner overwhelmed by her own dueling style!

 **Chapter** **24: Swing! Pendulums of Fate!**

 **Summary:** It's the second day and Oni's chance to shine comes! However, before her duel, Reiji has given her anew batch of cards that she has no knowledge how to use and because of that she gets quickly overwhelmed by her opponent. Everything seems to be hopeless for Oni, but then a strange thing happens as a pendulum appears in the hands of Avice and Evan, and...

 **Chapter** **25: Three Steps to Duel**

 **Summary:** After Oni's duel, Elizabeth and Avice go to check on You Show when they find themselves helping Yuya to get back Gongenzaka's stolen sash. Little did they know that they were all playing in Gen Ankokuji's trap and end up surrounded by henchmen in a 3 vs 4 match.

* * *

 **A/N: But seriously, Fire Fist were supposed to be meta, yet a single Evil HERO resulted in a board wipe?! Well then, I guess there is only one sentient thing to do. #EvilHeroesOPPleaseBan**

 **Horrible jokes aside, there might be some things and plays that might look like mistakes, but they most likely aren't. I'm just going to address the ones that come to mind right now. First, I know that** _Fire King Avatar Arvata_ **'s effects can be used only once per turn, by only 1 Arvata per turn, but those conditions aren't true for some of the more powerful monsters that I have seen, like Clear Wing, so that's why I choose to ignore it at the end and revived a "Fire King" for every Arvata that got destroyed. Second, there is** **inconsistency with Eliz's hand at the end, it should probably be at 2, but instead it's at 1. The reason for that is because I wasn't sure if the effect of Jinx that should have bounced backher equip would still do it if there are no Spells to activate. Ultimately, I believe that any small problems like this haven't made this chapter less enjoyable, so that's about my rant.**

 **Thanks to everyone who followed/favorited this story between this and the last update. Also, special thanks to everyone who stayed here until now, and I hope we all stay together until the end of this story.**

 **Next, is a response to the reviews you left last time.**

 **To** _bennyf5302_ **: Thanks!**

 **To** _ScalchopWarrior_ **: Now this is going to be most likely a long response, but let's see. Just to say, I'm not going to cover your points in the same order as you wrote them. First no, this is not Hayato and yes, I know that you were just trying to be funny. Second, hearing that your concept for the darkness was close to mine actually made my day. Third... The "Heroic Challengers". You see, I could easily make new support for them, but when using Real Decks, I prefer to put into display the actual power of the cards in the deck, instead of making my own cards for the sake of making my own cards. That's why I try to not put any OC cards in real decks like "Red-Eyes" and "** **Heroic Challengers".**

 **And finally, your very first sentences about Evan. Boy, where do I start here... I'm actually happy that you don't like him. I had never mentioned this before, but Evan wasn't supposed to be a likeable character. To his very core, he is a powerhungry bastard with an ego larger than the Solar System who wouldn't stop at anything to archieve his own goals, even if that would hurt his OWN sisters. He doesn't care about others and sees everyone else as a pawn for him to use. Everything he did until now was only for himself, he never helped anyone without expecting something in return.**

 **To** ThePLOThand **: The answer to your first review about Yuya being bashed also lies in my response to Scal about Evan. Every insult that was thrown at him until now, always came from Evan. Even if I give him a great** **character development (which I will), make him as powerful as Yusei, AND even have him beat Evan in a duel, Evan will continue to to insult him because that's his character.**

 **As for your idea about using Action Cards in a non-standard way, I do have some ideas there, but we will have to wait and see...**

 **Anyway, that's all from me.**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	23. Chapter 23

**So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

An Angel Without Her Wings

 **Avice's POV**

After big brother and big sister's Tag Duel, I felt that things between them have changed for the worst. But could I say that it surprised me? Of course, no! My brother and sister always had a difficult relationship – Elizabeth had never been able to understand Big Bro, which only made the gap between them larger. Despite that things hadn't been so bad before the duel and I could only theorize what happened after they left the arena. I had only been able to see big brother briefly, his cheek had a red hand printed on it; he avoided all of my questions about this new feature, only telling me that he was busy, and that I had to go stay with Eliz. Following his advice wasn't very productive, as big sister stayed silent for the rest of the day, though her eyes seemed red and there were traces that she had cried.

"What are you doing Neechan?" Oni called out and looked down at the cards in my hand. "Are you checking your deck?"

"Yeah, I like shuffling my deck before a duel." I explained to her and pulled a random card from my deck before turning it around – it was Sola.

"Oni is so jealous of Neechan and Niichan for their skills with the Extra Deck." The little girl sighed and looked into my eyes with her big, and cute ones. "Could neechan teach Oni how to use Extra Deck sometime?"

"Heh, where did that come from?" I smiled and ran a hand through her pink hair. She was so cute! I understood how my brother felt to have a younger sister. "You have Ritual Summon, which none of us does, so in that regard, Oni's deck is better than ours."

"But Oni's not sure!" She put her small hands over mine and her expression turned pouty. But it still was so cute! "Oni wants to get even stronger, to get on Neechan's level!"

I turned my head away from her and looked at the ground, but despite that the smile on my face remained. I thought about things, about what Oni just said and much, much more. My thoughts ran so fast that I would forget most of them moments after they popped into my head. After a minute or two like that I turned back to Oni and patted her on the head.

"Don't work yourself too much." I told her with a grin. "I promise you that both I and my brother will give our best to teach you everything we know. But for now, we should focus on the closer future, which are our matches."

"Yes, Oni will give her best to get to the second round alongside Niichan and Neechan!"

I nodded and turned toward the arena, hearing that the audience had started clapping and cheering. I could also hear the principal's crying even from the other side of the stadium where I was sitting. Apparently the current duel had come to an end, finally.

"This neck and neck fight for Action Cards ends with You Show Duel School's Hiiragi's victory!" the announcer exclaimed.

"Yuzu-neechan won her duel!" Oni pointed out the obvious.

"Yeah, it seems she did." I sighed and stood up. My duel was right after hers so I had to prepare myself. To say the truth, I was a little nervous about this. As someone who had never dueled in front of a full crowd, the stage fright was getting to me, even if there was no reason for that. After all, I was on the same skill level as my brother, which automatically put me above everyone else in this tournament!

"The next match of the Junior Youth round will now begin!" I stood inside the corridor with my back pressed against the wall and waited for my name to be said.

* * *

"First we have, a duelists who entered the Miami Championship with ninety-three percent of victories, the mighty, Yasui Hizuru from Thunderstorm Duel School!" As the announcer declared a girl, two years older than me walked on the field. She had long blonde hair pointing in all directions and was wearing a torn black singlet over short jeans.

"And her opponent in this match, a new duelist to make her first appearance on the big stage, Avice Greyson!" Some people in the audience burst into cheers, when my name was spoke.

I walked on stage and waved at the audience. "Thanks for your support, I'm going to win for all of you!" I told them and turned toward my opponent.

The older girl narrowed her eyes, as I could feel her magenta colored orbs, checking my appearance; it made me blush a little. She crossed her arms and a very thin smile made its way onto her face, as we looked at each other. Despite her appearance, I could instantly tell that she was a cinnamon roll by heart.

"Saying that you are going to win before the match has begun can be really disrespectful to the person standing before you." Yasui told me.

"My apologizes then." I winked cutely in return to the remark. How sad, she didn't know that I was completely right about the outcome. All of my trust and resolve were put inside this deck, so that defeat would be impossible.

"Um, if you girls are finished, we can start the duel" The announcer addressed us, as we nodded. "Great! Then, the computer will at randomly choose the action field, which is… _Storm Fortress_!" The field turned into a castle, with lightning falling from above.

"That looks, shocking." I jumped back, as a lightning hit the ground where I stood just a moment ago.

"Is that so? This is just my kind of field." Yasui remarked. She jumped and made a back roll, landing inside the castle through an open window.

'Why do our opponents always get the field advantage?' The same thing happened in my brother and sister's tag duel. A jungle field when only their opponents had experience dealing with that kind of environment.

"Duelists locked in battle!" Yasui began.

"Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!" I hate this chant, but it's part of the ritual…

"They storm through this field! Behold!"

"This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling!"

"ACTION DUEL!"

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Yasui LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will start!" I exclaimed, drawing my first five cards. "First off, I will play _One for One_ , to discard _Astral Angel Hawking Turret_ and Special Summon, _**Astral Angel Einplus**_ from my Deck!"

A small white upside down triangle with yellowish-green core appeared on my field. The body opened ever so slightly, revealing a black and blue circuit from the inside, as the triangle's angles – ironically – detached themselves and flew to a new position, one rested upon the hypotenuse and the other two on the legs. Its body glowed blue to showcase that I left it in Defense Position.

 **Astral Angel Einplus**

 **Level: 1|Attribute: Light|Type: Machine/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 100/DEF: 500**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summoned, you can add 1 Level 4 or lower "Astral Angel" monster from your Deck to the hand.** **If this card is in your GY, you can target 1 LIGHT monster you control; increase its Level by 1 and if you do, Special Summon this card but banish it when it leaves the field.**

"When Einplus is Special Summoned, I add a Level 4 or lower Astral Angel to my hand. I add Astral Angel Silver Ring, and before you ask, I have no idea why its name is English when the rest of my deck's names are German." Perhaps someone should have made a trivia section about that.

"Thanks for the info." Yasui stated. "Not that I needed to know about your deck's naming issues…"

"The names are a deck's identity, so that's very important!" I told her matter-of-factly. "But to return back on track, I Normal Summon Astral Angel Silver Ring, and by its effect I shall add _**Astral Angel Golden Ring**_ to my hand, which can Special Summon itself when I control a LIGHT monster!"

A glowing blue cube with two silver wing accessories attached to it formed on my field, and just a moment later it was followed by a glowing green cube with golden wings accessories came right beside it.

 **Astral Angel Golden Ring**

 **Level: 4** **/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK:** **17** **00/DEF:** **4** **00**

 **Effect: If there is a LIGHT monster on your side of the field you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). While this card is on the field monsters your opponent controls cannot target face-up LIGHT monsters for attacks, except this one.**

"To continue, when Silver Ring is on my field, you can't attack other LIGHT monsters I control except for it, and Golden Ring has the same effect, so you can't attack either of my monsters!" I explained my monsters' effects.

"So, you sealed away my attacks on turn one?!" Yasui narrowed her eyes. "That's not a bad move at all. But just how long is this impenetrable defense going to last against me?"

"We will see. I lay a facedown card and end my turn." At this moment another lighting fell toward my spot, only for _Astral Angel Einplus_ to fly in the way and take on the hit, absorbing the electricity into its core.

"Very well then. My turn." Yasui drew her card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Yasui] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

I jumped on _Einplus_ and the monster flew off with _Silver Ring_ and _Golden Ring_ following behind us. We flew to the rooftop of a small tower, I stepped on the solid ground and looked down to my opponent. There was an Action Card under my feet, but I don't think that it's worth talking about since I wasn't going to use it anyways. Like my brother had said, those things only take away the skill out of dueling, and that was unacceptable in a tournament!

"I activate _Photon Lead_." Yasui played a card I was familiar with, but then, strangely, she hide behind a wall, before showing again at the next window. "With its effect, I Special Summon _Batteryman AA (Lv. 3, ATK: 0)_!" An orange robotic monster with floating head and electricity flowing behind it as a scarf appeared on the field.

'Oh boy.' I thought, remembering about those guys. Batteryman - a pretty heavy hitting Beatdown deck. It's a nightmare to deal with them while you have 8000 Life Points, more so when you get half that amount.

"While all _Batteryman AA_ I control are in Attack Position, my _Batteryman AA_ gains 1000 attack points for each. Right now, that's just 1000 points, but not for long! I play, Inferno Reckless Summon to Special Summon two more _Batteryman AA_ from my Deck!"

 **『** **3x** **』** **Batteryman AA, ATK: 0 + 3x1000 → 3000**

"In addition to this effect, you get to Special Summon any remaining copies of a monster you currently control." Of course, I already knew that, but it was nice of Yasui's side to tell me.

"I don't have any more copies of my monsters." I sighed in disappointment. Stupid one-of-a-kind rule.

"That's sad, but I activate my other Spell, _Short Circuit_!" Thunders began to echo loudly through the field as a barrage of lightnings fell upon my area. "When I control three or more Batteryman monsters, this Spell will destroy all card that you control."

"So that's what happens when Harpie's Feather Duster and Raigeki met?" I joked, of course, since I knew about Batteryman, I knew about this card too, though I had never seen a duelist use it in my world. "But, I knew that you would use something like this to get past my monsters. When you can't attack, effect negation or monster removal is the only other option left. Since you choose destruction, I will respond with my set card! The counter trap, _**Dimension Catalyst**_!"

The trap I played turned face-up. Its artwork showcased a black space filled by galaxies and mirrors showing reflections of different dimensions with the silhouettes of several angel-like monsters flying through the void.

 **Dimension Catalyst (Trap) Counter**

 **When a card or effect is activated that would destroy 2 or more cards you control: Banish all cards that would be destroyed by that effect, then draw 1 card. During your next Standby Phase, return all cards banished by this effect to the state they were at the start of the turn you activated the 1st effect of "Dimension Catalyst".**

"This effect banishes all cards that I control!" I exclaimed, my monsters all turned around and disappeared into thin air alongside the trap, causing the lightnings to change course and hit the area around the tower instead. "Then, I get to draw a card!"

"Removing all of your cards to avoid their destruction…" Yasui narrowed her eyes. "But now that leaves you completely open for an attack, and with my three _Batteryman AA_ having 3000 ATK each, your Life Points are going to run off in just two strikes!"

"So it seems." I shrugged as the three batteries stared at me. "But I'm a girl full of tricks, so we will see."

It seemed like Yasui wasn't used to people giving such calm replies because my words caused her to pull back a bit, caught off guard by my comment.

"Then start working on those tricks right now, because here comes the first attack! Go, _Batteryman AA_!"

I crossed my arms in front of my body, the first _Batteryman_ jumped on the tower where I stood and slapped its - charged with electricity - fist into my guts, knocking me on the ground.

 **『** **Avice's LP: 4000** **1000, Hand: 3** **』**

"Ugh…" I groaned feeling the zapping sensation on my body even after the attack finished. I began to take deep breaths and played a card from my hand.

"Now for the-! What?" I smirked a little after hearing Yasui's surprised voice. Slowly, I got back on my feet, a robot in blue armor with golden lining stood before me.

The monster's figure itself was pretty slim, but the protecting it wore was heavy, with large shoulder pads and giant knight gloves. Its head was simply constructed with the parts going into two separate ways after the 'chin', forming three green eyes on each side. A large golden ring raised from its back with strange symbols written all over it. The machine's legs stood on three toes, two at the front and one at the back. Finally, the monster held a white pike with a blue flag that showcased a golden galaxy.

"M-my monster's effect activated." I stated, regaining my footing. "When I take damage, _**Astral Angel Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer**_ can be Special Summoned from my hand with the damage I took becoming its attack points!"

 **Astral Angel** **Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer**

 **Level:** **3/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF:** **19** **00**

 **Effect: When you take battle damage: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, it gains ATK equal to the damage you took.** **This card** **cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects during the turn it was Special Summoned.**

My monster raised its pike high, as its attack power increased to become equal with _Batteryman AA_ 's.

"Furthermore, during the turn in which _Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer_ is Special Summoned, it can't be destroyed by battle or card effects!" I explained my monster's effect.

"So, if I choose to attack it, only my monsters are going to be destroyed…" Yasui titled her head to the side. "Then I will play the Action Card – _**Zip No Zap**_!" She revealed a card that showed two lightnings passing through each other. "This card can be activated during the end of the Battle Phase, and it inflicts 400 points of damage for each monster I control that hasn't declared at attack this turn."

 **Zip No Zap (Spell) Normal**

 **At the end of the Battle Phase, inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each monster you control that hasn't declared an attack this turn.**

"But that's…" Before I could finish, a lightning fell from the sky, hitting me. "Uuurrrrrrgh!" It seems like my skin has started getting cooked by all the electricity that hit me so far…

 **『** **Avice's LP: 1000 - 200, Hand: 2** **』**

"I set a monster and end my turn." A new card appeared before Yasui after which she jumped on one of her monsters and kicked herself away, landing on the terrace of the second floor. The older girl ran off after that, probably to find more Action Cards.

"I draw." I did so.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 200, Hand: 3** **』**

"During my turn the effect of _Dimension Catalyst_ returns my cards back to the field!" I shouted out loud, so that my opponent could hear me. All three of my monsters returned alongside the trap which had returned to its set position. "Next, I activate the Spell, _**Nildimensional Summon**_!" The card showed Fairy Archer being consumed by a vortex of light as Tethys, Goddness of Light took the former's place.

 **Nildimensional Summon (Spell) Normal**

 **Once this turn, you can Tribute Summon 1 monster from your deck using up to 2 monsters you control as Tributes. If you are conduction a Tribute Summon, except the turn this card was send to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from you Graveyard instead of Tributing.**

"With this card's effect, I tribute _Astral Angel Einplus_ in order to Tribute Summon _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_ directly from my deck!" The big triangle burst into sparks and my fairy ace took its place at my side.

"Unthinkable! A card that allows to Tribute Summon a monster from the Deck?!" I winced at how loud the announcer was. "This is it ladies and gentlemen, we are becoming witnesses to the beginning of a new era in the history of dueling!"

"I have never heard of a card with such effect before!" Yasui exclaimed in disbelieve after she climbed on the rooftop of a tower.

"Then you probably don't want to hear about _Future Fusion_." I winked at her and ran forward, jumping off the tower on which my monsters were located.

"Let's go!" I threw my arms forward even as my body was falling toward the solid ground. " _Astral Angel Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer_ attacks the _Batteryman AA_ on the left!"

The second I gave that order _Astral Angel Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer_ teleported right beside me and caught me before flying off toward the opposing monster, pike first. My machine and Yasui's thunder beasts hit each other, getting both destroyed in a double K.O.

This time _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ caught me from falling and carried me over to another tower right next to the one on which my opponent was located. Soon, the two rings followed us, standing at each side of me like shields.

"Because _Batteryman AA_ was destroyed, my other two _Batteryman AAs_ lose 1000 points." Yasui muttered as the yellow aura that formed around her monsters began to get visibly weaker.

 **『** **2x** **』** **Batteryman AA, ATK: 3000 – 1000 → 2000**

"Next is my second attack!" I raised two fingers to show the audience. " _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ attack the _Batteryman AA_ on the left!" My ace leaped into the air and threw her arms to the sides, a blue energy blast formed in both of her palms as she brought them together firing a combined beam toward the walking battery. "During this battle, the effect of Sola activates! When she battles, I can reveal a LIGHT monster – this case _**Astral Angel Zerstörer Flügel**_ – to increase her attack points by 500! _Photon Reactor_!"

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2500 + 500 → 3000**

"Argh!" Yasui was throw back from the attack, which blew up her second _Batteryman AA_.

 **『** **Yasui's LP: 4000 → 3000, Hand: 1** **』**

"Now only one of your batteryman monsters remains, so its attack power drops again." I stated, the yellow glow becoming even weaker.

 **Batteryman AA, ATK: 2000 – 1000 → 1000**

"At this moment, I activate the effect of _**Astral Angel Zerstörer Flügel**_ from my hand!" I the monster to my opponent once again. "As a LIGHT monster successfully launched an attack, I can equip it to that monster and let it attack again!"

A small white robot with giant sword-shaped jets on its shoulders and blades for legs jumped out from the card. My new monster had a large head without mouth, only two glowing green eyes and a set of headphones. Its body then came apart and flew onto Sola, sliding over her arms, legs and waist in a form of armor. The headphones turned horizontally and landed on her eyes, turning into blue visor, while the rest of the head attached itself to her back and generated giant electric wings.

 **Astral Angel Zerstörer Flügel**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Machine/** **Union/** **Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 700**

 **Effect: During your Battle Phase, if a LIGHT monster you control attacked this turn, you can equip this card from your hand to that monster, and if you do, it can attack a second time in a row during this Battle Phase. While equipped to a monster, that monster gains 800 ATK and 700 DEF. If the equipped monster would be destroyed, you can banish this card instead, and if you do, for the rest of this turn, that monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, and all damage you take from battles involving it become 0.**

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 800 → 3800, DEF: 1800 + 700 → 2500**

" _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ , attack the last _Batteryman AA_! _Linear Ray Artillery_!" My monster flew back and threw her fists forward, small opening forming in her armor. She fired several white lasers at the opponent monster!

"Not so fast!" Yasui rolled over and took an Action Card. "I play the Action Spell - _**Wrong Reflector**_! This spell stops your attack and blocks your monsters from attacking for the rest of this turn!" The card showed a lightning being reflected from a mirror and hitting a person.

 **Wrong Reflector (Spell) Normal**

 **During your opponent Battle Phase: Target 1 monster that already attacked and has declared another attack; negate the attack, then for the rest of this turn, monsters whose original ATK is lower that the targeted monster's current ATK cannot declare an attack.**

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the sky. Another lighting fell down, hitting Sola and then got reflected to the rest of my monsters, catching all of them in an electric cell. Damn it, with the cards that I had, I could have ended this duel in a turn, but this spell is going to complicate things.

"Tch. I set a card and end my turn." At this moment, Sola threw her arms to the sides, breaking the electric cell apart and freeing the rest of my monsters.

"Heh, if you was able to get a good Action Card, this could have been more difficult for me." Yasui shook her head. But your turn is now over and I need only one card to complete my winning formula! Then none of your monsters' effect is going to be good enough to protect the rest of your Life Points!"

"…" I bowed my head. She was right, with just 200 Life Points and zero cards in hand, I was in a tight spot there. But at the same time, to claim that I would need Action Cards in order to win was insulting!

"If you have no words, I will take my turn and draw."

 **『** **Turn 4 [Yasui] LP: 3000, Hand: 2** **』**

Yasui looked at her card and the friendly smile on her face turned into a more confident one. "First off, I flip _Batteryman Micro-Cell (Lv. 1, ATK: 100)_ and use its effect to Special Summon _Batteryman 9-Volt (Lv.4, ATK: 1000)_ from my deck." The little pink circular battery raised its arms and a thunder fell from the sky, turning into a Nine-volt battery with eyes.

'Now those are the Batteryman monsters that I know.' These two were sample of every single good Batteryman deck that I had played against in my world, which was terrifying because of their OTKs.

"But I'm not done yet! When _Batteryman 9-Volt_ is Special Summoned I get to add _Batteryman Charger_ to my hand, and when I do, 9-Volt's attack and Defense get doubled!" Yasui showed me the card in her hand, after which the yellow aura appeared around her new monster.

 **Batteryman 9-Volt, ATK: 1000 *2 → 2000, DEF: 1000 *2 → 2000**

"Moreover, I tribute _Batteryman Micro-Cell_ in order to Tribute Summon _Batteryman Charger (Lv.5, ATK: 1800)_!" Another pink battery appeared on the field, but this time it had a wide floating head and was surrounded by electricity. "And when _Batteryman Charger_ is Normal Summoned, I get to Special Summon _Batteryman Fuel Cell (Lv.6, ATK: 2100)_ from my Deck!" This time it has a humanoid hydrogen fuel cell, but I would like to ask, why so many of the Batteryman monsters are pink in color?

"That's getting funny." By which I mean very badly.

"Lastly, I banish the two _Batteryman AA_ in my Graveyard in order to Special Summon _Batteryman Industrial Strength (Lv.8, ATK: 2600)_ from my hand!" I gulped once the giant battery came to the field holding two dangerously looking cables. "Also, because I forgot to mention it before, _Batteryman Charger_ gains 300 attack and defense for every Batteryman monster on the field. There are five right now, so that's a boost of 1500 points!"

 **Batteryman Charger, ATK: 1800 +300*5 → 3300, DEF: 1200 + 300*5 → 2700**

"This is going to hurt…" I narrowed my eyes and turned to look at my set cards. Dimension Catalysis was useless and the other one was a variable.

"I activate the effect of _Batteryman Fuel Cell_!" Yasui exclaimed as the last of her _Batteryman AA_ monsters left the field and the pink fuel cell charged an electric ball. "By releasing a monster, I can return a monster you control back to the hand! I target _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ for this effect!"

 _Fuel Cell_ pointed forward and fired the torrent of lightning at my monster, piercing her armor which began to smoke and malfunction. Sora threw her head back and cried out in pain, her body destabilizing until it disappeared from the field.

"Because a Batteryman left the field _Batteryman Charger_ loses 300 attack points." Yasui pointed out as her monster's attack points fell down to 3000. "Next, I banish _Batteryman AA_ in order to activate _Batteryman Industrial Strength_ 's effect and destroy _Astral Angel Golden Ring_!"

A thunder fell from the sky, hitting my monster and dissimilating it until all that remained were ashes. Now this was a bad situation to be in when dueling against _Batteryman_ for sure!

"Battle!" Yasui exclaimed, pushing her left arm forward. " _Batteryman Charger_ , attack _Astral Angel Silver Ring_!"

"That's it! I activate my Quick-Play Spell, _Selig Transform_!" The silver wings around my monster's core disappeared and a beam of light fell upon it, consuming it whole. "With this card's effect I can use _Astral Angel Silver Ring_ as a material for a Transformation Summon!"

"A Transformation Summon!?" Yasui's eyes widened to this; she had never heard of that summoning method.

"Exactly! A Special Summoning technique that only I know!" I gave the shortest explanation available, no point in taking more time out of this duel.

" _The holy wings that shine upon me! Transform into a blazing storm of light beyond the limits of this reality! Transformation Summon! Level 6! Sacrosanct guardian of hope!_ _ **Astral Angel Mercury Shield**_ _!_ "

A new blue armor with start shaped rings on its shoulders covered the sphere. The new body had the form of a knight in heavy armor with large hexagon shields on the back of its arms. Six golden pieces stuck out of its back and bended forward to cover its chest like some sort of artificial ribs. After that a blue helmet landed on its shoulders, a spike coming from the middle of its head, a yellow glow came from within it, bringing the entire body to life. Finally, two blue capes with yellow borders materialized out of the star shaped rings, on each shoulder and floated behind the monster, crossing each other at several points making an infinity symbol that floated behind the knight.

 **Astral Angel** **Mercury Shield**

 **Level:** **6/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type:** **Thunder** **/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 1** **7** **00/DEF: 2** **5** **00**

 **Effect: Must be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing a Level** **3** **or** **4** **LIGHT monster and cannot be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by other ways.** **Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can target 1 Attack Position monster on each side of the field; change them to Defense Position, and if you do, for the rest of this turn they are unaffected by other cards' effects, also the first time they would be destroyed by battle or card effects this turn, they are not destroyed. Once per turn: You can turn 2 face-up LIGHT monsters in your Banished Zone face-down: Return 1 monster your opponent controls to the bottom of the deck.**

"If you summon a new monster, then _Batteryman Charger_ will just attack it instead!" Yasui's monster charged another blast toward my monster.

"I activate the effect of _Astral Angel Mercury Shield_!" My monster put its shields in front and they began to glow, blinding _Batteryman Charger_. "Once per turn, I can change a monster on each side of the field to Defense Position. Naturally, I choose _Batteryman Charger_ and _Astral Angel Mercury Shield_ itself! _**Blue Rotation**_!"

"So, you had a monster to block my attack…" Yasui jumped on _Batteryman Industrial Strength_ 's back, then the monster threw her to another tower. "But, I have three more monsters to attack with! Go, _Batteryman Industrial Strength_!"

"Then let me tell you that monsters affected by _**Blue Rotation**_ , can't be destroyed by battle or card effects once this turn!" My monster moved right in front of me and held up its shields taking on the full torrent of lightnings.

"I will then activate the Action Spell – _**Thunder Spear**_! Its effect inflicts piercing damage during this battle!" A single lightning flew past my monster and hit me instead.

 **Thunder Spear (Spell) Normal**

 **If a monster you control declares an attack on a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing damage to your opponent.**

"Wyyaaaa!" I screamed, falling down on my butt. My body got zapped so much by now that it felt like my muscles were partially paralyzed.

 **『** **Avice's LP: 200** **100, Hand: 1** **』**

"There is nothing else for me to do for this turn. During the End Phase, _Batteryman 9-Volt_ destroys itself by effect. Following that, Charger's attack and defense will drop by 300 points." Yasui put a hand on her hips, while she looked down at me. "Your only card in the hand is Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph. It's not strong enough to take down all of my monsters!"

'That's right.' Neither _Sora_ , nor _Mercury Shield_ were strong enough to win me the duel in this turn, but if I don't finish it in my next move, this would be a game over for sure.

I looked down at my deck and put my fingers on the top card. This was my final draw, my _**Destiny Draw**_. The feeling of fear and anxiety raised within my chest, my shaking fingers holding onto the card. Come on deck, I need one good card from you.

"My turn. DRAW!" I took the card and raised it, a trace of light following after it.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Avice] LP: 100, Hand: 2** **』**

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before bringing the card closer, then glanced at it. "Ok, this one would work too. I activate the Spell, _**Bi-Atom Quantum**_! Its effect banishes _Mercury Shield_ from my field to Special Summon two level 2 or lower light monsters from my deck!"

 **Bi-Atom Quantum (Spell) Normal**

 **Banish 1 Level 6 or higher LIGHT monster you control, then Special Summon up to 2 Level 2 or lower LIGHT monsters from your Deck. You can't Special Summon other monsters during the turn you activated this effect, except for "Astral Angel" monsters.**

 _Mercury Shield_ turned back to me and nodded before disappearing in a flash of light. In its place formed _Astral Angel Digital (Lv.2, DEF: 400)_ and _Astral Angel Star Frieden (Lv.2, DEF: 1000)_ , both of which were in Defense Position.

"Here starts my comeback!" I exclaimed and pointed at my monsters. "When _Astral Angel Digital_ is Special Summoned, I can call out any number of copies of it from my deck! Come out, two more!" Two more white disks formed beside the first one on my field in Defense Position as well.

"Spectacular!" the announcer exclaimed. "Avice used the effect of only one spell card to get four monsters on her field, but would they be enough to protect her from Yasui's own array of monsters!"

"Protect me? I'm going to finish it this turn!" a portal leading toward the Graveyard formed before me and _Astral Angel_ _Einplus_ came out of it. "While _Einplus_ is in the Graveyard, I can use its effect to increase the level of one monster by one and then Special Summon this card from its resting place. I choose to increase the level of one of my _Astral Angel Digital_!"

 **Astral Angel Digital, Level 2 → 3**

"Let's go my monsters! I tune my Level 3 _Astral Angel_ _Digital_ to my Level 1 _Astral Angel_ _Einplus_!" The triangle turned into a single right through which Digital passed and became three orbs of light.

"A Synchro Summon too?!" Yasui stared at me shocked.

" _When complete serenity reigns over the world a punker would descend from beyond the doors of heaven to deliver some fun to the world! With your malicious mind turn the borders of space into a playground and tell us about your next prank! Synchro Summon! Level 4! Astral Angel Telepordude (Lv. 4, ATK: 1600)!_ "

My Synchro formed on the field with a large smirk on its face before bowing down to the audience which exploded into cheers.

"When _Astral Angel Digital_ is in the Graveyard, I can banish it to draw a card." I did so and looked at the new addition to my strategy.

"Even though you Synchro Summoned, this monster's attack values are too low to be a treat for any of my monsters." Yasui pointed out.

"That might be true, but I see that the audience liked this monster! So, let's see if my next friend will get the same reaction! I overlay my two Level Two _Astral Angel Digital_ and _Astral Angel Star Frieden_!" My three monsters turned into yellow streams of energy. They shot into the air as the galaxy portal opened in the sky and they dived in it.

" _The heavenly dragon, break through the fabrics of space and annihilate the unholy that stands in your sight! Xyz Summon! Rank Two! Astral Angel Dragolight (Rank 2, ATK: 1000)!_ "

A small white Chinese dragon came out of the galaxy portal and flew over me, emitting a roar full of its pride.

"Outstanding! The smallest of the Greyson siblings had just showed Transformation, Synchro and Xyz Summon all in one duel!" The announcer shouted out loud and another wave of cheers for me and my Astral Angels followed. Being in the center of the show surely felt awesome.

"Thank you, thank you all!" I waved at the audience with my monsters doing the same thing, well at least _Telepordude_ did it… "But you should not forget the main star of this duel! Since I hadn't Normal Summoned during this turn, I can banish _Nildimensional Summon_ from my Graveyard to Summon _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_ without a tribute!"

Three more lightnings fell from the sky, combining into one as they hit the ground in front of me. The smoke raised and out of it came my ace, who landed next to my Extra Deck monsters.

"Three monsters…" Yasui noted; it was a three on three fight for the victory.

"I activate _Telepordude_ 's effect! Once per turn I can equip a LIGHT monster to it! Also, this effect works for both sides of the field so the monster I will equip to it is your _Batteryman Charger_! _Ray Crossroad_!"

"It equips my monster?!" Yasui repeated.

A blue portal opened below _Batteryman Charger_ and it flew into it. Then the gem on my monster's chest started to glow and gained a symbol that was similar to the absorbed monster's head.

"While a monster is equipped to it by this effect, _Telepordude_ gains 500 attack points!" I explained, the monster's attack increasing to 2100.

"Let's battle! _Astral Angel Telepordude_ attack _Batteryman Fuel Cell_!"

"But they have the same attack points!"

"Exactly." A portal opened behind the Batteryman and my monster came out of it, blasting its head off. A moment later, the decapitated battery exploded, taking my monster with itself.

"Next, _Astral Angel Dragolight_ attack _Batteryman Industrial Strength_."

My dragon charged and fired a light green beam from its mouth toward the large tower-like monster that stood in its way.

"I have the feeling that this monster has an effect…" Yasui narrowed her eyes and jumped off the tower she was standing on. She grabbed an Action Card from one of the windows before landing on her monster. "I play _Evasion_! This negates your attack!"

 _Batteryman Industrial Strength_ returned the attack with a charge or electricity and the two attacks cancelled each other.

"So this was your last move?" I asked.

"My last, what?" Yasui seemed surprised by my question. Could you blame her, if you look at the current field, she had the advantage.

"I play my Quick Spell - _**Dimension**_ _ **Overlap**_!" _Astral Angel Dragolight_ burst into sparks of light which _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ absorbed. "With this card's effect I tribute a Light monster to increase Sola's attack by half _Dragolight_ 's and give her the ability to attack you twice!"

 **Dimension** **Overlap** **(Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1** **LIGHT** **monster on the field, then Tribute 1 other monster you control; that target gains ATK equal to half of the ATK the tribute monster had on the field, until the end of this turn, and if it do, the targeted monster can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn.**

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2500 + 500 → 3000**

"Finish it! Linear Ray Artillery!" My monster leaped into the air and slashed through _Batteryman Industrial Strength_ with her wings. Yasui screamed as the attack launched her into the air.

 **『** **Yasui's LP: 3000 → 2600 → 0, Hand: 0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

"And the winner is Avice Greyson!" I fell on my knees and took a deep breath. Take back what I said about a sure victory, this duel was really intense.

The Solid Vision began to fade away and I slowly found myself on the ground, the cheers of the crowd were still as loud as ever for me.

"It seems like you were the better one in this duel." Yasui approached me, still bearing that friendly smile of hers.

"So it seems." I nodded in response.

"Make me a favor and don't lose to anyone else in this tournament, ok?" I almost laughed at this request.

"You can beat on it." I told her.

She nodded and the two of us waved at the crowd.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Niichan! Neechan won!" Oni exclaimed happily from the run where they watched the duel on a screen.

Evan didn't bother to reply to the little girl, he was currently preoccupied with other, much more important, matter than his sister's duel. He and Reiji Akaba were checking the new Pendulum Cards that Leo Corporation created for a test run. To sum up Evan's feelings in the most simple, yet informative way possible; he wasn't thrilled about any of the cards that were created.

"Those Yosenju Pendulums are mediocre." Evan stated, sitting down on the chair. "I don't know who made them, but they are far from the best cards that one could have."

"They are just prototypes, made from the data collected by Sakaki Yuya's own Pendulum Monsters." Reiji replied. "Strangely, creating cards modeled after the data of your Pendulum Summoning appears to be harder."

"You are in such a hurry to arm the Lancers, is there anything that you are hiding from us?" Evan's carefree expression suddenly turned into a serious one, as he stared at the CEO of Leo Corporation.

"I will that it that you don't trust me." Reiji responded in the same calm manner as before.

"While that's certainly true, what I mean is, if you are in a hurry to arm your duelists then naturally you must be trying to forestall something." Evan pointed out. "We know that the Academia invades dimensions and you want to stop them with your own army of Lancers, but being in such a hurry when there aren't any sights of an incoming invasion would raise some questions. Are you trying to cover up that Standard is Academia's next target to avoid creating panic and chaos?"

After this, the two duelists shared a moment of silence as they stared at each other. Oni stayed at the said and remained quiet, she could feel that the atmosphere around those two had just gotten ten times tenser. Both of them were smart and could detect with ease if someone was trying to lie to them, because of that they could only speak the truth to one another. Or do, what they do best and twist the facts to make 'their' version of the facts legitimate. However, unlike Evan, Reiji had no need for such poor methods in order to make his point.

"As you were probably already told, we believe that Sora Shiunin might be an agent of Academia send to infiltrate our dimension." Reiji pointed out. "If Academia had send a spy, then the chances that they are preparing an invasion against this world increase significantly."

Evan leaned back into the chair. What Reiji said was true, they also had no way to know if all the other Dimensions haven't already fallen under Academia's rule. But it remained that this was a very specific time to start getting reinforcements. An attack during a tournament in which the world's best duelists had gathered sounded unlikely, but not impossible.

Just then, a man in a suit with glasses appeared on one of the larger screens inside the room.

"President Akaba, our cameras caught a very important footage inside the stadium from half an hour ago!" the man said, catching the two duelists' attention.

"What is it?"

"Showing it right now." The man disappeared from the screen, which turned to show the footage in question.

Inside one of the many corridors of the stadium, a duelist gets launched against the wall, his cards falling onto the floor, and the Duel Disk turning off to show that he had just lost a duel. A bright light flashed though the corridor and another new card lied on the floor.

Walking over to the prize, a male wearing the Slifer Red jacket took the card and added it to his pocket. His identity was hidden by his jacket's hood which had two horn-like structures pointing from it, just like Evan's cat ears. After getting his prized card the Slifer Red turned and left the scene without a trace.

After a moment of silence, Reiji turned toward Evan. "Do you see now, why I'm in a hurry?"

"Do you want me to catch him?" Evan asked simply; he wasn't in the mood for an argument.

Reiji turned back to the screen and answered. "Yes."

Unbeknown to the CEO of Leo Corporation, an evil smirk formed on Evan's face and his eyes flashed purple for a moment before returning to their bloody red color. This was going to be a fun game of predator and prey…

* * *

 **(Omake)**

 **Shocking**

Elizabeth stretched her arms. She was sitting in her bed and relaxing after they all came home from the tournament. Because of how tired she was both physically and mentally, she let her siblings take care of themselves, while she enjoyed one of those rare moments of harmony.

She enjoyed her rest exactly fifteen minutes until her curiosity finally got the better out of her. She knew Evan and Avice almost as good as they knew themselves, so the fact that they were able to spend fifteen whole minutes without causing any loud noises or scream in agony was worrying to her.

In order to find what they were up to she quickly walked out of her bedroom and tried to search for them. She passed through the living room and the kitchen, but the only person she found was Oni. The little girl was sitting comfortably on the sofa and watched TV. This surprised Elizabeth a bit, since Oni usually spent most of her time together with Evan and Avice, she choose to investigate this change in behavior.

"Hey Oni." She said softly, trying not to scare the little girl.

"Hm?" Oni raised her head just in time to feel Elizabeth's hand pressing against the back of her head and stroke it. "Is there anything Neechan?"

"There is nothing." Elizabeth reassured her, glancing around the room one more time. "You are just usually with Niichan and Neechan, so I was worried that something might have happened."

"Niichan and Neechan are working on a project. They don't need Oni, so I came here to watch some TV, did I do something wrong?"

"No." Elizabeth shook her head and stepped back. "You can watch TV, I will just go make sure that Niichan and Neechan aren't doing anything bad."

"Ok Neechan."

Elizabeth smiled slightly before she turned around and left the room. Walking through the corridor, the black haired girl noticed a cable entering the slightly open door of Evan's bedroom. Elizabeth paused for a moment and looked around one more time before glancing inside.

Avice was sitting on her brother's bed, holding her arms to her knees, she followed what the older brother was doing. Since the duel with the Yasui, her hair was pointing up and hit anyone who tried to touch it with electricity. Evan reassured her that there was a sure way to fix this problem, but the more Avice remained in the room, the less sure she became.

"Are you sure that this will work?" Avice asked, sitting on the bed.

"What's the worst thing that could happen?" Evan replied. He turned around holding two jumper cables connected to various cables that he managed to get inside the room.

"Um, I could get hit with electricity again?"

"… It's too late to back down."

Avice tried to pull away, but Evan was fasted at this. He moved in to block her way and then before she could react he clipped the automotive clips on her hair. Suddenly the lights turned themselves on.

"Hm, I didn't expect that." Evan sighed. "Positive side is that we just found how to generate electricity on our own."

"…"

Slowly, Elizabeth backed away from the door. This was an event she was never going to talk about.

* * *

 **Avice: Tada, previews!**

 **Chapter** **24: Swing! Pendulums of Fate!**

 **Summary:** It's the second day and Oni's chance to shine comes! However, before her duel, Reiji has given her anew batch of cards that she has no knowledge how to use and because of that she gets quickly overwhelmed by her opponent. Everything seems to be hopeless for Oni, but then a strange thing happens as a pendulum appears in the hands of Avice and Evan, and...

 **Chapter** **25: Three Steps to Duel**

 **Summary:** After Oni's duel, Elizabeth and Avice go to check on You Show when they find themselves helping Yuya to get back Gongenzaka's stolen sash. Little did they know that they were all playing in Gen Ankokuji's trap and end up surrounded by henchmen in a 3 vs 4 match.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, well, well. Guess who is back again?! Writing this chapter didn't take long, but boy o boy, do I have other things to deal with.**

 **So, not much new stuff revealed in this chapter, if any at all, but... I'm really pumped about the next chapter! As you know by the preview, its going to be an Oni duel, but it's something I personally wanted to write since this fic got first started. So you can be sure that I'm going to put my all into writting it.**

 **Also, some big news, for 22 chapters, Arc-Tracers already has only 7 less users following and favoriting it compared to its 40 chapters** **predecessor, Arc-Twins. I'm sure that we all together can change this, but I still want to thank everyone who has supported this story until now. You are great!**

 **Unfortunally, there isn't anything to reply to in the reviews this time around, so I will just leave it to this.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	24. Chapter 24

***A few days ago***

 **Avice: Yo, writer! I won't get into the time-traveling bullshit, but I heard by my super-smart, extra-sexy older self that there were at least ten new chapters for the story she is staring in.**

 **Diabolic Tracer: Listen, I can explain.**

 **Avice: Explain?! You haven't written to me in months.**

 **Diabolic Tracer: Listen, it isn't like you think, I just got bored with this story and-**

 **Avice: You got bored with me?! Is that why you ran to that whore?**

 **Diabolic Tracer: Are you talking about Roxanna or your future self?**

 **Avice: There are two of them?!**

 ***An onslaught followed shortly after***

* * *

 **So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Swing! Pendulums of Fate!

The second day of the Maiami Championship had come faster than the Greyson siblings had expected. Although two out of three wouldn't admit that it was the case, their first duels in the tournament were tougher than they had initially expected. Managing to barely catch their individual victories, the Greysons were ready to drop by the time the day ended and they got back home. Thus, it wasn't surprising that they would have oversleep the second day if it wasn't for Oni and her own duel.

"Do we really need to be here?" Evan groaned as they all passed through lobby.

Like usual, the oldest of the siblings was wearing his black jacket with the cat hood on, but this time around he looked ever funnier than usually. His hood was skewed to the right and the ears remained flopped, giving an idea of his tired state, as if they were part of his body. Although the rest of his siblings weren't much different in appearance with shadows under their eyes and messy hair, at least their jackets weren't hanging from his shoulders. Only Oni was energetic during that hard morning.

"Don't be like that, we are doing it for Oni." Elizabeth muttered, though the frown on her face showed that she wasn't too fond of the idea either.

"If you think about it, since Oni is part of the You Show's duelists, they could take care of her instead of us." Avice pointed out.

"No, we are the ones who took her to live with us, so we must put up with our responsibilities toward her even if we don't like it." Elizabeth shook her head. "Look at it from a more positive point of view. You two will learn what it's like to be parents while still young."

"I thought that parenting is something I learning a while back." Evan narrowed his eyes. "You know, back when we were toddlers and I had to take care of you."

Elizabeth turned back to look at her older brother. True, since their parents were almost never home the responsibilities to take care of the family had always rested upon his shoulders, but this was different from before. Unlike when they were kids, no one was forcing him to care about Oni, nor to look after her. It all depended on whenever he would have enough compassion and empathy to actually care about the little girl.

"Whatever." Elizabeth shook her head.

She couldn't argue with Evan – more likely didn't want to – because her points wouldn't be able to get to him. Whatever amount of basic human emotions resided in his heart, they were so little that words would almost always miss them. Instead, Elizabeth walked to the closest vending machine to get herself one coffee.

"Neechan! Niichan!" Oni exclaimed, as she ran up to Evan and Avice, grabbing them by the hands. "The announcer has already started to speak! My duel is going to be second for today, so you are going to be with me for it, right? Oni is very nervous about this and having both Niichan and neechan watching her would give me the courage to win! You will be watching Oni, right?"

While the little girl jumped in excitement, waiting for her older 'siblings' to answer, Evan and Avice looked at each other with deadpan looks on their faces, before giving the only possible answer, which was…

"Awwww~! You are so cute!"

The two grabbed Oni and began to hug and pat her, like she was a cuddle toy. The little girl didn't mind that, in fact she was overjoyed that they were giving her so much affection for reasons that she couldn't quite understand. This sudden and weird reaction caught the eyes of the other people around them, most of which spent no time putting a distance between themselves and the Greysons. There was also a mother that covered the eyes of her child and quickly fled the scene.

Only Elizabeth remained unimpressed by her siblings. She had already gotten used to their weird behavior and it didn't embarrass her or anything like that. She just stood there, drinking her coffee, while also trying to not stand out from the crowd. She didn't want Oni to call her out and get her connected to her crazy siblings.

"I see that you guys are as active as always." A voice called out.

"Yuzu?" Elizabeth called out as she turned to face the pink-haired girl herself. "Shouldn't you be with the rest of You Show. After all, you usually don't separate from the group."

"I came to get something to drink." Yuzu smiled to the older girl. "But what about you? Despite being part of our school, the four of you always sit separated from the rest of us. If you feel unaccepted, I want you to know that the rest feel the same way as me, we want you all to come to us. We really do."

Elizabeth couldn't help but snicker at those words - they were welcomed. Yuzu tilted her head to the side in confusion from the older girl's response. She, just as the rest of You Show, was too nice and naïve to understand that the Greysons weren't sharing their sentiments. Neither of them was truly interested in learning how to entertainment duel, with Evan and Avice even going as far as to view it as an insult toward real duelists. The students in You Show were too nice and good hearted to understand that the siblings were just using the school as a springboard toward more prestigious positions.

"Don't worry. We don't feel unwanted." Elizabeth replied. "We just, you see, prefer to be on our own when in big crowds."

"Well, if that's so…" Yuzu sighed; she didn't know what else to say about it. "Again, you are always welcome to join us and… I…. I guess, I'm going to get something to drink now."

Elizabeth nodded and stepped aside to let Yuzu get something from the vending machine. She kept her eyes on Evan and Avice who were still playing with Oni. The Oracle Sister Duelist sighed and drank the rest of her coffee in one go before leaving for the main stadium. If nothing else, she could secure four seats for when the others choose to join with her.

"Mr. Greyson."

"Hmm?"

Evan turned when someone called him. The boy's eyes widened and he took a defensive step back as a large man in a suit and with glasses covering his eyes stepped toward him. Avice stopped playing with Oni at the sight of the new individual and the two began to stare at him. The man ignored the girls' curious gazed and raised his right hand, putting it in his jacket. Evan squeaked and raised his arms, taking a defensive posture. The man pulled something out of his jacket. Evan closed his eyes.

Nothing happened.

"Eh?"

After a few moments, Evan reopened his eyes and was met by a small box that the man was holding in front of him. He stared at the item for a second or two before raising his crimson eyes toward the person who was giving it to him, unsure of what its content could be. The man simply held the box in front of the boy's face, waiting for him to take it.

"Mr. Akaba has made those for today's duel. He said that they were based on data gathered from your decks and wanted for you to be the first one to see the result." The man explained.

"So, it's a present from Reiji?" Evan narrowed his eyes and took the mysterious box. "That's going to be fun. Tell him that I'm pleased by his hospitality. As for my thoughts on the present, I will give it once I see them in action."

The man nodded and left. Avice and Oni gathered around the boy, all of them staring at the little box in his palm. Red and green orbs meet, giving their approval, so the boy reached and opened the box, taking the four cards that lied inside of it. To say it simple, Evan was surprised by what he found inside the little 'Pandora's box'. The cards by themselves weren't mean for him, nor Avice, but they were pretty good nevertheless, he could see the whole idea that lied behind their creation by just a simple glance at the effects and the stats. It was almost as if the cards were transparent for him.

"What's this niichan?" Oni asked, raising on her toes to steal a glance at the cards.

"An unexpected surprise." Evan muttered, handling the cards to the girl. "A really unexpected one at that."

"I have a feeling that this is going to be another interesting day." Avice muttered, taking a step toward the stadium. "Won't you agree with me, bro?"

"You know that I always agree with you." Evan smirked and followed after her.

The crowd was already cheering as the junior duels were about to start. Oni stared at the cards that Evan had left her, her eyes widened and beaming with delight the longer she kept looking at them. After what felt like an eternity to the little girl, she put them in her deck and followed after her guardians.

* * *

In the Youth Division's stadium weren't as many people as there were for the other two divisions. The spectators were mostly the family, friends and teachers of the participants. Both Evan and Avice had their heads low, regularly groaning, while Oni was watching at the scene in awe. The duels seemed like a lot of fun! She was frightened to make a mistake during the duel, but from what she understood, if someone tried to make a wrong move, the system would just alert them and let the duel continue. This information alone helped to calm her nervousness, by a lot, but she wanted to impress her 'niichan' and 'neechan' for which her dueling had to be top-notch!

"Now onto the second match of the Youth Division in Maiami Champtionship's second day, we have a very interesting match-up!" the reported announced. "The next duelists are both new faces for the Maiami Champtionship! Please, your applause for Makiko Shindou and Oni Hakuryù!"

"M-me?" Oni's eyes widened. She knew that her duel was next, but being called made her nervous and she forgot it momentary.

"Yep, it's your turn to shine." Evan patted the little girl on the head.

Oni looked up at the boy. Her eyes didn't seem as lively as before and there was a little frown, giving the little girl a look that made it seem like she was about to break into tears.

"Hm, what's wrong?"

"Just relax." Avice pushed Evan aside and kissed Oni's forehead. "We are here to have fun, so go out there and do just that!"

"B-but the duel…" Oni muttered. She didn't want to lose and make them sad, or angry with her.

"Don't worry about it." Avice gave her a warm smile. "Win or lose, you will always be our cute little Oni. All we want is for you to have fun, right bro?"

"Mhm." Evan nodded. "Now go out there and kick your opponent's ass!"

"Ahem!"

"With smiles of course!"

"O-ok." Oni nodded and ran up to the field.

Against the little girl was standing another girl that seemed to be around the same age. She was wearing a grey school uniform with a pink bow at the front, her eyes were big and green with grey-framed glasses. The girl's hair was blue and tied into a side ponytail.

"Hello!" Makiko Shindou exclaimed with a bright smile.

"Hi!" Oni nodded and put on her Duel Disk. "So, we are going to be each other's first opponent?"

"Yep!" Makiko nodded. "Let's have a fun duel, ok?"

"Yes, I would very like to make you smile with my entertainment duel!"

From the sideways, Avice crossed her arms and looked at Evan with a smug look on her face, something the older boy quickly noticed. Despite her being as open-mouthed as him, she wasn't nearly as prideful, so that was a rare expression for him to see from her.

"She seems to have completely forgotten her nervousness in a moment, doesn't she?" Avice asked.

"Yeah, what was with that?" Evan asked.

"Seriously?" Avice rolled her eyes. "Seriously, for all your brains, you are so bad at understanding others' heart."

"Oh, is that so? Then what was in her heart?"

"I'm not telling." Avice winked cutely and turned back to look at the duel.

"Weirdo." Evan muttered and crossed his hands; his attention turning toward the duel as well. Avice glanced at her brother one more time and shook her head before focusing on the duel.

"And now, the system is going to choose the field on which the two duelists are going to show their talent." The reporter announced as the hologram of a card flipping appeared over the field. "And the field is… The Action Field - _Dreamland_!"

The field began to materialize and the area turned into a huge floating island with a large futuristic city in the center of it. Several other, smaller, islands were in the distance of the main one. Oni braced herself, this was a new field that she hadn't duel before on. She didn't have much knowledge about the area and where Action Cards might appear.

"Duelists locked in battle!" Oni began.

"Kicking the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!" Makiko continued.

"They storm through this field! Behold!"

"This is the newest and greatest evolution of Dueling!"

"ACTION DUEL!"

 **『** **Oni** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS)** **Makiko** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"If you don't mind, I will start first!" Makiko said.

"Of course, go ahead." Oni nodded with a smile beaming across her face. There wasn't that much of a trace of her nervousness.

From the sideways, both Evan and Avice were watching the duel with arms crossed and seriousness written over their faces. Well, as much seriousness as you would expect from kids like them. They were paying especially close attention to Oni, watching what kids of play she would do, take a note or two if she makes a mistake somewhere. Both Greysons wanted the little girl to show her best in the tournament and they were sure that this desire to be strong wasn't shared just between the two of them. Oni wanted to prove herself as well, show that she was a strong duelist despite her young age.

"She is showing strategic thinking right there." Avice muttered low enough for only Evan to be able to hear her. "Oni's Performallusion deck focuses heavy on hand traps, in fact most of her non-Ritual Monsters are just that."

"Yeah, hand traps are especially powerful because they activate directly from your hand, so when you use one it comes out of nowhere for your opponent." Evan noted. He watched the duel between Avice and Oni so he was familiar with the girl's deck as well. "But hand traps have one glaring weakness…"

"…They can only be used in response to an action done by your opponent." Avice pointed out. "If she has taken the first turn, there would have been nothing that her deck would have been able to do."

"Thanks!" Makiko exclaimed. As she looked at her hand, carefully choosing the cards that she was about to play. In a Tournament like this, even if the duel was friendly, any misplay could cost the whole duel.

"I Normal Summon _Mokey Mokey (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_!" A little blue angel with a red question mark antenna coming out of its head landed on the field next to the little girl. "Then, I activate _Heart of the Underdog_ and set a card to finish my turn. Your turn, Oni."

"Right! Thank you!" Oni exclaimed, putting her hand on top of her deck. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Oni] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

Giving only a quick glance toward her cards, Oni quickly caught one of them between her little fingers and swiped it over her Duel Disk, slamming it into the opening for Spell/Trap Cards. In an instance, the card that she played activated and a cage made out of light fell around her, locking the girl in place.

"I activate the Continuous Spell, _Ritual Cage_!" Oni exclaimed with the card already materialized around her. "While this Spell Card is face-up on the field, I take no damage from battles involving Ritual Monsters and my Ritual Monsters can't be targeted nor destroyed by monsters' effects! Then I activate the Ritual Spell, _Night Parade of Souls_ , using the _**Performallusion Specure**_ in my hand as tribute!"

A black portal opened in front of Oni. A large coffin locked with rusted chains raised upon the field with a spell circle glowing on the front of it. Four ghostly blue flames began to burn around the coffin while Oni crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes and chanted.

"Mischievous spirit of newborn soul, hear mother's cry and raise from the death! The cold laughter from beyond the grave! Ritual Summon, Level 4! _**Performallusion Draugearth**_!"

A small creature with rotting body whose skin started to turn black kicked the coffin open and walked out of it with a giggle. The monster wore a large blue and yellow hat with two bells hanging from the sides and a matching carnival mask with a moon drawing where the left eye should be and a star in the right corner covered the upper part of its face. The undead creature's mouth was sewn shut with purple lipstick drawn over its lips and cheeks, giving it a large grin. The monster wore a one piece blue suit with vertical stripes over it and a large badge of a skull with clown makeup posted on its chest. The suit was cut open around the belly with its stomach having a large cut going horizontally through it. The monster wore comically large white gloves with yellow stars on the back of them and a huge purple cloak floating behind it with drawings of hearts, smiling skulls, moons, stars, tombstones all over it and three middle sized bells attached to the ends, two at the edges and one in the middle.

* * *

 **Performallusion Draugearth**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Zombie/Ritual/Effect**

 **ATK: 1600/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: This card can be Ritual Summoned with "Night Parade of Souls". At the Start of the Damage Step, if this card attacks: You can discard 1 Spell Card from your hand; the ATK and DEF of the monster this card battles become 0 until the end of the Damage Step. If this face-up Ritual Summoned card is sent to the Graveyard: You can discard 1 card; add 1 Ritual Spell or Ritual Monster from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"And now, _Performallusion Draugearth_ is going to make a magic trick!" Oni exclaimed as her monster flew behind her.

 _Draugearth_ threw its cloak to the side and it wrapped around Oni, hiding the little girl within it. The undead performer's head made a 360 degree turn accompanied by a demonic chuckle after which it threw it's away only for Oni to no longer be there.

"Tada~" Oni exclaimed from atop the cage and outstretched her arms. The audience began to cheer and applaud the little girl that successfully made an amazing escape.

"Woah!" Makiko's eyes widened. Oni was serious with her magical tricks, having her monster disappear only to reappear again on top of the cage that was trapping her. "How did you do that?"

"He-he, a magician never reveals their trick." Oni replied with a wink and then jumped off the cage, landing on top _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's cloak. After she averted everyone's attention from the Ritual Monster, it successfully used its trick to get out of the cage as well.

"Awww~" Makiko pouted in disappointment.

"Now, before I go for the attack, let's look around the place first, ok _Performallusion Draugearth_?" Oni asked, getting a nod from her monster. "Great. Let's go!"

"Eeeeeehhhhh?" the reporter called out as Oni flew through the field and across the buildings on it. "It seems like Oni has chosen to first search over the field for Action Cards before continuing on with her move."

"Come on, come on." Oni muttered, flying through the city. She needed to find just one Action Card, no matter what it was. Too bad though, there weren't anywhere in sight, perhaps she was flying far too high to notice them. "I don't have a choice then. _Performallusion Draugearth_ is going to attack _Mokey Mokey_! _**Draug Laugh**_!"

The Performallusion monster's chest opened up showing a giant deformed mouth with broken teeth which began to laugh, creating a sonic-wave that pushed _Mokey Mokey_ toward a building. Makiko reacted quickly, grabbing an Action Card that was located right under one of the strangely shaped street lamps.

"I activate the _Action Card – Overpass_! This switches or monsters' attack power until the end of the battle!" Makiko respond and her _Mokey Mokey_ grew bigger while _Performallusion Draugearth_ became too small to carry Oni and the two dropped on the ground with a groan.

 **Mokey Mokey, ATK: 300** → **1600**

 **Performallusion Draugearth, ATK: 1600** → **300**

"Now, _Mokey Mokey_ counterattack!" Makiko ordered to her monster, which responded to the command by loudly shouting out its name, creating a sonic-wave strong enough to overpower the Ritual Monster.

"I won't allow it!" Oni exclaimed and took a card from her hand, sliding it into her Graveyard. "I activate _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's effect to discard the Spell Card – _Preparation of Rites_ and make your monster's attack zero! _**Draug Symbol**_!"

 _Draugearth_ 's cloak moved in front of the monster and took the shape of hands before making several symbols, casting its spell on the little fairy.

 **Mokey Mokey, ATK: 1600** → **0, DEF: 100** → **0**

"Now, _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's more powerful!" Oni pointed out as her monster's laugh overpowered the other one's shouting and destroyed it.

 **『** **Makiko LP: 4000 - 300** → **3700** **』**

"I activate a Trap! _**Mokey Mokey Land**_!" Makiko declared with her set card flipping face up to show an entire army of _Mokey Mokey_ overrunning a factory ran by goblins. "When a Mokey Mokey is destroyed, I can Special Summon all _Mokey Mokey_ in my Graveyard plus one more from my deck! Come out! _Mokey Mokey (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_!"

* * *

 **Mokey Mokey Land (Trap) Normal**

 **When a "Mokey Mokey" on the field is destroyed, you can activate this card: Special Summon as many "Mokey Mokey" from your Graveyard as possible, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 "Mokey Mokey" from your Deck. If a "Mokey Mokey"(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or a card effect, expect during the turn this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard instead.**

* * *

Two completely identical _Mokey Mokey_ formed in front of Makiko after one of them was just destroyed. Despite managing to deal some damage, Oni knew that it didn't matter since it was just 300 points and her opponent has gotten two monsters instead of one.

"You got a new monster out from my attack." Oni stated, impressed by her opponent's skills so far.

"That's the power of my _Mokey Mokey_!" Makiko smiled and gestured toward her two monsters. "They are most powerful when in numbers!"

"Is that so?" Oni titled her head in thought. There were two _Mokey Mokey_ out at the moment and according to the rules, a duelist could only have three copies of a card in a deck, so there was probably going to be one more in there. "Unfortunately there is nothing else for Oni to do, so I'm going to end my turn here."

"Oh, before you do, the effect of my Action Spell wears off, so your monster's attack points return to normal." Makiko pointed out and indeed, Oni's Ritual Monster gained back its strength.

 **Performallusion Draugearth, ATK: 300** → **1600**

"That was an amazing first move, Oni!" Makiko complimented her. "I haven't seen anyone using Special Summoning methods before!"

"Heh, you weren't half bad either." Oni replied with an awkward laugh and ran a hand through her hair. "I didn't expect you to summon two monsters during my turn, it was great!"

"We are both amazing duelists, aren't we?" Makiko laughed at the compliment from her opponent.

"Yes, we are." Oni nodded with a smile on her face. She wasn't sure if it was right to, but she was enjoying this duel so much! "Now, come at me! Let's have an even more interesting duel!"

"Right!" Makiko nodded and drew a card. "My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Makiko] LP: 3700, Hand: 3** **』**

"Now, I'm going to activate the effect of my Continuous Spell, _Heart of the Underdog_!" Makiko exclaimed and showed Oni the card that she drew; another _Mokey Mokey_! "As I drew a Normal Monster, _Heart of the Underdog_ allows me to draw another card from my deck!"

'So her deck is indeed based around mostly Normal Monsters.' Oni thought to herself while watching her opponent. 'If so, the only things that I would have to worry about are going to be her Spell and Trap Cards.'

"Now, I will Normal Summon my third _Mokey Mokey (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_!" Makiko's third fairy appeared next to the other two and all of them began to shout out 'Mokey, mokey!' "Next, I will activate my Normal Spell, _**Mokey Mokey Parade**_!" The card showed _Mokey Mokey_ and other low-level Normal Monsters all dancing happily together. "With this Spell's effect all of my _Mokey Mokey_ can attack you directly this turn, and if they do, all the damage you take is doubled!"

* * *

 **Mokey Mokey Parade (Spell) Normal**

 **During this turn, "Mokey Mokey" monster(s) you control with 300 or less ATK can attack your opponent directly. Also, all damage your opponent takes from battles involving a "Mokey Mokey" is doubled. During your Draw Phase, if this card is in your Graveyard, you can add it to your hand instead of drawing.**

* * *

"Double damage?" Oni thought about it for a moment. Twice 300 was 600 and since Makiko had three monsters that would be 3 times 600 which was… "I will take one thousand and eight hundred damage!"

"Yeah, sorry for that." Makiko apologized in advance. "Go, _Mokey Mokey_ , attack her directly!"

"I activate the effect of _**Performallusion Scarebell**_ from my hand!" Oni countered, sending her card to the Graveyard. "I can discard this card from my hand to negate a direct and end the Battle Phase!"

A monster in a torn green and blue scarecrow outfit appeared before the _Mokey Mokey_ and rang its bells so loud that the fairy had to retread from the sound.

Oni's new undead creature was skinny with pale white skin and long limbs. It's had a large, torn, green and yellow sun hat with a huge golden bell over the head which was made mostly of wood as well with a single human eye attached to it by a metal nail driven through the organ. The zombie's arms had huge wooden fingers with small bells tied to them and pieces of metal showing through the rotting skin. A green belt with the same skull in clown makeup logo was tied tightly around the monster's waist. Silly jester boots whose front ends were twisted upward finished the monster's look.

* * *

 **Performallusion Scarebell**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: WIND/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate the attack, then end the Battle Phase, and if you do, draw 1 card. If a face-up "Performallusion" card you control is destroyed, while this card is in your Graveyard: Special Summon this card and if you do, it can't be destroyed by battle until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"After the Battle Phase is cancelled by this effect I get to draw a card." Oni explained, adding a new card to her hand. "Moreover, the effect of _Performallusion_ _Specure_ that rests in my Graveyard now activates! When a different _Performallusion_ activates its effect from my hand while he is in the Graveyard, I can shuffle _Specure_ into my deck and add a Level four or lower Zombie to my hand."

The pale ghost of a young boy appeared on the field for a moment. Not much about its appearance was visible due to the performer outfit that it wore, but its eye sockets were empty and metal times came out from the side of its head. The monster wore an orange and pink jester at with four white fur balls attached to the four ends of it. A black choker with more nails and a golden star in the center was visible on the boy's neck. A light blue and dark purple short jacket with golden shoulder bands was worn over a green bodysuit with light blue 'V' shaped stripes and the symbol of a skull with clown makeup on the belly. The sleeves of the ghost's outfit ended with huge white fur, the wrist were covered by back gloves with the right one having a drawing of a bell on the backside, while the left had a drawing of a smiling skull.

The monster looked around the field and then flew back into Oni's Duel Disk after which a card popped out of it covered in white mist.

* * *

 **Performallusion Specure**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 1500**

 **Effect: When a monster on the field activates its effect, targeting a card on your side of the field (Quick Effect): You can send this card from your hand or field to the GY; negate the activation, and if you do, take control of that monster until the end of your next turn. If a "Performallusion" monster activates its effect from the hand, while this card is in your Graveyard: You can activate shuffle this card from your Graveyard into the deck; add 1 Level 4 or lower Zombie-Type monster from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"The card that I add by the effect of _Performallusion_ _Specure_ is _Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion_!" Oni showed the card to her opponent before adding it to her hand as well. "With _Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion_'s effect, if you activate an effect that includes the Graveyard, I can discard this card to negate it!"

"My turn is not ever yet!" Makiko responded her fairies putting their hands on her shoulders and back, lifting her up high enough for the girl to catch another Action Card. "I activate the Action Card – _**No Shot Hit**_! This Spell inflicts three hundred damage to you for each of my monsters that didn't get to battle!"

* * *

 **No Shot Hit (Spell) Normal**

 **During your Main Phase 2: Inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each monster you control that hasn't battled this turn.**

* * *

"Since none of my _Mokey Mokeys_ got to fight, they are all going to inflict their base attack to you as damage!" Makiko gestured toward her monsters and they all yelled at the same time, hitting Oni with enough strength to push her back.

 **『** **Oni LP: 4000 – 300*3** → **3100** **』**

"Did that hurt?" Makiko asked, mindful about her opponent's state.

"N-no." Oni shook it off and get back into a dueling stance. It was just 900 points of damage and also because they were in the Junior League, the damage was reduced even more, so she hasn't even felt it.

"Then I'm going to end my turn here." Makiko finished. "Your move Oni."

"T-thanks!" Oni replied and looked down at the cards in her hand. None of them were good enough, so this draw could decide it!

"My turn, draw!" Oni shouted, drawing her next card.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Oni] LP: 3100, Hand: 3** **』**

The little girl looked at the card that she drew and smiled at it; not the best, but it was going to do for the time being. "Perfect! _Performallusion Draugearth_ is going to attack _Mokey Mokey_! _Draug Laugh_!"

"I activate the Action Spell, _Encore_!" Makiko gestured toward Oni's monster as her card appeared. "With its effect I'm going to activate the effect of _Overpass_ from my Graveyard! Now our monsters are going to switch their attack points!"

 **Mokey Mokey, ATK: 300** → **1600**

 **Performallusion Draugearth, ATK: 1600** → **300**

"I expected that!" Oni smirked, she had her opponent right where she wanted her. _Performallusion Draugearth_ nodded and wrapped its cloak to a window, allowing Oni to climb up on it and grab an Action Card. "I will discard a Spell from my hand to activate _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's effect and make your monster's attack zero! _Draug Symbol_!"

 **Mokey Mokey, ATK: 1600** → **0, DEF: 100** → **0**

 _Draugearth_ laughed harder, getting _Mokey Mokey_ to laugh along with him. The little fairy fell on the ground and rolled around, holding its belly while it laughed. The laughter began louder and louder until _Mokey Mokey_ 's body couldn't take it any longer.

"I will activate the effect of _Mokey Mokey Land_ from my Graveyard." A barrier formed around _Mokey Mokey_ , protecting the little creature from the dangerous sonic-waves of _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's laughter.

"Then I will activate the effect of _**Performallusion Lone Digger**_ from my hand!" Oni responded. "When a card would activate its effect by banishing itself, I can discard this card to negate that effect and shuffle your card back into the deck!"

A huge and fat monster landed on the field and slammed its pick, creating a huge crack in the ground from which Makiko's card came out and flew back into her deck. Oni's monster had a small pink hat with the symbol of the Performallusions in the center of it. Its face had a scar that started from the top, went over the right eye and reached all the way down to the neck with the right side made from dark grey skin and the left of pale brown. Its eyes were grey and lifeless and the mouth was filled with broken yellow teeth. The legs were small and looked funny while the arms were huge and muscular with different tones of skin sewn to it. The zombie wore a baggy red suit with green, blue and yellow pieces of cloth seamed to the sides and the back and two large buttons on the front.

* * *

 **Performallusion Lone Digger**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: DARK/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 2000**

 **Effect: When a card activates an effect by banishing itself (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate the activation, then shuffle that card back into the deck, and if you do, inflict 600 damage to your opponent. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can return 1 face-up "Performallusion" card you control to the hand; Special Summon this card.**

* * *

"After a card was returned to the deck by this effect, you are going to take six hundred points of damage!" Oni pointed out as the ground under Makiko shook and she feel down.

 **『** **Makiko LP: 3700 - 600** → **3100** **』**

"Now, the attack continues! _Draug Laugh_!" The barrier around _Mokey Mokey_ fell apart and it got hit by _Draugearth_ 's attack, exploding to bits.

 **『** **Makiko LP: 3100 - 300** → **2800** **』**

Oni felt a sharp pain in her chest and halted her actions. It felt strange, after just a moment, the sensation inside her turned to coldness, her insides began to feel like a vortex of matter in the shape of a human. The sound of the crowd, their applause began to become quieter and… slower? Color seemed to disappear from the sky along with the warm air that touched the girl's skin, small pieces of barely visible glass rained from the air above her. Strangest part was that Oni wasn't the only person to notice those changes.

"Nihility detected. Initiating Power Mode: Seraph!"

"Nihility detected. Initiating Power Mode: Diablo!"

"Nihility detected. Initiating Power Mode: Charmer!"

The Greysons all darter from their seats in the stadium noticing that time has stopped moving once again and their Duel Disks have turned into their special anti-Fragments modes. The three of them ran down the stairs, stopping right next to the Duel Area and the Action Field.

"Neechans, Niichan!" Oni jumped onto her monster and flew toward them, landing within the boundaries of the Action Field. According to the rules, she didn't have the right to leave it until the duel ended and she wanted to follow what she was told even if the situation was as weird as it was.

"Stay there, Oni!" Elizabeth shouted and threw her arm to signal for the little girl to stand down. "It might be dangerous on this side!"

"For those weirdos to appear right now, what could they be up to, this time?" Avice asked, looking around the crowd.

" _Be extremely cautious._ " Hema's spirit appeared before Elizabeth. " _Those Nihility, or Fragments as you guys prefer to call me, are a force of nature. You don't know what for, or whose body they might have taken._ "

"Yeah, that would be a very hard thing to figure out." Yuki's spirit appeared as well with her arms crossed under her chest. "Why don't you ask that glowing mid-school girl over there if she has seen anything strange?"

"What?" Elizabeth and Hema reacted at the same time, turning around to bear witness of Oni's opponent, Makiko walking toward them despite the fact that time seemed to be put on pause.

"Ma-Ma-Makiko?" Oni lowered her head, looking a little frightened by the other girl. "Are you ok? Do you feel, strange?"

"I jumped to this point in the timeline at random. I never expected…" The girl muttered with the bangs of her hair hanging over her face, hiding it from the others. She stopped once the distance between her and Oni was around ten feet before raised her head, blue markings covering her cheeks and nose while a large maniacal grin spread her cheeks so far apart that it was probably going to hurt her later… "I NEVER EXPECTED TO FIND THREE FILTHY EXECUTORS JUST A FEW FEET AWAY FROM ME!"

"Y-you are scaring me…" Oni muttered, taking a step away from her.

"Leave Oni alone!" Elizabeth shouted and activated her Duel Disk with Avice following suit while Evan stood at the side with his arms crossed and watched them a little bored.

"N-no!" Oni threw a hand before the other girls, stopping them from taking another step. "T-this is my duel. Oni is strong too, I won't back down!"

"Oni…" That wasn't right! There was no way that Elizabeth would allow her to handle such a dangerous threat by herself, no matter what the girl was telling her. She moved to jump on the Action Field, only for Avice to grab her and pull her back.

"Don't!" The youngest Greyson shouted and pushed her older sister back. "This is Oni's fight, leave her to take care."

"But that's beyond a human that she is fighting there!" Elizabeth shouted and turned toward Evan who remained unresponding during the exchange. "Won't you side with me on this?"

"If Oni is so weak that she couldn't take care of herself, we shouldn't bother dragging her around." Evan replied and pulled a small chocolate from the inside of his jacket, taking a bite out of it. "Plus that, they are already in a duel, there is little you can do about that."

"I couldn't believe you two." Elizabeth whispered.

They were really going to leave Oni alone with a treat that could possibly kill her! Not only that, they didn't have a problem with it either, for them putting the little girl in such a deadly situation could work as a test to see how strong she truly was. But that aside, what made Elizabeth feel sick in her stomach was that her siblings wouldn't mind if the girl they spent so long living under one roof, and that called them 'brother' and 'sister', got killed because it would mean that she was too weak and therefor worthless for them.

"You, your aura is strange as well." Makiko said, her voice quiet and carrying something chilling in it, which took Oni aback. "But you are not an Executor. He-he-he… I will tear you apart and see what hides inside, would that be ok?"

"I… I end my turn!" Oni had only her 1600 ATK Ritual Monster and the Continuous Spell that protected it from effects. Because of that, the only chance Makiko could have to destroy it would be through battle, but the monsters currently on the opponent's field were weaker than her own and _Draugearth_ 's effect could drop a monster's ATK to 0 at the cost of discarding a Spell Card…

"My turn, then. I draw!" The Fragment shouted, pulling her next card from the Duel Disk. She chuckled and showed the newly drawn card to Oni.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Makiko] LP: 2800, Hand: 2** **』**

"This is…" Oni's eyes widened. The Fragment must have changed Makiko's original deck, she was sure about it because the card that she looked at just couldn't possible exist.

"I drew the Normal Pendulum Monster, _Flash Knight_! Therefor the effect of _Heart of the Underdog_ activates and I get to draw again!"

"She has Pendulum Monsters as well? That's quite the coincidence." Evan commented.

"What do you mean coincidence?" Elizabeth glared back at her older twin brother. "Is that about the Fragment you fought?"

"Yeah, he used a Qli deck, I believe that I told you that." Evan narrowed his eyes. But then again, he told her all of it before she got hit in the head and sent to a hospital, so maybe a part of Elizabeth's memory wasn't completely intact.

"As an effect was activated that would let you to draw cards I'm going to discard _**Performallusion Drealer**_ from my hand to activate its own effect!"

The spirit of Oni's monster appeared on the field and began to make calculations on its calculator. Its head had spiky black hair with a metal nail coming from the right side of the head like a horn. Its skin was a pale white with a yellow flower drawn on its right cheek and it had a yellow right eye with an empty left eye socket. The monster wore a light blue dress shirt with a pink tie covered in small yellow stars and the symbol of Performallusion's archetype tied to its left shoulder. The monster had black gloves on and three bells, a red, a blue and a yellow one tied around its waist. Finally, the monster had black pants with large silver moon drawings on its kneecaps and big red clown shoes on its feet.

* * *

 **Performallusion Drealer**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: When your opponent activates a card, or effect that would let them draw cards (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; draw a card for every card your opponent draws by a card effect until the end of this turn. If this card is in your Graveyard while you control no monsters, you can banish this card and 3 Spell Cards from your Graveyard: Draw 2 cards.**

* * *

"With Drealer's effect I get a card every time that you do!" Oni exclaimed as she draw a card as well.

"Funny." Makiko giggled. "But that won't stop me! I drew _Lancephorhynchus_ , so I get to draw another card! Next, _Dragon Horn Hunter_! Draw! _Foucault's Cannon_ , so I draw again!"

Oni kept a straight face as her own _Performallusion_ 's effect let her draw four more cards. And since her deck was hand trap based, this clearly gave her the advantage at the moment.

"He-he, this world's new power feels great! Using the scale two, _Foucault's Cannon_ _[DARK/Level 5/P.S: 2/ATK: 2200/DEF: 1200]_ and the scale seven _Lancephorhynchus_ _[WIND/Level 6/P.S: 7/ATK: 2500/DEF: 800]_ I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Two blue columns of energy raised on the field. On the left side was a machine without legs, a long left arm and a powerful green cannon for a right one. Chains floated from behind the monster's body and wrapped itself around the robot's body. In the right column was pterodactyl with red wings and a silver spear for a head with spikes covering its whole back and the tail.

"With this, I can summon monsters with Levels three through six! Appear before me, monsters! Pendulum Summon!" Two beams of light fell from the sky before Makiko and landed next to her _Mokey Mokey_. "Come out, _Flash Knight (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ and _Dragon Horn Hunter (Lv.6, ATK: 2300)_!"

"Pendulum Monsters…" Oni remembered those from her friendly duel with Avice. No matter how many times she would destroy them, they would come back again, defeating them was almost impossible.

"Next, I release my two _Mokey Mokey_ to Tribute Summon, _Rabidragon (Lv.8, ATK: 2950)_!" Makiko's two monsters disappeared from the field and in their place came a large dragon with white fur and a rabbit head, spotting two huge ears on top of its head and small red spikes over the back of its body.

" _It's a giant rabbit_!" Sunny's spirit appeared along with all the others the resided inside Elizabeth, watching the monster in awe.

"Anyone want to beat that the dragon rabbit was in her deck from the start?" Avice asked her siblings.

"Let's battle traitor!" Makiko shouted. "First, _Flash Knight_ is going to get rid of your _Performallusion Draugearth_!"

The zombie turned back at Oni and wrapped its cloak around her, transporting her to the hill behind Makiko. Oni jumped off her monster's hold and rolled on the ground, grabbing an Action Card that lied in the grass.

"I activate _Draugearth_ 's effect! By discarding an Action Card I get to make your monster's attack zero! _Draug Symbol_!"

"Before you do that, I chain _Action Crush_!" Oni gasped with the card that she had just found shattering in her hand. Makiko wasn't going to let her use the same trick a third time, was she? "This card destroys the spell that you added while it's still in your hand! Now, your monster has no longer anywhere to escape!"

Oni bit her lower lip, knowing that what her opponent was telling her was indeed true. The edges of _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's cloak turned sharp and shot toward the knight, but all of them were blocked after which the zombie's head got sliced off.

"Due to Ritual Cage's effect, I take no Battle Damage from that attack! And due to _Performallusion Draugearth_ 's effect I can discard a card to add _**Cult o**_ **f** _ **Performallusion**_ from my deck to the hand!" Oni pointed out, getting a new card from her deck. Despite that, she was far from safe with two more monsters ready to launch a direct attack on her. "Furthermore, when a _Performallusion_ card I control gets destroyed, the effect of _Performallusion Scarebell_ lets it rise from my Graveyard once more!"

* * *

 **Cult of Performallusion (Spell) Ritual**

 **This card can be used to Ritual Summon any "Performallusion" Ritual Monster from your hand or Graveyard. You must also Tribute Zombie-Type monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can target 1 Zombie-Type Ritual Monster in your Graveyard; shuffle this card and that monster into the Deck.**

* * *

"Ha, what good is a zero defense monster?" Makiko laughed before pointing at her dragon. "Fine then, _Rabidragon_ will attack your monster!"

"Due to _Performallusion Scarebell_ 's own effect, my monster can't be destroyed during the turn in which it was Special Summoned!" Oni smirked. Her monster couldn't get destroyed and because it was in Defense Position that meant that she wouldn't be taking any damage either.

"You think, that this monster will protect you, right?" Makiko asked. "Fool! Using the Pendulum effect of my _Lancephorhynchus_ all Normal Monsters that I control can inflict piercing damage during this turn! Take this, the full might of _Rabidragon_!"

"Piercing damage?!" Oni looked up at her opponent's dragon which fired a white beam that slashed through the field, blowing it up. The explosion launched both Oni and her monster into the air and send them rolling down the hill.

 **『** **Oni LP: 3100 - 2950** → **150** **』**

"Also, don't forget that _Dragon Horn Hunter_ still has an attack!" Makiko reminded, the woman in black armor swung her sword down at _Performallusion Scarebell_. Her 2300 ATK were far more than Oni's Life Points.

"I activate the effect of _**Performallusion Gate Waiter**_!" A yellow giant jumped on the ground, shattering it and roared. The monster didn't wore clothes to hide its rotting body, there were no eyes on its face and its mouth was filled with sharp teeth. The zombie had large chains tied to its waist and wrist with huge pieces of rocks keeping it bounded to the floor.

* * *

 **Performallusion Gate Waiter**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: During either player's turn, when you damage while this card is in your hand: You can Special Summon this card from your hand in Defense Position, and if you do, this card gains 500 DEF x the times of 500 damage that you took. While this card is on the field, you take no battle damage if it's less than this card's DEF.**

* * *

"When I take damage, _Gate Waiter_ can be summoned on my field in Defense Position and his Defense increases for every five hundred points of damage that I took!" Oni explained as her little monster grew larger in size, almost matching _Rabidragon_ itself.

 **Performallusion Gate Waiter, DEF: 0 + 500*5** → **2500**

"You can still attack." Oni told Makiko. "But beware that as long as _Gate Waiter_ is on my field, all damage is negated if it's less than their DEF!"

"If that's so, I will set a card and end my turn." Makiko muttered, a card flashed before her for a moment before it vanished. "And during the End Phase of this turn, the effect of _Foucault's Cannon_ is going to destroy your _Ritual Cage_."

Oni winched after her Spell Card got destroyed. Just great, her Ritual Monsters had no protection from effects any more. Then again, _Ritual Cage_ protected only from monster effects and all of Makiko's monsters were Normal Monsters, therefor, her spell was useless if the opponent didn't have effect monsters.

"My turn then." Oni muttered and put her fingers on top the deck, taking a deep breath. "DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Oni] LP: 150, Hand: 5** **』**

"First, I will activate the effect of _Lone Digger_ from my Graveyard. I can Special Summon it by returning a different _Performallusion_ card from my field to the hand." Oni stated as a black portal appeared under her _Performallusion Scarebell_ who fell down and was replaced by the much bigger _Performallusion Lone Digger_. "Then I activate the Ritual Spell, _Cult of Performallusion_!"

"Another Ritual Spell?" Makiko was more annoyed than impressed by the reveal.

"Yes, using the Level one, _Scarebell_ in my hand, and the Level six, _Lone Digger_ on my field as sacrifice I Ritual Summon!" A pentagram appeared under Oni's feet and her monsters all turned into red blood that was absorbed by the white outlines.

"Millennium spirit of the sleeping souls, wake from your slumber and be revived! The omniscient priest of the Spirit Realm! Ritual Summon, Level 7! _Performallusion Grand Specter Numu (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)_!"

"Foolish! I activate my _Counter Trap_ , _Champion's Vigilance_!" the pentagram suddenly broke to pieces before _Grand Specter Numu_ could fully materialize. "When you would summon a monster while I control a Level seven or higher monster, I can negate that summon and destroy your monster before it gets the chance to reach the field!"

Oni fell on her knees. _Grand Specter Numu_ , her strongest ace monster was taken out before it had the chance to show up. How was she supposed to right without her best cards being there to help her out?! Was there even a chance?

"What are you standing there for?" Oni's eyes widened as a voice called out harshly from behind her. She turned around and saw Avice looking down at her from outside the field. "What? Are you going to give up because it became hard? You still have cards in your hand, don't you? Use them!"

The little girl nodded and looked at the cards in her hand, although she couldn't tell how they would be able to get her the win. Wait!

"Heh, are you going to give up?" Makiko twisted her head a little bit, keeping her eyes on the opponent. "It was about time, you know?"

"I set a card and end my turn!" Oni declared, setting one card.

"Setting a card?" The Fragment repeated before clenching her fist. That action made her angry, not because it was something that Oni hadn't done before in the duel, but because of the meaning behind that action. "If you set a card that means that you will continue the duel, right? You fake thing that there is still a glimpse of a chance to defeat me?!"

"Oni's victory…" The little girl replied, raising her arm upward. She pointed with her index finger at the sky and finished her sentence. "…is absolute."

"You little! I will destroy you! Destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy you!" The Fragment yelled with the blue lines that covered Makiko's body becoming more and larger. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Makiko] LP: 2800, Hand: 3** **』**

"Battle! _Rabidragon_ attacks _Gate Waiter_!" The rabbit dragon threw its head back and then fired another white beam. " _Lancephorhynchus_ 's Pendulum Effect gives all of my Normal Monsters the ability to deal piercing damage!"

"I activate my trap, _Performallusion Six Feet Party_!" Oni responded, her trap card raising before _Gate Waiter_ and took the attack instead of the monster. "When you declare an attack against a _Performallusion_ monster, this card will end the Battle Phase and inflict eight hundred damage per monster that you control!"

Five phantom swords appeared around Makiko and her monsters, trapping them all inside. Blue flames formed on the tips of the blades that surrounded the girl and they all exploded at the same time.

 **『** **Makiko LP: 2800 - 800*3** → **400** **』**

"I activate the Action Spell – _Encore_." When all of the smoke cleared, Makiko stood unfazed by the amount of damage that she took and instead all of her monsters were loading their attacks. "With this Spell I can use the effect of _No Shot Hit_ in my Graveyard. You take three hundred damage for every one of my monsters that didn't attack you this turn. That's nine hundred points of damage!"

"I activate the effect of _**Performallusion Wight Collector**_ in my Graveyard!" Oni responded. "I release _Performallusion Gate Waiter_ on my field to add _Performallusion Lone Digger_ from my Graveyard to the hand!"

A white ghost girl with long black hair and blue eyes appeared on the field and winked. The wight wore an open black jacket with blue and green lines over a pale pink dress shirt with a red bow. Purple baggy shorts with stars on it and long, torn black socks finished her appearance. The monster also wielded a brown shoulder bag with the Performallusion symbol in the front of it. _Performallusion Wight Collector_ pulled a long list and write something on it before disappearing in a cloud of pink smoke.

* * *

 **Performallusion Wight Collector**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: DARK/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: When an effect that would inflict damage is activated (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate the damage, and if you do, either Special Summon 1 "Performallusion" from your Deck with ATK equal to or lower than the damage negated or add it to your hand. If an effect that would inflict damage to you is activated while this card is in your Graveyard (Quick Effect): Target 1 face-up monster you control and 1 non-Ritual Zombie-Type monster in your Graveyard; banish this card and tribute the first target, then add the second target to your hand, and if you do, gain LP equal to that monster's ATK.**

* * *

"And what's the point in doing this?" Makiko asked. "Your _Performallusion Lone Digger_ can't stop my effect damage!"

"He doesn't have to! Due to _Wight Collector_ 's effect when _Performallusion Lone Digger_ is added to my hand I regain Life Points equal to its attack power. That's exactly one thousand!" A yellow aura flew over Oni, refilling her Life Points right before the damage could hit her.

 **『** **Oni LP: 150 + 1000** → **1150** **』**

After she got back her Life Points, the effect of _No Shot Hit_ resolved and all of Makiko's monsters fired their attacks simultaneously, launching thePerformallusion Duelist in the air.

 **『** **Oni LP: 1150 - 900** → **250** **』**

"Oni!" Elizabeth shouted in concern for the girl who fell on the ground.

The damage returned her Life Points back into the red and worse than that, regaining them wasn't healing the damage done by the previous damage, so the little girl's body was hurting like hell at the moment. Despite how horrible painful it was, Oni got back on her feet and looked back at the concerned Greyson with a smile on. Elizabeth knew what that smile meant all too well, the girl was scared, she was probably freaking out from the inside, but her little heart didn't want to make the others worry, so it forced her to smile at them. A smile to hide the fear, the pain.

"O-Oni can do it, Neechan." The girl muttered and turned back toward her opponent. "I will absolutely not give up."

"Then you are going to die!" The Fragment shouted back at her.

"N-no… I will… draw."

 **『** **Turn 8 [Oni] LP: 250, Hand: 4** **』**

"Almost there." The cards were almost all there, all she needed were just two more. "I activate the effect of _Performallusion Drealer_ in my Graveyard. I banish it along with _Preparation of Rites_ , _Ritual Cage_ and _Night Parade of Souls_ to draw two more cards."

The top two cards of Oni's deck began to glow a warm yellow while the girl concentrated all of her will onto this draw. She could feel theme, those were the cards that Reiji's man gave for her to try out, but there was something different in how they felt… they weren't fake anymore. Her ears could hear the cries of the monsters that waited for her to call them forth. She drawled her cards as a massive yellow light formed around her chest.

"What's this…" Avice muttered and looked down at her left arm; Evan did the same with his right one. Their hands were glowing with a green and red light respectively with a pendulum forming on top of their open palms.

In that state, theirs' and Oni's minds linked for a moment. None of them would be able to explain what happened afterward nor what they say within their shared minds, but there was a pearl of peace surrounded by a world of chaos. None of the Greysons was able to use this one moment in their benefit, but Oni was different. The girl raised her hand, holding the two cards that she drew in it, she had obtained a revelation, an enlightenment.

"Using the scale one, _**Performallusion Gate of Purgatory**_ and the scale seven, _**Performallusion Gate of Bliss**_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" The yellow light in the middle of her chest burst and launched itself in the sky behind her, transforming into two yellow columns with a pendulum of the same color swinging between them.

However, instead of raising inside the columns as most other Pendulum Monsters did, the gates came out from underneath Oni's feet and raised up, creating a door. On the right side was the _Gate of Purgatory_ which consisted of a black half-arc. The front of the gate had several red orbs placed around along with a black chain tired around it. The right side of a white face of a suffering human with black eyes and mouth rested on the top of the gateway.

 _Gate of Bliss_ looked extremely similar to its predecessor, but it was mostly white with blue orbs and a wreath of flowers tired around it. The left side of a black smiling face with red eyes and mouth rested on top of the gateway. The two monsters came together and pressed against one another, creating one complete gate with yellow light glowing inside of it.

* * *

 **Performallusion Gate of Purgatory**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 1**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once, while this card is in your Pendulum Zone, if you have "Performallusion Gate of Bliss" in your other Pendulum Zone, you can activate this effect: Add 1 Ritual Monster from your Deck to the hand. Once per turn, you can banish 1 Ritual Spell Card from your Graveyard, resolve this effect as that card's effect to Ritual Summon.**

 **Effect: Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can tribute this card and 1 other Zombie-Type monster you control; Special Summon 1 Ritual Monster from your Graveyard whose Level is less or equal to the combined Level of the Tributed monsters (This Special Summon is treated as a Ritual Summon).**

* * *

 **Performallusion Gate of Bliss**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: DARK/Type: Zombie/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 7**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once, while this card is in your Pendulum Zone, if you have "Performallusion Gate of Purgatory" in your other Pendulum Zone, you can activate this effect: Add 1 "Pendulum Advent" from your Deck to the hand. Once per turn, if a card or effect is activated that would Ritual Summon, you can Ritual Summon 1 Ritual Monster in your Graveyard that would be a valid target for that effect.**

 **Effect: If this card is Tributed, you can banish 1 card on the field.**

* * *

"P-Pendulum Monsters?" Elizabeth stepped back in awe seeing the two monsters that formed under Oni's feet.

"When _Gate of Purgatory_ and _Gate of Bliss_ are activated I can add a Ritual Monster and a certain Ritual Spell from my Deck to the hand." Oni explained as two cards popped out of her Duel Disk and she took them. "Now, swing Pendulum of lost souls! Draw an arc above their resting grounds! Ritual Summon! The Millennium performer, _**Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer**_!"

Out of the gate flew a large yellow pendulum which began to crack until it broke to pieces and a female monster came out of it. The monster had a pale, almost blue skin with long dark purple hair pointed hair that from the side looked more like a large collection of dark blades put onto her head than actual hair. Perla wore a small golden and red crown with a heart emblem on top of it, a chip with the Performallusion's symbol resting at the side of her head. Her eyes were covered by a black blindfold with two hearts drawn on it and a tattoo of a skull on her right check. Underneath, the monster wore a mane made from black feathers over a black and purple dress with a red pentagram in the center of her chest. The undead girl also had two piece gloves with a white part that ended at her elbows spearing outward like blooming flowers and had purple eyes drawn on the wrists, a baggy black part continued from where the first one ended all the way up to right below her shoulders and was held together by golden rings. Below the dress, Oni's monster wore black high tights with two horizontal pink lines and white pointy boots.

* * *

 **Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer**

 **Level:** **5/** **Attribute:** **EARTH/** **Type:** **Zombie** **/** **Pendulum/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 0**

 **ATK:** **2300** **/DEF:** **1800**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, you can add 1 face-up Pendulum monster from your Extra Deck to your hand. If there is a Pendulum Monster in your other Pendulum Zone: You can destroy all cards in your Pendulum Zone; add 1 Ritual Monster from your Deck to the hand, and if you do, add 1 Ritual Spell listen in the monster's text from your Deck or Graveyard to the hand.**

 **Effect: If your opponent Special Summons a monster(s): You can discard this card from your hand; destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls with DEF lower than, or equal to, this card's ATK. If this card is Pendulum Summoned: For the rest of this turn; neither player can activate cards nor effects that would send a card on the field to the Graveyard (Expect from the hand). Once per turn, during either player's turn: If your opponent activates a card or effect and there is a monster on your field or in the Graveyard with an effect that could be chained to that effect from the hand; add that monster to your hand, then you can activate its effect in response to that card's effect.**

* * *

"So, this is the monster that Reiji gave her." Avice muttered and turned back at Evan. "It looks similar to…"

"Our own aces, correct." Evan nodded, before he chuckled at the thought. "That bastard probably used them as a template, however something has changed. These fakes have somehow gotten real souls, Oni turned them into more than copies."

"The Pendulum effect of _Hallow Perla_ activates!" Oni exclaimed as the eyes on her monster's palm opened and a wave of black magic flew through the field, freezing. "When she is successfully Pendulum Summoned neither of us can use effects that would send cards on the field to the Graveyard for the rest of the turn! _**Invincible Veil**_!"

"Fool, all the cards we control are Pendulum Monsters so they can't be send to the Graveyard anyways!" Makiko reminded her.

"That's true, but I'm now going to activate my Ritual Spell, _**Pendulum Advent**_! Its effect lets me Ritual Summon by using monsters in my hand or on my field as materials! I release the Level six, _Performallusion Lone Digger_ from my hand!"

* * *

 **Pendulum Advent (Spell) Ritual**

 **This card can be used to Ritual Summon any Pendulum Ritual Monster from your hand or Deck. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. If your opponent controls more monsters that you do, you can also tribute monsters in your Pendulum Zone for that Ritual Summon.**

* * *

"As the last curtain of thy performance falls, the restless spirit raises over the cloak of depravity! Step beyond the veil and shake the boundaries between life and death! Ritual Summon, Level Six! _**Horror Perla the Ritual Performer**_!"

A dark blue pendulum appeared on the field and then broke apart and a young woman with greyish-blue hair tied into a side plait. She had a black hood with dark purple lines going through it and a drawing of an open eye in the middle of them. Like her base counterpart, this Perla had a purple blindfold over her eyes with a drawing of the Performallusions' symbol, a skull wearing clown makeup on it. On the monster's shoulders rested a black cloak, connected to the hood with a large cowl of black feathers that pointed upward from behind the hood. Underneath it the monster wore a one piece black suit with purple front without sleeves and with her thighs exposed. Lastly, the monster wore black high tights.

 _Horror Perla the Ritual Performer_ reached out and grabbed a large staff made from bones with a claw holding a black glass-ball on the top.

* * *

 **Horror Perla the Ritual Performer**

 **Level:** **6/** **Attribute:** **DARK/** **Type:** **Zombie** **/** **Pendulum/Ritual/** **Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 9**

 **ATK:** **2400** **/DEF:** **2000**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once while this card is in the Pendulum Zone: If your opponent activates a card or effect, you can send 1 "** **Performallusion** **" Effect Monster from your deck to the Graveyard; Treat this effect as discarding by that monster's effect and chain it to your opponent's effect. You can return monsters whose Level equals 6 or more from your field to the hand to Special Summon this card (This Special Summon is treated as a Ritual Summon.)**

 **Effect: This card cannot be Pendulum Summoned from the hand. You can Ritual Summon this card with "Pendulum Advent". Once per turn, during either player's turn: When a card or effect is activated and there is a monster in your Deck with an effect that could be chained to that effect from the hand; you can activate its effect in response to that card's effect as if it was activated from the hand. Once per turn, if monster(s) is Special Summon from your hand by its own effect: You can target 1 face-up card on the field; return that target to the hand.**

* * *

"Now, let's battle! I attack _Flash Knight_ with _Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer_!" The Performed moved her fists in circular motions in front of her own face before opening the palms of her hands. She fired a purple wave of energy at the shinning warrior. " _ **Glance of Medusa**_!"

"I use my Action Spell - _**Top Champion**_! This card makes the attack of all my monsters equal to the ATK of the monster with the highest ATK on my field!" Makiko's voice began to break and become deeper with the Fragment taking more and more control over her. "My strongest is _Rabidragon_ so _Flash Knight_ and _Dragon Horn Hunter_ gain its attack!"

* * *

 **Top Champion (Spell) Normal**

 **When your opponent declares an attack, the ATK of all monsters you control becomes equal to the monster you control with the highest ATK until the end of the turn.**

* * *

 _Flash Knight_ and _Dragon Horn Hunter_ jumped on _Rabidragon_ 's back, gaining the same attack as the dragon. They all then aimed their mouths at Oni's monster and fired at their attacks at it.

 **Flash Knight, ATK: 1800** → **2950**

 **Dragon Horn Hunter, ATK: 2300** → **2950**

"Be destroyed by your own attack!" Makiko screamed. Even if Oni managed to somehow avoid the damage, there would still be three powerful monsters that none of hers would be able to get rid of, so it was over.

"I activate the effect of _Horror Perla the Ritual Performer_!" Oni's Ritual Monster raised her staff and slashed a red 'X' in the air, opening a portal before herself. "When you activate an effect and I have a monster in my deck that can be chained to it, I can activate my monster's effect directly from the deck! I choose to chain _**Performallusion Transferevenant**_! _**Performer Sidekick**_!"

The monster that emerged had a skinny frame, its dark and moldy skin was pressing tightly against its insides, making its vines and bones almost visible with just a layer of decaying skin to cover them. Everything under his ribcage was cut off and was replaced by a large pendulum blade that was connected to the rest of the monster's body with a black metal ring that fit closely around the waist and had several spikes covering it. Its fingernails were all replaced by screws. The creature wore a talisman with the Performallusion's symbol hanging around its neck with a rainbow colored paper bag put over its head.

* * *

 **Performallusion Transferevenant**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 1700/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: When a card or effect is activated that would change a monster's ATK, including during the Damage Step (Quick Effect): You can Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do negate the activation and effect, then you can target 1 face-up monster you control; it gains 1000 ATK until the end of the next turn.**

* * *

"An effect from the deck?" Makiko looked at the monster that flew out of _Horror Perla the Ritual Performer_ 's portal.

"After being summoned this way _Performallusion Transferevenant_ will negate an effect that would change a monster's attack value! In other words' _Top Champion_ has its effects negated!"

After it appeared on the field, _Performallusion Transferevenant_ flew at _Rabidragon_ , _Flash Knight_ and _Dragon Horn Hunter_ pushing the warriors off the dragon's back and reducing their attack points back to their base values.

 **Flash Knight, ATK: 2950** → **1800**

 **Dragon Horn Hunter, ATK: 2950** → **2300**

"After this, _Performallusion Transferevenant_ will transfer a thousand attack points to a monster I control!" Oni continued, her _Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer_ gained a yellow flame around her body as her attack raised by the effect.

 **Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer, ATK: 2300 + 1000** → **3300**

"Next, _Horror Perla the Ritual Performer_ 's additional effect is going to return _Rabidragon_ back to your hand because a monster was Special Summoned from my hand, go! _**Illusion Cancel**_!" A pentagram appeared over Perla's staff and she threw it at the rabbit-like dragon, forcing it to cry out in anger as its body began to vanish from the field. "You can no longer do anything to cancel my attack!"

"Not true! I discard _Honest_ from my hand to give _Flash Knight_ the attack of your _Hallow Perla_!" a pair of angelic wings grew on the shining knight's back, giving his attack a huge boost.

 **Flash Knight, ATK: 1800 + 3300** → **5100**

"This is your end for real! FAKE!" The fragment roared and her monster slashed its sword at _Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer_ , sticking Oni's monster.

"I activate _Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer_ 's effect." Oni muttered. At a close glance one could see that her monster had caught the enemy's sword with her arms, holding it a few millimeters away from her own chest. "When you activate an effect and I have a monster that could be chained to that effect, I can return it to the hand and then chain it to the effect that you activated. I chain _Performallusion Transferevenant_ to your attack changing effect. _**Performer's Invisible Hand**_!"

"Reusing an already used effect?" Makiko fell on her knees. These new Pendulum Monsters, they were too complicated, too strong. Oni's weakest monster disappeared from the field only to reaper once more right behind _Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer_ , transferring _Flash Knight_ 's attack boost toward her.

 **Flash Knight, ATK: 5100 – 3300** → **1800**

 **Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer, ATK: 3300 + 1000** → **4300**

"This is the end." Oni turned around and began to walk away. The blindfold around her monster's face fell off, revealing _Hallow Perla_ 's big and shinning yellow eyes. However, the moment _Flash Knight_ looked, his own armor began to become pale and then the warrior turned completely into rock. _Hallow Perla_ let go of the knight's sword and moved back. The Fragment's body began to crack, first its arm fell off followed by the head and then the whole body collapsed all together.

 **『** **Makiko LP: 400 - 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Oni** **』**

"W-wait." Oni stopped for a moment and turned back to face the other girl. Since the Fragment was defeated, its influence over Makiko's body and mind began to break and the blue lines started to fade away. "Just… What are you?"

Oni looked away, thinking about the question. She was unsure how to answer that, Evan, Avice and Elizabeth thought of her as family, a fellow Tracer trapped in this world for Ra knows what purpose. But truth was, she had nothing in common with them and it scared her that they might found out about it one day. Oni shook her head and looked back at the fading Fragment with her regular sweet smile and warmness in her eyes, but this time there was something different that only the one who lied defeat before her could notice. Makiko's eyes widened behind her glasses. Oni's pupil had turned blue with the exact same lines as those on Fragments' bodies.

"You are…?" The Fragment inside Makiko was about to ask, but its voice suddenly stopped to come out.

Oni pressed a finger against her own lips a little playfully. "Shhhhh."

The Fragment didn't respond to that, because it was physically impossible for it to do so. Oni, whoever or whatever she was had just muted its voice, made it unable to speak through Makiko's body any more. All it could do was look at Oni in utter confusion as its consciousness began to fade from this world and time stared to flow once more. Its mind, while it disappeared from existence, couldn't cope with the idea. It was wrong…

A prey wasn't supposed to team up with its predator, right?

"EEHHHH?! What happened?" The reporter's voice rang through the entire area making everyone else who watched the duel to wince from how loud it was. "T-The duel ended? We have a winner? Our winner is Oni Hakuryù!"

"Are you ok?" Oni asked, stepping toward Makiko. The Performallusion Duelist leaned down and helped her opponent to stand up.

"Y-yes?" the other girl nodded, rubbing her forehead. "Um, my head hurts a bit. Did I really lost?"

"Yes, sorry, but it was a fun duel." Oni replied with a warm smile. "Oni hopes that you had fun as well."

"Yes, I did." Makiko nodded and a small smile formed on her face as well. "It sucks that I lost, but it was a lot of fun dueling you, Oni. I hope we could do it again some other time."

"Definitely!" Oni nodded and leaned in, hugging the other girl. The action surprised Makiko for a moment, but she returned the hug.

Standing at the side, both Elizabeth and Avice smiled at their younger companion. She seemed so innocent, acted innocently as well, they wanted to protect her smile so much. Elizabeth's thoughts went even a step further. Watching her huge her opponent like that made her think what would duels be if people did them for fun, to just smile, instead of using them to fight and reach their own goals. How different would her relationship with her siblings were if they weren't viewing dueling as a fight that you must win at all cost and instead would just use it to have fun like how Oni and everyone from You Show was viewing it.

She would admit that back in the past even she would laugh at the other's naivety, at Yuya's desire to make entertaining duels something that more people would enjoy, but after witnessing the destruction and pain that this card game could bring, after all of the injuries that she and her brother suffered, she began to dream about the same thing was Yuya – people to duel for smiles instead of winning.

"How was Oni?" The little girl asked. Elizabeth snapped back to reality and looked down at the Performallusion duelist who stood before her with a warm smile over her face.

"You did great." Elizabeth replied and patted Oni on the head, making the later grin in response to the touch.

"It wasn't bad, there is still a lot of space for improvement, but I think that your performance was good enough for someone from the Youth Division." Avice replied and wrapped a hand around Oni's back, pulling the little girl closer to herself.

"Thanks, neechan!" Oni replied with the huge grin still on her face. After thanking them she glanced around, noticing that something was missing. "But where is Niichan?"

"Evan?" Elizabeth turned to look behind herself, but the white and red haired boy was no longer there. In fact, she couldn't see him anywhere.

The younger twin clenched her fist with anger flowing through her. She couldn't believe that such a thing would happen. She just couldn't for the love of everything sacred believe that her brother had just left Oni alone after everything she had gone through in the last fifteen minutes. He really didn't have a heart, did he?

During all of the commotion between the siblings, Levant and Ventus were watching from inside one of the stadium's corridor with the later holding his Duel Disk in a position that allowed him to record the Greysons and Oni's full duel. Since they were Tracers as well, both of them were able to move during the stopped time and even get it on tape for Reiji to watch later. Although they were all on the same side, the siblings were a wild card that needed to be observed carefully.

"Man that feels like a betrayal." Ventus said, sending a copy of the recording directly to Reiji.

"Even they themselves don't know the sort of potential that lies ahead." Levant crossed his arms. "You saw the light too, didn't you? Even when the brother created his Fusion-Pendulum hybrid by harnessing the power of darkness it didn't feel like he had reached one tenth of his potential as a Tracer. There three are a special brand, even if supervising them like this feels like betrayal, it's better them than the rest of the world."

"You are putting the stacks too high." Ventus responded.

"Only times will tell." Levant replied and pushed himself to step back. "There don't need to be two people spying on them, so why don't you go do something else?"

"Right man, I can participle my ninja moves, thanks!" Ventus waved at his comrade and ran away. Levant shook his head and pulled out his Duel Disk, writing something down. "I'm surrounded by strange people."

* * *

 **Avice: So long, but new reviews are finally here!**

 **Chapter 25: Three Steps to Duel**

 **Summary:** After Oni's duel, Elizabeth and Avice go to check on You Show when they find themselves helping Yuya to get back Gongenzaka's stolen sash. Little did they know that they were all playing in Gen Ankokuji's trap and end up surrounded by henchmen in a 3 vs 4 match.

 **Avice: You guys probably forgot, but this review was here for a while. Nothing new so let's move on.**

 **Chapter** **26:** **In Pursuit of a Shadow**

 **Summary:** The second day of the Miami Championship goes on seemingly undisturbed, but things are moving behind the curtain. Looking for her lost brother, Elizabeth finds herself face to face with two unknown duelists in red uniforms. Feeling extreme hatred toward those who destroyed her Dimension, Yuki takes control and with Koharu showing up a four-way Battle Royale begins. However, the devotion of one duelist isn't to whom they thought…

 **Avice: Oh, do you see what happens when you try to get your nose in someone else's business, Liz? But whose devotion isn't what the others though? Is it Yuki? 'Cause if it is, I will fry her brain (and Elizabeth's as well, but shhh).**

 **Chapter 27: The Reflection**

 **Summary:** After the extreme Duel against the new host of Nightshroud and Evan showing up to Elizabeth's rescue, the group all reunites once more and the twins learn about Sora's duel against Shun. The Greysons and Koharu all go to get answers about the current events when Reiji informs them that Sora has disappeared from the medic bay. A new search ensued.

 **Avice: What was the point in the last sentence of the last preview if you just spoiled who the four duelist was in this one? The writer of this story is indeed a moron. Huh? What's that? Ok, ok, you are good! Don't retcon me!**

 **Chapter 28: Souls of Light and Darkness**

 **Summary:** Avice who had just walked onto the duel between Yuya, Yuto, Sora and Nightshroud finds herself unwilling to face against Nightshroud and his dragon that had the power to turn others into its pawns. As Sora finds himself victim to the controlled by Nightshroud Dark Rebellion, the young Greyson finds Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph resonating with Nightshroud's deck…

 **Avice: So Nightshroud is into domination now? AH! My card is resonating too hard~! I feel the resonance getting stronger I'm going to-! Ahhhhh~~~**

 **Chapter** **29: What the Future Withholds**

 **Summary:** With the duel between Yugo and Yuto becoming more vicious by the second, all five duelists find themselves on the verge of losing control over their own minds. At the same time Elizabeth find herself facing against a hooded man who warns her that if she doesn't stop to follow after her siblings, in the future they will be the ones to kill her.

 **Avice: Ah, that last chapter surely was something, I'm all sweety now... Huh, what's that? WE AREN'T DONE! Let me see... Ok, I won't deny that there is a desire to stab sis here and there, but come on? Who didn't want to slaughter their own sibling at least once?**

* * *

 **A/N: So after what? Three months? I finally came to update this story. To this date, this was the most painful chapter to write. I can't explain why but I had** **started to write this chapter since the end of Marth and got a writer block about this specific story since then. Heck, I have probably rewriten the whole thing several fucking times to get to where we are right now. I really didn't expect the chapter to end up this long, like, +15k words doesn't seem small to me at least. I for one aren't happy with this chapter at all, not just THIS one, but every version that I wrote before. I just aren't sure if I can get Oni "right" when she is the center of attention instead of the cute side character.**

 **First off, I want to shamelessly advertise my own VRAINS fanfiction titled "** Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Destiny Gears **" It's sort of a sequel to this story, which makes it crazy because, well, who has heard of a sequal and prequal being written at the same time? Is that what people call a Paradox?**

 **Second, I want to also give a shoutout to** SPRGMR27 **'s fancition, "** Yugioh Arc-0 **" I was a big fan of her previous "** Yugioh Arc-V Dimension Zer **o" to which this current story is a reboot of** **. To put it simple, the story follows an OC named Lowell that was pulled into the anime's world by some unknown power/source/whatever and must... do things? Ok, it might look like I'm trying to undermine the shoutout, but there are many mysteries in her plot that have yet to be answer, and I'm excited to read what's going to happen next!**

 **Now, greet the new people who joined us during those almost three months in which this story was in coma! Thanks to** Schwarz Tiger **and** ringtaillemur0 **for favoriting this story. Thanks to** matthewszabo24 **for following this story.**

 **Now to the responses... Oh boy, there were reviews while I was gone, huh? Better get to work then!**

ThePLOThand **: As I had said before, my taste for music is different from yours, so there really isn't much of a reaction that I could give it. But I'm going to explain something about Evan and his relationship with Action Cards. While he dislikes them, he IS willing to use them when needed (same thing with Pendulum Summoning which he dislikes as well), however he will only do that if the Action Cards are already in the game. His hatred isn't toward the cards themselves as to the concept of using cards outside your own deck as a way to say your ass in bad situations. If there's an Action Card in the Graveyard, he is more than willing to use it since it's already part of the duel, but he won't try to catch one because he dislikes the idea of using outside help to win. Weird to wrap your head aroud I know, but Evan is Evan, so... I guess?**

ScalchopWarrior **: Ok brat, I'm a meanie you got me. But I'm not fat and I don't use a profil pic that shows how I wet my bed, unlike you. (If you aren't Scal, insulting each other is how we say 'Hello' to one another so don't pay too much attention to this.)**

FairyTailNut **: Honestly, it was pretty long since I wrote Chapter 1, but I remember that the only thing I stole from No Game to Life was their Opening Song, so I guess that this was just a coincidence.**

 **So, that was it, I guess. I don't know when the next update for this story will come, but I will try to write it in less than six mouths. Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading this, I'm always open to criticism, there are probably people out there that think this story is shit, I myself view everything I have done as being "not good enough", so if you guys want to suggest something, I'm always open ears.**

 **I will leave it to this then.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	25. Chapter 25

**So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Three Steps to Duel

"Don't be so mad, neechan. I know that niichan must have had an important reason to leave. I'm ok with that, I swear."

I looked over at Oni once more and was unsure how to respond. An important reason my ass, he bailed the millisecond in which he found a chance to do so, and I was sure in that! There was no way to tell Oni about it though, she was young, probably a little naïve as well, she was trying to look at my siblings in a far more positive light that they deserved, so I was trying to keep my anger toward them as low as possible around her, didn't want my own negative feelings to affect her. At least that was something that I was better than Evan at, showing empathy and understanding toward others.

Anyways, moving away from that topic, currently I, Oni and Avice were all sitting on a table drinking hot chocolate, sort of like a small celebration that Oni won her first match, though I guess it might be a little weird to be celebrating with all of the crazy things that happened during her duel, you know, the Fragment that tried to kill her and all that good stuff. I would have seriously pissed myself and start crying for my brother if it was me in her shoes. To take on such a dangerous opponent and not show any sort of fear was something that I couldn't help but look up to.

"You are really getting all worked up for nothing." Avice sighed and reached into her pocket. "He probably went to investigate what those crazy things are."

Saying that, my little sister pulled a pendulum out of her pocket. No seriously, it consisted of a green crystal (similar to Yuya's) with spread wings on its back. The thing was inside a golden halo that was held by a white string. The similarities between the pendulum and Yuya's pendant were obvious, but unlike the one in Sakaki's possession, this one wasn't meant to be worn like a jewelry, but simply held by the thread. Another difference was that I'm sure Yuya's pendant didn't just show up out from thin air like this, but since a card had once appeared in my Extra Deck out of nowhere, it might be a Miami City thing.

"A similar pendulum showed in his hand as well during Oni's duel, when she Pendulum summoned to be more specific." Avice pulled the pendulum away after just giving us a few moments to look at it. "You should remember from the records we watched at You Show that Yuya's Pendulum Summoning was created in a similar fashion. Light glows and ta-da, Odd-Eyes became a completely new monster type that no one has ever heard of before this. Weird things happen with pendulums, that can't be just a coincidence."

"Just like with all of your other crazy theories, do we even do research on it?" I asked her. Honestly, she and Evan always kept saying how something was weird, or that it's probably related to our condition, but beyond saying that they never really do anything else. "Can't we be just normal people for one day without doing crazy stunts that could get us killed? And yes, I know that this could be too much to ask given that we are targets for a bunch of abnormal interdimensional beings, cut come on!"

"Have it your way then." Avice sighed and leaned back into her chair. "It's not like you could stop brother anyway."

"What was that?"

Avice smirked and me and then turned away. That little… No, I couldn't understand why I was the one always alienated by my siblings! I really wanted to support them, but they never listen to any criticism I might have toward their actions. Would I be a better sister if all I did was sit with my mouth shut and watch them destroy everything around is, clapping when they managed to get one of their infamous 'victories' by stepping on other people? That corrupt believe of theirs that everyone else is lower than them was not only disgusting but it did cause damage to people including me and even Oni.

"What a coincidence to find you guys here." A new voice called out and my eyes drifted toward Levant. The LDS duelist stopped next to our table and looked down at the empty chair before him. "I know that you are usually four, so is this place occupied?"

"Go ahead, sit." I waved my hand dismissively at his question. "Our numbers tend to be inconsistent lately, sometimes two, sometimes three and most often I'm alone."

Levant nodded and sat down on the chair between the three of us. He rubbed his fingers against the surface of the table and kept his eyes away from us, probably because we were three girls there, although Avice and Oni were both underage.

"So, are you going to tell us why you came here or what?" I glared at Avice. Going straight to the question was rude and her tone – speaking like Levant was inferior to her – didn't help.

"As crazy as it might be, I just came to check on you." Levant answered.

"Check on us?" I raised an eyebrow. What? He was worried that we would get lost or some shit like that?

"Is it about the Fusion hunter that roams around?" I glared at Avice for Ra know which time now. A Fusion hunter roams around, she knew and I didn't?

"Unfortunately, yes." Levant nodded in response. He seemed concerned with the subject but I didn't paid that much attention toward his face as I spent most of it glaring at Avice. "We, from LDS, are worried that he might come after your four and especially Avice, who uses Fusion monsters as her main type of Extra Deck monsters. I'm not sure how good of a duelist they might be, but they are very good at disappearing without leave a trace."

"Ha, you are calling that a problem?" Avice's lips curved upward a bit. "I already know their dueling skills, they are below those of me and my brother."

"This isn't a game." I interjected into the conversation and turned toward my sister. "You can't just say that you are definitely better than whoever that is! If the Fusion hunter is so good that even LDS is unable to catch them, in a stadium filled with cameras and security, this attacker is a treat that shouldn't be underestimated!"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, mom." Avice waved her hand in front of herself. I had to rub the spot between my eyes, she was getting so much on my nerves when Evan wasn't here to take her place. Could it be that she was doing in on purpose as a way to make up for Evan's absence?

"Is that everything that you came here for? To warn us about that should-be-known-but-isn't threat?" I asked Levant. Despite being a Tracer like us, he also was part of LDS, so I didn't have a lot of trust in him.

"Actually, I also came to congratulate Oni for her great performance." Levant replied and turned toward the smallest of us, holding out his hand for a hand shake.

"T-thanks." Oni nodded and glanced back at me for permission. I nodded and a smile grew on her face as she took his hand and shook it. "That's a lot!"

"Heh, she is a very positive one, isn't she?" Levant turned toward me with a small smirk on his face. "Maybe she could do great if LDS took to study her. What would you say Oni, would you join when you grew older?"

"Um," The little girl put a finger on her lip and looked up in thought. After a while she shook her head. "N-no! Oni loves being with niichan and neechans!"

"And royal as well?" Levant noted and stood back up. "You are lucky to have someone like her by your side."

"Yeah, you got that right." I looked at Oni and smiled at her. So small, so innocent, she deserved only the best things and to be treated with love. Too bad that not all of us understood that.

" _I really don't trust that guy."_ Hema appeared beside me with her arms crossed. " _I don't know if it's because he is from LDS or something, but I just don't."_

" _Come on, you are Fusion, your kind doesn't trust anyone."_ I groaned and almost rolled my eyes as Yuki appeared as well.

" _What did you just call me, you inferior scum?"_ Growled Hema and pushed her own chest with a fist. _"Fusion is master race!"_

I was so close to just slam my head into the table so hard that to lose consciousness. Every time that two or more of them showed up at the same time there would be an argument. Either Yuki would call Hema a Fusion (How is that an insult?), or vise-versa (wut?), or either one of them calling Sunny an idiot (This one is legitimate). Worst part of it would be than once two of them start a catfight, the third will almost always join them like a complete idiot.

" _Hey, what are you all doing out here?"_ Despite how my last thought was worded, I didn't mean Sunny in specific, literally any one of them could be the 'complete idiot' depending on the situation.

" _And of course, pumpkin head had to show up as well."_ Hema fumed and turned away from the others.

" _Who are you calling a pumpkin head?!"_ Sunny retorted and tried to jump onto the Fusion Duelist but Yuki grabbed her from behind and held her in place, which forced the Synchro to yell in retaliation.

"Hey, isn't that one of your friends?" My personalities quickly stopped to fight among each other and we all focused on Levant and the person he was pointing at. "How was his name? Yuya?"

Indeed, not too far in the distance was Yuya. The Entertainer was just standing in the middle of the open area staring at the distance while people were passing around him. His stance was a little funny though, a fist over his chest and his head raised by a small degree while he looked forward. I don't know why, but it just seemed a little bit funny to me to watch him like this, maybe it wasn't because of the pose but because he was standing still like a statue?

"Yuya-niichan's duel is today as well." Oni stood up and walked over to me. "Why don't we go wish him good luck? He seems to be worried about how his duel is going to turn out."

"That's a very good idea." I nodded and took Oni's hand into my own. After that I turned back to Levant who was standing there with his arms crossed. "Why don't you come with us? It might help you a little bit with the Pendulum research, that's if Reiji hasn't already gotten all of the info that he needs."

"Don't worry, Reiji has his ways to get information, though they aren't always… as moral as you would expect from someone like him." Levant replied. Gee, I wonder how a man who spied on us since we got into this city could be immoral. "But I wouldn't mind to meet the creator of Pendulum Summoning face to face."

"Let's go greet him then." I told Levant and lead the way with Oni holding my hand and Avice following behind the rest of us.

I smiled a bit, Yuya didn't seem to be able to look toward us, because of our mutual disdain You Show I and my siblings spent as little time with them as possible, but unlike the rest of us, I didn't have anything against Yuya in particular. His dueling wasn't polished, true, but he was improving very quickly and was actually a very friendly person.

"Yuya-niichan!" I let go of Oni's hand and she ran toward, jumping onto the tomato head's back.

This earned a yelp from the performer and his kneels almost gave up before he managed to balance himself. I chuckled a bit at his reaction to Oni's surprise attack, it was a little cute to watch.

"What are you doing, staring at the ceiling, tomato head?" I called out playfully, getting Yuya's attention toward us. His eyes widened in surprise and he seemed to have forgotten about the little girl climbing on his back.

"Hey Eliz!" He waved back at me with a huge smile on his face. Afterward he reached behind himself and grabbed Oni, pulling the girl off his back to set her down on the ground, while looking at us. "I didn't expect to see you guys, I watched your duels and they were all amazing. Too bad though that I don't remember much from Oni's…"

"Don't worry about!" I walked over to him and patted him on the back. "Since our duels finished, we came to see how you guys are doing. Judging by how Yuzu performed in her duel yesterday, she seems to have grown a lot as a duelist."

"She sure did." Yuya nodded before he lowered his head. "I only hope that I will be able to show that in my duel as well. I want to win and get to the next round with everyone else."

"I'm sure that you will win, but remember that this isn't the main reason why you joined the Miami Championship, right?" I closed my eyes and thought about it as well, remembering Yuya's speech and everything he did before the tournament to get stronger. All of the intense training and the duels that he won. "You aren't doing this to win but to make people smile, so no matter what the outcome of the duel would be, if you manage to make everyone smile that should be a win in your book. It would be an ever bigger win in your father's book, seeing how his son followed after his footsteps."

"You really think that?" Yuya looked up at me with hopefulness in his eyes.

"Of course she is, as long as you win and smile while doing it, everyone is going to cheer for you!" I rolled my eyes at Avice's comment. I said it was important to smile and not win, she understood that it was important to smile while winning, how could she get it wrong?

"T-thanks." Yuya looked at my sister awkwardly. "I appreciate your input guys, really. I want to entertain all of you with my next performance!"

"So you are Sakaki Yuya?" I almost jumped when Levant spoke in a low voice from behind me. I quickly stepped aside and let him move forward.

"Um, yeah. That would be me." Yuya rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Do you need me for something?"

"No, I just want to meet with you in person." Levant bowed before he held out his hand toward the tomato head. "My name is Levant by the way, I'm a student at LDS, although I'm not a participant in the tournament. Your name has gotten a lot of attention from all around the city so I figured it would be a waste to let an opportunity like this slide."

"Would you elaborate on what you mean by that?" I quickly interfered before Yuya could say something. I wanted Levant to explain what he meant by 'opportunity', unlike my brother and sister I wasn't ok with letting LDS and Reiji use Yuya for their goals.

"I meant that it would be a waste to not meet the creator of Pendulum Summoning of course." I narrowed my eyes, but his response seemed to be genuine so I stepped back and let him talk.

"Um, thanks for the praise." Yuya muttered and shook Levant's hand. "My name is Sakaki Yuya, but you seem to already know that…"

"You don't seem to trust me a lot." Levant muttered, causing Yuya's eyes to widen a bit. "I guess it can't be helped with the troublesome behavior that some students and staff of LDS have displayed in the last few weeks. Because of that, Reiji recruited several students to oversee the tournament and make sure no cheating happens. In case you notice something oddly I would be more than willing to look it up."

"T-thanks, I guess…" Yuya replied. He probably wasn't sure what to make out of this, in fact, I wasn't sure either; on one side, there are more people to make sure no cheating happens, on the other, since they are students of LDS, they might turn a blind eye when their school use ill methods.

"For nothing, I'm always here to help make this Championship into something that everyone could enjoy being a part of." Levant stepped aside and made a small hand gesture toward me. "I'm pretty much done, you can continue."

I felt sweat drop from my head while I listened to him. Ending a discussion in such an abruptly manner by saying that he was doing, it spoke a ton about his social skills, or rather how much he wanted to do this conversation in the first place. I shook it out of my head for the moment.

"Hey, look ou-" Avice began to say something when suddenly a boy in dark school clothes without hair slammed into Yuya and both of them fell on the ground.

"Yuya-niichan!" Oni exclaimed while I and Levant quickly moved in to grab Yuya's hands and began to help him stand up.

"Are you ok?" I asked the tomato head and checked him for any injuries. I turned toward the bald guy that was still lying on the ground. "What the heck is wrong with you? Weren't you watching when you walk?"

"I-I'm sorry!" the boy quavered and gestured toward a white sash that lied on the ground. "That's the young master's… Gongenzaka Noboru's sash for today's match!"

I remained silent and looked down at the sash. Gongenzaka, wasn't that one of Yuya's friends? Quite the coincidence that the boy carrying his sash just happened to bump into us. But then again, wasn't almost everything that happened here so far based on coincidences and unexplainable events? I sighed and walked over to collect the sash from the ground, it was white as well so it would leave a stain if it stayed on the ground for too long. Someone grabbed the piece of cloth before I could and ran off with it.

"Hey!/Wait!/Hey stop!" Everyone else began to shot after the fugitive, a guy in the same clothes as the bald one that slammed into us but with a pink streak of hair.

Yuya stand up and ran off to try and chase the thief with the bald guy following shortly after him. Avice stepped forward and looked at me, she knew that we had to follow after them, if we were more we would be able to catch the runaway easier. I glanced at Levant as well, there was determination in his eyes, I wasn't sure if it was genuine or just worry about failing his duty, but it didn't matter in the moment. Nodding, both I and Avice ran off after Yuya.

"Hey, where are you two doing?" I heard Levant shout from behind us and turned my head to look at him.

"We will help Yuya out! You wait here and take care of Oni while we are gone, ok?" I couldn't take Oni with us, nor leave her alone in the stadium, but Levant was one of ours, so I could entrust this responsibility to him.

"BABYSITTING ISN'T PART OF MY JOB!" Nope, I was too far away to hear him say that.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Ventus was walking carefree through one of the multiple corridors inside the stadium. Due to how narrow the place was, he could hear the echoes of the audience that was watching a duel at the other end. As much as he would have liked to get some time off and enjoy himself like how the others were doing, there was a dangerous Fusion Duelist on the loose so he need to be on high alert all the time.

But like most works out there, this one wasn't going smoothly all the time and what the duelist saw inside the corridor did make him sweat in worry a little. Koharu, the female resistance duelist from the Xyz Dimension and more than just that she was lying face first on the ground unconsciously. Venus quickly ran to his senseless ally and turned her around to check for any injuries. There wasn't anything, no wounds or marks, it seemed like she had just fallen unconsciously by herself, something that worried the ninja duelist even more. Technically speaking, the duelists from the Xyz Dimension have taken part in real combat with their lives on the line, so they should be able to deal with whatever caused her to fall down a little easier than others.

"Hey, are you there?" Ventus called and shook the unconscious Xyz Duelist. "Are you ok? What has happened to you here? Can you hear me?"

"Shut up!" Koharu muttered and raised her head, slapping the ninja duelist gently over the head. After a few moments, she open her eyes and looked around before winching in pain. "My head hurts like somebody smashed my skull! Uh, where am I?"

"Miami's Stadium." The ninja duelist moved back a bit to give the girl some space. "The Miami Championship, remember? We are both part of a group called the Lancers whose mission is to unite the dimensions against Fusion."

"Don't treat me like I got amnesia!" Koharu suddenly yelled at the male, which naturally ended with him raising his hands in defeat.

"Ok, ok! Jeez, why must you all be so aggressive toward others?" And of course, by all he meant the Xyz Dimension remnants, both she and Shun were equally offensive toward people who tried to help them out. "Do you at least remember what could have caused you to lose unconsciousness?"

"I have no freaking idea." The girl moaned, rubbing the back of her head which was still hurting like hell. "I noticed that one of those Greysons, the male one, what was his name again?"

"Evan."

"Yes, that one, he was walking down this corridor and I tried to talk to him, ask what he was doing in this part of the stadium and such when suddenly something hit me in the back of the head and everything turned black. It's extra weird because I would have felt if someone tried to sneak behind me."

"Well, good thing is that you aren't harmed." Ventus pointed out while gesturing toward the Xyz Duelist. "Bad news are that there is no Evan anywhere around here. It should be best to check the cameras, they should have most likely picked on something."

"No, that would be pointless. A part of the reason why Reiji sent us to guard the stadium are the blind spots between the cameras at the entrances of corridors like this one." Koharu responded. "If you know what you are doing it's very possible to completely evade being spotted on the cameras by just walking under them. The person who got to me was so good that even I was unable to sense his presence, they definitely have skills."

"Yeah… No offense but I would trust more the cameras than your senses, sooooo I will go check the recordings." Ventus pointed at the exit with his fingers and began to slowly back away from the Xyz Duelist.

"Make sure to call your friends as well." Koharu groaned. She didn't want to say it because it would cause panic, but they were probably pretty screwed at the moment.

"Way ahead of you!" Ventus called back before he ran out of view.

Finally left alone, Koharu was able to lean her back against the wall and took a breath of relief. Her body was so tense that it physically hurt her to move and the troubles in the past few days weren't helping either. There wasn't a moment to stop and take a breath, but she was already used to such rough circumstance back while she was fighting against the invaders alongside her comrades from the Resistance. Perhaps it wasn't as much about the stress, but due to the familiar feeling that ran through her body right before she lost consciousness. She was reminded about the time when a shadowy figure used her as a doll to hunt down the Tracers. A name she hoped to never hear of again appeared in her head once more.

It was Nightshroud.

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

Sprinting after the boy that stole Gongenzaka's sash, I was planning to try and ambush the thief by using a shortcut, but I had no idea where they were going, so we just had to follow after him. The chase went into a park and strangely, the boy wasn't trying to lose us, he was running in a straight line during the whole time. Then, he suddenly stopped and turned around to face us, we did the same and remained in line. Two other students with ugly faces came out from behind the woods to join the one holding Gongenzaka's sash. All the pieces came together, this was a.

"An ambush?" Yuya called out.

The bald guy that was with us began to walk forward, chuckling. I knew that he wasn't someone you could trust!

"What's wrong?"

"Seriously Yuya?" Avice rolled her eyes. "You can figure out that this bastard was with them all along?"

"What?!"

"That's right!" The bald guy turned around and pointed a finger at us. "And you idiots all fell for it!"

"You are going to keep us company for a while." The sash thief added and each of the four began to pull out his Duel Disk.

"So that's what it was about? You bumped into Yuya and told him about the sash belonging to Gongenzaka because you knew that they were friends and he would follow you if you made a scene and 'stole' it." I observed. These guys were probably just some thugs working for someone else and if they pulled a scene like this then whoever hired them must know Yuya quite well. "Are you trying to stop Yuya from attending his duel?"

"We don't care about this idiot here!" the bald guy called and pointed at Yuya. "We just had to lure him away for Ankokuji Gen's duel!"

"Ankokuji Gen… Gongenzaka!" Yuya called out.

"Nice strategy." I glared at Avice. These people there were using underhanded methods to get their leader to win a duel, we don't praise them! "Unfortunately your boss doesn't seem to have taken into account the fact that the four of you are going to have to face a one woman army and... my sister along with Yuya!"

"The second part of what you said was much better than the first." I commented and activated my own Duel Disk with Yuya and Avice following after me.

"Duel!" We all yelled.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Elizabeth LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Henchman**

 **1 to 4 LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will take the first turn!" shouted Yuya and took a card from his hand, then put it on his Duel Disk's blade. "I Normal Summon _Performapal Hip Hippo (Lv.3, ATK: 800)_!"

The pink hippo wearing a red vest with a black top hat appeared on the field and Yuya jumped on its back. I covered my eyes in embarrassment, not sure what tomato head was thinking, but riding hippos wasn't going to make people smile, only laugh at you. The monster ran off while the performer tried to balance himself and took another card from his hand, sliding it inside the spot at the back of his Duel Disk.

"I'm going to also set a card and end my turn!" Yuya finished. "My turn is over!"

"Ok guys, let me get this started!" The first henchman told to his partners, all of which nodded and stepped back. "My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Henchman 1] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First, I activate the effect of _Landrobe the Rock Vassal_ from my hand! I set your _Performapal Hip Hippo_ and get to Special Summon _Landrobe the Rock Vassal (Lv.4, DEF: 1000)_ on my field!" A monster in huge blue robes with golden armor appeared on the field as the hippo suddenly disappeared from the field and a set card appeared on its place.

As one would expect to happen when your horse disappears into thin air while you are riding it full sleep, Yuya had a very rough fall. Both me and my sister turned away to avoid watching him rolling over the ground, but the amount of yelping and groaning that came out of his mouth during the whole process gave us a fine idea how 'nicely' the fall felt. Are things like this what people call incidents on the workplace? Ok, ok, I will stop trying to be funny you jerks!

"Hey, that wasn't fun!" Yuya exclaimed, rubbing his back. "Hippo just wanted to have fun with everyone here."

"Moreover, I'm going to tribute _Landrobe the Rock Vassal_ to Tribute Summon _Granmarg the Rock Monarch (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!" A large monster in yellow and orange armor with giant arms that reached the ground and extremely small legs appeared on the field. "Granmarg the Rock Monarch's effect lets me destroy a set card that you control, I choose to destroy your set monster!"

"My hippo!" I facepalmed at Yuya's words. Were hippos and smiles the only thing that he cared about

The monarch raised its arm and slammed in down, creating a huge crack in the ground that engulfed Yuya's monster. It fell down and the crack closed around it, smashing the hippo. As much as I liked Yuya, not a single part of me felt sympathy when his monster got destroyed.

"Heh, how's that?" the henchmen all laughed at the taunt, which only made me clench my fist. "Next, I activate my Continuous Spell, _March of the Monarchs_! While this card is on my field, you can't target Monarch monsters with effects, nor destroy them using effects! Now, _Granmarg the Rock Monarch_ is going to attack you directly!"

The monarch raised its arm and threw it straight toward Yuya. If the attack connected, despite this not being an Action Duel, there was Solid Vision so the damage would be real!

"I activate my set card, _Hippo Carnival_!" Yuya pointed forward and three new hippos appeared before him, dancing. "When _Hippo Carnival_ is activated I get to Special Summon three _Hippo Tokens (Lv.1, DEF: 0)_!"

"Damn you, but, _Granmarg the Rock Monarch_ can still attack one of your tokens!" The henchman countered and his monster slammed its fist into one of the tokens, destroying it. "I'm going to end my turn there!"

I took a breath of relief after the henchman announced that he was ending his turn. Good thing that Yuya had set _Hippo Carnival_ during his last turn or the damage from the attack would have been serious. While the others were taking their turns, I used to glance down at the cards I had, wondering about all of the moves that I would be able to do and which one would be best.

" _If this gets troublesome, you should give control to me."_ Hema's spirit appeared beside me once more and crossed her arms. " _None of us has gotten the chance to use our own decks."_

I nodded, but it was still early in the game and I haven't gotten my turn yet. Although I didn't want to be mean to the other personalities inside my head, I would prefer if the situation didn't become bad enough for me to change personality.

"That wasn't a bad start." The second henchman told his friend and stepped forward. "I will take the next turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Henchman 2] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Two turns one after another? That's not fair!" Avice protested, but the henchmen just laughed in response. It was too high of an expectation for them to play fair, wasn't it?

"First I'm going to activate the Continuous Spell, _Return of the Monarchs_!" A card that depicted _Granmarg the Rock Monarch_ raising from the ground appeared on the field. "With this card's effect, when I Tribute Summon a monster, I can add a monster with two thousand end four hundred or two thousand and eight hundred attack and a thousand defense from my deck to the hand!"

" _So, they are all running the same type of deck?"_ Hema observed from beside me. _"That could be troublesome, it means that they decks are able to support one another, unlike our side since our decks are made from different archetypes."_

"I discard _Tenmataitei_ to Special Summon _Berlineth the Firestorm Vassal (Lv.3, DEF: 1000)_ from my hand!" A human wearing a reddish-white armor with a long blue cloak and flames burning from their arms appeared next to the earth giant. "I tribute _Berlineth the Firestorm Vassal_ to Tribute Summon T _hestalos the Firestorm Monarch (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!"

" _And a second one of those just appeared."_ Thanks for saying Hema, but I have eyes to see that!

"The effects of both _Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch_ and _Berlineth the Firestorm Vassal_ activate!" A flame in the form of _Berlineth_ appeared on the field and flew to Yuya's hand. "First, the effect of _Berlineth_ lets me look at your hand and banish a card in it!"

"What?!" Yuya stepped back and we all got a screen showing the cards in his hand. He had _Stargazer Magician_ , _Performapal Trump Witch_ and _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_.

"Perfect! I will banish _Performapal Trump Witch_!" Yuya sighed and put his card into the banished zone.

"But why would they choose to banish the weakest of his monsters?" I asked my sister.

"Because of his monarch's effect." was all she told me about it.

"Next, _Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch_ 's effect lets me discard a card at random from your hand and if it's a monster you will take a thousand damage per level! With both of your monsters being high level, the damage is sure to be the more than one hundred!"

 _Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch_ threw a fireball and Yuya and it exploded, knocking the tomato head on the ground. Despite the fact that the damage wasn't much, he remained lying down.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 – 700** → **3300** **』**

"And before I forget, the effect of _Return of the Monarchs_ lets me add _Thestalos the Mega Monarch_ to the hand." The henchman kept going; Yuya got up on his knees and looked at the ground. Something was wrong.

"Heh, what's that? Did a bit of damage make the little clown cry?" One of the henchmen mocked him. I wanted to go there and beat the crap out of him, but that wouldn't be the right thing to do.

"Yuya!" I ran over to the performer and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok? Is something hurting?"

"They took Odd-Eyes." Yuya muttered and looked at me; there were tears into his eyes! "Odd-Eyes was sent to the Graveyard. My ace… my friend…"

"Oh, Yuya." I closed my eyes and hugged him. Odd-Eyes was a Pendulum Monster so if it got destroyed while on the field it would just go to the Extra Deck and Yuya could summon it again next turn. It was the card that Yuya cherished the most, but a Pendulum monster can't come back by its own effect if it's send to the Graveyard from the hand or deck.

"I will take the next turn." Avice put a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up, her eyes were filled with determination and something else… something I couldn't quite get.

"Come on, I don't have time for soap operas! Let's battle!" One of the henchmen yelled at us. These bastards, how could they…

"What are you saying?!" I yelled back at them. "This isn't what dueling is about! Duels aren't a toll to fight, they are mean to bring smiles to people, make them happy! A duel that brings tears isn't right! Can't you see that? You were sent to ambush an innocent boy and hurt him to ensure your boss' victory, is that a right thing to do? Does result always justify the means?"

"What are you talking about?" One of the henchmen asked me with a grin on his face. "Of course it's right! To win and be the strongest, all that matters are the results!"

"Don't waste your time talking with those weaklings." Another henchman said. "Just defeat them as quick as possible!"

"Well said!" The previous one nodded.

"Good, then I will use _Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch_ and _Granmarg the Rock Monarch_ to destroy the remaining _Hippo Tokens_!" Both Monarchs attached at the same time, tearing through the ground and flames rising from the cracks, they burned and smashed the tokens' leaving our field wide open. "I set a card and during the end of this turn, your banished _Performapal Trump Witch_ goes back to the hand."

"Ok then, I think I saw enough." Avice sighed walked forward, the flames that were covering the ground literally opened for her to pass. "My turn, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I'm going to completely destroy you all!" My sister declared and placed a card into her Duel Disk. "I activate the Spell, _Photon Lead_! I can Special Summon a level four or lower LIGHT monster from my hand in Attack Position. Come out, _Astral Angel Digital (Lv.2, ATK: 200)_!"

"Huh? What do you plan to do with such a weak monster?" Henchman number 2 sneered.

"When _Astral Angel Digital_ is Special Summoned, I can Special Summon any number of copies of it from my deck to the field!" My sister snapped her fingers and two copies of her drone flew from behind her back and landed next to the one on the field, but in Defense Position. "And before you start to laugh, I'm going to activate the Spell Card, _Selig Transform_ to transform one of my _Astral Angel Digital_ into a much stronger monster!"

The _Astral Angel Digital_ that was summoned by the effect of _Photon Lead_ flew into the sky and its body began to transform with a new armor replacing the old one.

"The all-seeing drones of cosmos! Transform into a whirlpool of light and Transcend beyond the limits of the Universe! Transformation Summon! Level 4! Sacred protector of Heavens! _Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lvl.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

"An Extra Deck monster?!" All of the henchmen looked at the monster with wide eyes.

" _Astral Angel Golden Knight_ 's effect activates!" My sister continued, her monster swung its blade which gained a green glow. "For every other LIGHT monster that I control, _Astral Angel Golden Knight_ gains five hundred extra attack points! There are the two _Astral Angel Digitals_ so that means a boost of one thousand!"

 **Astral Angel Golden Knight, ATK: 1800 + 1000** → **2800**

"That's stronger than our monsters!" One of the henchmen called out.

"Not for long!" Another one said. "I play my Continuous Trap, _The Monarchs Erupt_! While this card is face-up, the effects of all monsters, expect for Tribute Summoned monsters are negated!"

"What?" My sister's monster dropped its sword and it stopped to glow.

 **Astral Angel Golden Knight, ATK: 2800 - 1000** → **1800**

"Now all of our monsters are useless." I gritted my teeth. Our monsters were too weak in attack value to be a match for the Monarchs on their own.

"So a pseudo Skill Drain is the best you can offer? How pitiful." Avice chuckled a bit. "Allow me to show you the true strength of Astral Angels! I activate the Spell Card, _Nildimensional Summon_! This card allows me to Tribute Summon a monster from my deck! I release _Astral Angel Digital_ to Tribute Summon _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

The fairy flew out directly from my sister's deck and made a circle in the air before she landed down next to her other monsters. Since Avice's ace was Tribute Summoned, the effect of _The Monarchs Erupt_ wouldn't work on it!

"A Tribute Summon from the deck too?" I smiled a bit seeing the henchmen panic from my sister's skills.

"Time to attack _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ destroy _Granmarg the Rock Monarch_!" my sister's ace flew up and fired a concentrated beam at the rock monster. "During this battle, I activate Sola's activates! When she battles, I can reveal a LIGHT monster to increase her attack points by five hundred. _Photon Reactor_!"

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2500 + 500** → **3000**

My sister revealed one of the cards in her hand, which was _Astral Angel Zerstörer Flügel_. Sola's beam began stronger and it pierced through the rock monster's chest. The force of the impact knocking the first henchman.

 **『** **Henchman 1 LP: 4000 – 600** → **3400** **』**

"At this moment, I activate the effect of _Astral Angel Zerstörer Flügel_ from my hand!" My sister reveal the monster a second time. "As a LIGHT monster successfully launched an attack, I can equip it to that monster and let it attack again!"

The robot monster appeared on the field and broke into pieces which flew around Sola and created an armor around her body with electric wings forming on her back.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 800** → **3800, DEF: 1800 + 700** → **2500**

" _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ smash _Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch_! _Linear Ray Artillery_!" The fairy fired several more lasers, all of which cut the monarch into pieces. This attack caused the fire monster to blow up and the second henchman was pushed back.

 **『** **Henchman 2 LP: 4000 – 1400** → **2600** **』**

"Finally a direct attack from _Astral Angel Golden Knight_! _Divine Slash Ragnarok_!" My sister's final monster swung its blade at the first henchman and hit him in the chest hard enough to launch him into the air.

 **『** **Henchman 1 LP: 3400 – 1800** → **1600** **』**

"That damn bitch…" muttered one of the two henchmen that haven't had their turns yet.

"She took out both monsters and attack them directly!" The other one yelled. "What the heck is she?"

"During my second Main Phase, I activate the effect of an _Astral Angel Digital_ in my Graveyard." My sister's hand began to glow and she put it on top of her deck. "I banish all _Astral Angel Digital_ that are in my Graveyard and draw two cards!"

An arc of light followed the cards after my sister drew them. Afterward, she looked down at them and nodded to herself. She put one of them back to her hand and took another, sliding two cards inside the opening on the back of her Duel Disk.

"I set two cards and end my turn!"

" _That was a rather interesting turn."_ Hema commented. _"Your sister isn't joking around, she was able to adapt to the situation as soon as it arose."_

"She sure did." I nodded in confirmation.

Avice might not care about human lives, but she is an extremely skilled duelist. Even back in the old days before we ended here, I was never able to defeat her in a duel. All of her moves were so smooth, calculated to the last detail. She never misplayed, never put too much confidence in her plays, dueling her was like dueling a computer that could read your mind. Her skills to analyze styles and the ability to memorize most commonly used decks and builds used in our world made her able to predict a player's whole turn by just the first card that they play.

"I'm going to beat that bitch down!" the third henchman roared and drew his sixth card.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Henchman 3] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate the effect of _Mithra the Thunder Vassal_ to Special Summon a _Vassal Token (Lv.1, DEF: 1000)_ on your side of the field!" a very small feminine monster in white armor appeared on our side of the field. "Afterward I can Special Summon _Mithra the Thunder Vassal (Lv.2, DEF: 1000)_ on my side of the field!"

I looked down at the screen of my Duel Disk. A LIGHT Vassal would mean a LIGHT Monarch…

"I tribute _Mithra the Thunder Vassal_ to Tribute Summon _Kuraz the Light Monarch (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!" A beam of light fell onto the vassal and out of the came a large knight in golden armor with a full arc above its head. "I activate _Kuraz the Light Monarch_ 's effect to destroy two of your cards! I choose _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ and your left set card!"

"I will counter with my Trap Card." Avice waved it off as her card flipped face-up and a barrier formed around monsters. " _Holy Barrier – Invariant Force_ : Cards I control can't be destroyed during this turn."

"Dumb bitch… The effect of _Return of the Monarchs_ lets me add _Zaborg the Mega Monarch_ to the hand." The henchman took the card while gritting his teeth. "I use the effect of _Mithra the Thunder Vassal_ since it was send to the Graveyard I can Normal Summon a second time this turn. I tribute _Kuraz the Light Monarch_ to summon _Zaborg the Mega Monarch (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)_!"

Several thunders fell from the sky and a large humanoid in white armor with a yellow cloak around its waist formed. The creature had spiky green hair behind its mask and large red horns attached to its giant shoulder plates with a ring on its back.

"The Extra Deck killer, huh?" My sister commented. She crossed her arms and looked the monster from bottom to top. "Yeah, good thing that I set _Holy Barrier – Invariant Force_ during my last turn."

"Battle! _Zaborg the Mega Monarch_ attack _Astral Angel Golden Knight_!" My sister's monster held its sword as a shield and blocked a blast of lighting, redirecting it into various directions.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 – 1000** → **3000** **』**

"A thousand damage is nothing when I get to keep my monsters." My sister dusted her shoulder, _Astral Angel Golden Knight_ stood in front of her and swung its sword, putting it to rest on the warrior's shoulder.

"I will set a card and end my turn!" The henchman said.

"During the end of your turn, the effect of Sola ends and her attack drops by five hundred." A red aura covered the fairy for a moment and her attack value dropped significantly.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 3800 - 500** → **3300**

"Your move sis." Avice turned toward me and gave me a trump up.

"Yeah!" I nodded and looked down at Yuya who was still feeling down for the loss of his ace monster. I should reassure him, but if we wasted time on this duel the henchmen would achieve their goal.

" _I'm not trying to pressure you, but this might be a good time to give me control."_ Hema told me. _"Unless you want to prove your skills as a duelist. What do you think?"_

' _You are my Fusion Persona._ ' I reminded her through my mind. ' _While The Monarchs Erupt is in play any Fusion Monster that you summon would have its effects negated._ '

"Very well then." Hema sighed and vanished.

I couldn't afford to rely on her nor anyone else while dueling. Was I saying that because I wanted to prove myself, my independence? Of course not! But Evan and Avice, the longer we spent in this world, the larger became the distance between us, both in dueling skills and as a family. I don't want to be left alone, to lose my family and I wanted to tell them that through the only language that they knew.

"My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Elizabeth] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

I looked at the cards that I had to use on the moment. I couldn't afford to do a Tribute Summon, but I wouldn't need to in order to save my cards' effects.

"Using the Scale Five _Oracle Sister of Allure – Grea [FIRE/Level 4/P.S: 5/ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200]_ and the, Scale Siven _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome [WATER/Level 4/P.S: 7/ATK: 1300/DEF: 300]_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" My two spellcasters raised in two columns behind me. "Look at this Yuya! It wasn't just your Odd-Eyes that brought smiles to people, it was Pendulum Summoning as well! I'm going to get back your dragon, I promise it!"

"Eli…" The tomato head looked up at me and I smiled at him.

"Pendulum Summon! The millennium goodness sleeping within the mortals' soul! _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!" A sole beam fell from the open arc in the sky and transformed into my ace monster.

"Hahaha! What was the point in Summoning a single Level six monster?!" One of the henchmen began to laugh at me, but I ignored him. They didn't know half of it.

" _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ 's effect activates!" I threw my arm upward and my spellcaster raised her staff, releasing a green mist that failed on top of all our monsters and gave then a more greenish color scheme. "While she is on our field, the first time each of our monsters would be destroyed by a card effect each turn, they won't be!"

"Fool! While _The Monarchs Erupt_ is face up on the field all monster that weren't Tribute Summoned have their effects negated!" The fourth henchman called out, but that wouldn't stop me.

" _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ 's additional effect!" I replied. "If she was Pendulum Summon, she is unaffected by Trap Cards!"

"WHAT?!"

"Let's go, Sina!" I called out my monster and took another of the cards that were in my hand. "I activate my Spell Card, _**Ancient Artifact – Necro Book**_!"

* * *

 **Ancient Artifact – Necro Book (Spell) Equip**

 **Equip only to a Spellcaster-Type monster. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your control; Tribute that target, then Special Summon 1 monster with a different original name from either player's Graveyard, but destroy it during the End Phase. If this card is face-up on the field or your Graveyard: You can target 1 monster that is banished or face-up in your Extra Deck; destroy this card, then Special Summon that target and take damage equal to its DEF.**

* * *

I glanced at my sister and she nodded. "I activate the effect of _Ancient Artifact – Necro Book_ : Once per turn, I can release a monster to revive a different monster from my Graveyard!"

My monster opened the spellbook and searched through it for a few moments before aiming her staff at the last remaining _Astral Angel Digital_.

"I tribute _Astral Angel Digital_ to revive the one, the only, the magnificent dragon with dichromatic eyes! _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!" My sister's moster turned into sparks which flew together and opened a gate through which Yuya's ace jumped. The powerful red dragon landed between my Sina and Avice's Sola, raised its head and let out a vicious road.

"You brought Odd-Eyes back!" Yuya cheered.

"Lastly, I'm going to activate the Spell, _Pendulum Storm_! I destroy all the cards in my Pendulum Zone to destroy _The Monarchs Erupt_!" the two columns behind me turned into hurricanes and launched themselves at the trap card, destroying it. "With this the rest of your monsters all gain their effects."

Both Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and _Astral Angel Golden Knight_ raised their heads, one of them gaining back only its effects, while the other also got a boost in attack value.

 **Astral Angel Golden Knight, ATK: 1800 + 500** → **2300**

"Let's battle! _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ attack _Zaborg the Mega Monarch_!" My sister's monster flew up and charged at the monarch. " _Linear Ray Artillery_!"

"ARGH!" The henchman got blow back from the attack and his Life Points dropped

 **『** **Henchman 3 LP: 4000 – 500** → **3500** **』**

"Follow up with a direct attack from _Astral Angel Golden Knight_! _Divine Slash Ragnarok_!" My sister's knight slashed through the henchman, knocking him out cold.

 **『** **Henchman 1 LP: 1600 – 2300** → **0** **』**

"Then _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ and _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ will launch a direct attack as well!" Mine and Yuya's monster both fired at one of the henchmen.

 **『** **Henchman 2 LP: 2600 - 2400** → **200** **』**

 **『** **Henchman 3 LP: 3500 - 2500** → **1000** **』**

"Damn it, they dropped our Life Points by so much!" One of the bastards cried out.

"I'm going to set a card and end my turn." A card flashed before me for a moment. I turned my eyes toward Odd-Eyes, who should get destroyed during the End Phase. "Due to _Ancient Artifact – Necro Book_ Yuya's _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ should be destroyed, but thanks to the effect of _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ the destruction is negated!"

I turned toward Yuya and nodded to him. This time around, his Odd-Eyes was here to stay! I wouldn't allow these bastards to lie a finger on it.

"Make them pay for destroying our monsters!" the third henchman shouted at the fourth one.

"That's right! Show them our true strength!" The second one added.

"Don't worry, I will get rid of all their monsters!" The four one reassured. I clenched my fist and waited to see what they were going to do. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Henchman 4] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First off, I activate _The Monarchs Stormforth_! At the cost of being unable to Summoned monsters from my Extra Deck, this Spell allows me to Tribute Summon a monster using an opponent's monster as the tribute!"

"So you plan to use one of our monsters as a folder?" My sister tilted her head. "Then I will respond by activating my second trap, Universal Compass! I banish _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ and inflict her attack as damage to you!"

"WHA-" Before the henchman could finish, he was blasted by a beam of light, so strong and bright that we had to cover our eyes.

 **『** **Henchman 4 LP: 4000 - 2500** → **1500** **』**

"During my next Standby Phase, the monster that I banished will return to the field." My sister put a hand on her hips. "It was obvious that if you could tribute any of our monsters you would go for the one with the most attack, so I choose to use my ace while I still had it. Of course, because there are no LIGHT monsters, _Astral Angel Golden Knight_ will lose his boost."

 **Astral Angel Golden Knight, ATK: 2300 - 500** → **1800**

"Damn it!" the fourth henchman cursed while he tried to collect himself from the ground.

"We set everything perfectly, didn't we?" My sister turned toward the rest of us and smiled. "Yuya, if I was you, I would start to prepare my lines, the big final with be yours."

"Huh?" The tomato head looked at my sister and then at me in confusion. "Are we really going to win next turn?"

"Of course." Avice nodded. "I already made the calculations. No matter what Monarch he summons during this turn, the duel with end during your next turn."

"That won't happen!" the henchman shouted. "I tribute _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer_ and Tribute Summon _Caius the Shadow Monarch (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!"

My monster turned into golden dust and in its place came a large humanoid monster covered in black and dark grey armor with a torn black cloak falling from its back and a pair of horns on the side of its head.

"The effect of _Caius the Shadow Monarch_ activates!" The henchman said. "When it's Tribute Summoned, I can banish a card on the field! I choose _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_."

"Odd-Eyes!" The monarch threw a ball of black energy at Yuya's monster; the dragon roared in pain as its body got sucked into the ball and disappeared once again.

"Don't worry, we were prepared for that!" My sister reassured Yuya. "As long as Odd-Eyes is somewhere within the field, the main star of the show isn't gone."

"But its owner might be!" The third henchman said.

"When _Caius the Shadow Monarch_ banish a DARK monster, you take a thousand points of damage!" the fourth henchman pointed at us. His monster threw a second ball of darkness that hit Yuya with enough strength to throw him flat on the ground.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 3300 - 1000** → **2300** **』**

"Yuya!" I ran over to the tomato head, but this time he held up a hand.

"I'm fine." I paused for a moment. Yuya looked up at me and what I saw surprised me.

He wasn't sad that Odd-Eyes got removed from play the same way he was sad when they forced him to discard it. I couldn't tell why it was, but he was still happy and smiled despite the lack of a companion.

"I'm fine." Yuya repeated and got back up. "As long as you are with me, I know that we are going to win! I trust in what you said and that Odd-Eyes will come back no matter what happened to him just now."

"We will see about that…" I turned back toward the henchman and his monster. "I use _Caius the Shadow Monarch_ to attack _Astral Angel Golden Knight_!"

My sister's knight got him by a ball of energy and exploded, but despite that Avice remained standing.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3000 - 600** → **2400** **』**

"When _Astral Angel Golden Knight_ leaves the field, his effect should destroy all of your monsters." My sister said. "But due to your Continuous Spell that won't happen, right?"

"Correct!" the henchman smirked. "Even though you were able to break a part of our lock, our monsters are still immune to any and all of your effects!"

"So, is your turn done?" I asked.

"It is." The henchman stated. "All of your monsters are now gone, so how do you plan to make a combat and win now?"

"It's not impossible!" Yuya stepped forward. "Dueling with all the odds against you is part of being an entertainment duelist!"

"That's right!" I nodded. "And today we are going to show you the greatest comeback, curtesy of You Show's Entertainment Dueling!"

"My turn, draw!" Yuya called and drew his next card. At the same time, Avice's _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_ came back on the field with just 2500 attack points.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Yuya] LP: 2300, Hand: 3** **』**

"Yes, it came!" Yuya raised the card that he drew and up it on the blade of his Duel Disk. "I Normal Summon _Performapal Skullcrobat Joker (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

First a large black and pink top hat fell on the field. Two cards came from underneath it and pulled it up, revealing the whole body of a human in black and pink clothes with long blonde hair and a mask covering the top of his face.

"When this card is Normal Summoned, I can add a Performapal, Magician or Odd-Eyes monster to my hand." A card popped from Yuya's Duel Disk. "And hey, the card that I got is _Timegazer Magician_! You know what that means, right?"

"Pendulum Summon!" I and my sister called at the same time.

"That's right!" Yuya smiled and took two cards from his hand. "Using the Scale Four _Performapal Trump Witch [DARK/Level 1/P.S: 4/ATK: 100/DEF: 100]_ , and the Scale Eight _Timegazer Magician [DARK/Level 3/P.S: 8/ATK: 1200/DEF: 600]_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

" _Hm, the only monster in his hand is a Level Five, so it could be summoned."_ Hema thought while floating next to me.

"Swing, pendulum of souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Appear now! My monster! _Stargazer Magician (Lv.5, ATK: 1200)_!" Yuya's second magician appeared in his white robes and held his wand close to the body.

"Ha, so what?" the second henchman asked.

"Your monsters' aren't enough to beat us!" the third one added.

"That might be true for now, but thanks to my glorious assistants setting up the stage, this is going to change!" Yuya smiled and stretched his arm forward. "With me now!"

I nodded and raised my hand as well.

"I activate the effect of _Ancient Artifact – Necro Book_ from our Graveyard! By banishing this Spell, a monster in the Extra Deck or banished zone could be summoned!" I and Yuya called in unison, a black portal formed before us and a familiar roar could be heard from within.

"Come, dragon with wondrous and beautiful dichromatic eyes! _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!" Yuya's most loyal monster jumped out of the portal and landed behind its owner with a vicious roar.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 2300 - 2000** → **300** **』**

"As a cost for summoning Odd-Eyes this way, I must take damage equal to its attack, but that doesn't matter!" Yuya smiled. "Let's go! Odd-Eyes attack _Caius the Shadow Monarch_!"

"I activate my Trap, _Escalation of the Monarchs_!" The third henchman called out and his Continuous Trap turned face-up. "This card lets us to Tribute Summon once during the opponent's Battle Phase!"

"I will use that effect and tribute _Caius the Shadow Monarch_ to summon _Caius the Mega Monarch (Lv. 8, ATK: 2800)_!" A larger, even eviler version of the dark monarch appeared on the field with a roar. "When _Caius the Shadow Monarch_ is summoned I can banish two cards on the field and inflict a thousand damage! I choose _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ and _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph_!"

"Now, Yuya!" my sister called out.

"Right! I activate _Performapal Trump Witch_ 's Pendulum Effect!" Yuya gestured toward her monster. "Once per turn, during the Battle Phase, I can Fusion Summon using monsters on my field as materials!"

"A Fusion Summon during the Battle Phase?!" The henchmen were actually starting to really panic from that.

"Yep! I choose to fuse _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ and _Performapal Skullcrobat Joker_!" The dragon jumped out of _Caius the Mega Monarch_ 's effect, avoiding it while Sola got banished and my sister took damage.

 **『** **Avice LP: 2400 - 1000** → **1400** **』**

"The jester on top of all performers, become the bright light and dwell in the eyes of the dragon! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Arcane dragon wielder of ancient magic! _Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!"

Out of the portal jumped a new, bigger red dragon with a golden eyepatch on the right side of its head and a large ring on its back. After the beast landed on the ground, Yuya climbed on its back and grabbed onto it.

"The effect of _Stargazer Magician_ activates! When a Pendulum monster leaves the field, he can Special Summon it back on the field! Come, _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!" Yuya's original dragon ran through the field and joined the rest of the monsters. " _Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ attack _Caius the Mega Monarch_! _Shiny Burst_!"

The dragon roared and blasted the mega monarch to pieces, while also dropping the henchman's Life Points by a little.

 **『** **Henchman 4 LP: 1500 - 200** → **1300** **』**

"Next, _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon_ and _Stargazer Magician_ attack directly! _Spiral Strike Burst_! _Horoscope Cutter_!" Yuya's other monsters fired their attacks as well, knocking two of the henchmen on the ground.

 **『** **Henchman 4 LP: 1300 - 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Henchman 3 LP: 1000 - 1200** → **0** **』**

After everyone else was already knocked down, the only one that remained was the guy that stole Gongenzaka's sash. The duelist looked left and beck, only seeing his comrades all lying on the ground around him.

"Damn you…" He clenched his fist and pointed at us. "You might have beaten the others, but during my next turn I will…"

"There won't be a next turn!" I pressed a button on my Duel Disk and my set card flipped face-up. "I activate the Trap Card, _Pendulum Reborn_!"

"And using its effect, I revive _Performapal Skullcrobat Joker (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ from my Extra Deck." Yuya finished as his own monster reappeared with a bow. "Now, attack him directly, _Skullcrobat Joker_!"

The joker giggled and jumped onto the guy, raising his arm…

 **SLAP!**

 **『** **Henchman 2 LP: 200 - 1800** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Yuya & Avice & Elizabeth** **』**

After this final attack, the duel ended and all of our monsters disappeared from the field. The guys that had stolen Gongenzaka's sash were all down and the cloth itself was lying on the chest of the guy that took it from us. Yuya sighed in relief and ran over to take it before any of those bastards woke up. But since Levant saw how they stole it as well, wouldn't the guy that told them to do so get disqualified when we give a witness testimony about what happened?

"That's for your help!" Yuya called at us. He was holding the sash in his arm and ran over to us. "I should go quickly to get it back to Gongenzaka before it's too late!"

"Go ahead, we will follow shortly after you." My sister told him.

Tomato head nodded and ran off, leaving me, my sister and four unconscious bodies. I hoped nobody would walk by because this would be pretty hard to explain…

"You weren't all too bad today!" My sister patted my shoulder and grinned. "Were you training?"

"Yeah, I was." I ran a hand through her hair. "Was I any good?"

"Eh, four point three out of ten." I narrowed my eyes and grabbed her cheeks, pulling them. "Ay, ay! Ok, you were good! You were good! Stop!"

I chuckled a little, watching Avice trying to fight back and break from my hold. It was a while since we got to mess like this and this wasn't another comparison with our old home. Even back then we never really got to do silly things, most of our time was spent either writing our own homeworks, or Evan and Avice spending their time without me. They were often fighting on the couch for the remote, sometimes going as far as to tickle each other, but I had always just walked by trying to ignore their shouters and laughter. Couldn't believe that I would ever carve to be tickled by my siblings, but that's what I wanted at the moment. It didn't matter how silly it would be, anything was fine, just to make me feel less lonely.

Of course, we didn't have time to mess even that little bit in this world anymore. The screen of my Duel Disk turned black with Ventus' name written on it. He was calling me. I let go of Avice, who quickly retreated and began to rub her red cheeks.

"What is it?" I answered the call.

"I need you to get back into the stadium as fast as possible!" I could tell by his tone that things were urgent.

"Why? Did something happened?"

"We just found a card with a human trapped inside it." My eyes widened at those words. "Don't worry, it isn't anyone that you might know, but it's almost definitely produced by a Fusion Dimension Duel Disk. What more, your brother has vanished."

"Vanished? What do you mean?" People couldn't just vanish!

"Literally what I said. Ventus looked through the camera records. On one shot he is there with Koharu trying to approach him, on the next he is no more and Koharu is lying on the ground unconsciously. According to her, whoever took her down had the same aura as Nightshroud."

My hand that was holding the Duel Disk close to my ear dropped it. I felt a chill run down my spine, the panicked voice of Levant kept coming from the other end of the line, but I couldn't make what he was saying. That name... The creature that almost killed by brother during their last duel and left him unconscious with several serious wounds. If Nightshroud really came back for my brother, then…

"Hey, Elizabeth?! Are you there, Elizabeth? ELIZABETH!"

* * *

 **Avice: The reviews from last time are still here to view!**

 **Chapter** **26:** **In Pursuit of a Shadow**

 **Summary:** The second day of the Miami Championship goes on seemingly undisturbed, but things are moving behind the curtain. Looking for her lost brother, Elizabeth finds herself face to face with two unknown duelists in red uniforms. Feeling extreme hatred toward those who destroyed her Dimension, Yuki takes control and with Koharu showing up a four-way Battle Royale begins. However, the devotion of one duelist isn't to whom they thought…

 **Chapter 27: The Reflection**

 **Summary:** After the extreme Duel against the new host of Nightshroud and Evan showing up to Elizabeth's rescue, the group all reunites once more and the twins learn about Sora's duel against Shun. The Greysons and Koharu all go to get answers about the current events when Reiji informs them that Sora has disappeared from the medic bay. A new search ensued.

 **Chapter 28: Souls of Light and Darkness**

 **Summary:** Avice who had just walked onto the duel between Yuya, Yuto, Sora and Nightshroud finds herself unwilling to face against Nightshroud and his dragon that had the power to turn others into its pawns. As Sora finds himself victim to the controlled by Nightshroud Dark Rebellion, the young Greyson finds Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph resonating with Nightshroud's deck…

 **Chapter** **29: What the Future Withholds**

 **Summary:** With the duel between Yugo and Yuto becoming more vicious by the second, all five duelists find themselves on the verge of losing control over their own minds. At the same time Elizabeth find herself facing against a hooded man who warns her that if she doesn't stop to follow after her siblings, in the future they will be the ones to kill her.

* * *

 **A/N: And done! I was originally planning to have the duel last longer and have Hema join it for the end, but I realized that doing that would make this chapter TWICE as big for literally nothing, so I gave up on that idea. However, I got interested what Yuya would do if somebody discarded or banished his Odd-Eyes in the anime. I would like to further that idea and see how his dueling would adapt without Odd-Eyes in a 1 vs 1 duel where he has no one to keep his ass safe.**

 **Somebody might wonder why I would use a powerful deck like Monarch for a gang of thugs, but truth is, I wanted to use them for a while now. I had an idea where Evan would face a deck based around the WIND Monarch - Raiza, but I had to scrap that idea because I wanted to give justice to some of the decks that people requested me to use back during Arc-Twins. Back then I couldn't use decks like "** **Igknight** **" because it would be hard to explain how a character other than Yuya would have a Pendulum Deck, but this time around I got TWO whole explanations named "Tracers" and "Fragments". Eh, eh?**

 **Thanks to** SPRGMR27 **for the shotout! I already gave a shotout toward their story in the last chapter and I don't want for us to keep passing shotouts to each other over and over, so if interested just read the A/N from the previous chapter (which you should have read before coming here).**

 **Before thanking everyone who followed/favorited this story I want to say that there seemed to be some error or something and I didn't get a notification about some, so sorry if I missed to mention you last time (and this one as well).**

 **Thanks to** ant224 **for following. Thanks to** Torchvirgo **and** CAD270895 **for following and favoriting.**

 **Now to the reviews:**

bennyf5302 **: I'm not sure if by "better than the stories I read before" you meant others' stories or you meant that they were**

ScalchopWarrior **: You weren't saying that before I made Hand Traps the** **coherent playstyle for** **"** **Performallusions** **", were you? WERE YOU? I'm also going to ignore the fact that you called** **Roxanne a better protagonist than Evan and Avice for this one instance. But if you do it again, I'm giving up on you!**

 **Anyway, that's all from me for today. See you again next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	26. Chapter 26

**So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

In Pursuit of a Shadow

After the three versus four duel against the guys that stole Gongenzaka's sash, I thought that we could finally catch a break, but I knew little about how wrong I was to hope for that. As soon as we won, Levant called me and the news that he shared shook me to the core. Not only did Nightshroud, the strange man cloaked in darkness returned despite being destroyed by my brother, but at the same time, Evan disappeared without a trace and from what I was told the chances were that it was Nightshroud himself that came after my older brother!

At the moment, we didn't have any time to waste. I and Avice were running as fast as our legs muster back to the stadium for a briefing on the situation at hand. I knew that Evan's arrogance would get him in trouble one day, but I never imagined it to be like this. Hunted down by a Nightshroud who was able to put his life at risk during their last confrontation; I could only pray to whatever God or mighty power was out there to keep my sibling safe from any danger. It also didn't take us long to reach the stadium and Levant was already waiting outside for us along with Ventus and Oni.

"Wha… What's going on?" I asked them before catching my breath. This was a matter of life or death so I had absolutely no time to waste on small talk.

"Didn't you tell her about it?" Ventus turned toward his partner.

"I did, that's probably not what she means." Levant shook his head.

"Just give us the details on what you know our brother's life might be in danger!" Avice yelled at them; I wasn't fond of people raising their voice, but this was an urgent matter indeed.

"We already know how important this is!" Levant retorted. "But your brother isn't a main priority on this operation, so we don't know anything about him!"

I and Avice glanced at each other. If Nightshroud was roaming free and finding our brother wasn't a main priority, then what could it be? On all of our knowledge, this creature of darkness had only two targets on their list, Tracers – like us – and duelists from the Fusion Dimension. Using this logic, the only other priority could be…

"Don't tell me this is about a Fusion Duelist?" Avice asked the question that was stuck in my head.

"After we identified the duelist that carded others as Nightshroud, we tried to do the same with his victims." Levant crossed his arms. "After several hours of researching, LDS' team found their names and that they all were participating in the tournament, but there was no other information about them, the records showed that they all must have appeared out of nowhere in the last few months."

"So the Fusion Dimension has send more than one spy here…" Avice put a hand under her chin in thought. "But isn't Nightshroud eliminating the enemy's spies a good thing? Wait, don't tell me that Reiji wants to hire that bastard!"

"Oh no, no, no!" Ventus waved his hands. "If that was his plan, I would have voice my disagreement with it very loudly!"

"Reiji's plans are even more shocking than that." Levant replied and pulled out his Duel Disk. "In fact, he wanted to talk with you two about it, so let me just call him."

I really didn't like wasting any more time here, but it was possible that Reiji was going to tell us something helpful. Going for an alliance with Reiji and the LDS wasn't a bad plan on Evan's side after all, I just hoped that they could do something in return.

"Hello?" Reiji's voice came from Levant's Duel Disk. "Since you called me, I take it that the Greysons are with you."

"They are indeed, sit." Levant replied.

"Good, you probably have questions, but in order to save time I will tell you only the most important parts of what's going on. I knew that there was more than one Fusion Duelist send to our Dimension for some time now. I didn't expect them to send so many spies, and while Nightshroud helped out by taking most of them down, he is now starting to become a danger for my plans."

"What? Because he started to hunt down Lancers?" I asked.

"Not quite, Lancers are easy to replace, but there is someone in this dimension that could be a very valuable ally if I manage to convince her into joining our side." I was furious that Reiji called us replaceable, but I was still trying to listen to his words with reason and not anger; all for Evan's sake. "Our security cameras were able to get footage of another Fusion Duelist that lurks around the stadium. I was able to keep an eye at them, but I'm afraid that if the one you call Nightshroud is allowed to roam, he might attack this duelist as well."

"Wait, let's get clear here." Did I hear Reiji said it right? "You want us to protect a Fusion Duelist from Nightshroud instead of looking for our brother?"

"In short, yes. That's what I want from you." Reiji confirmed. "Looking for Evan Greyson might be futile, but it's possible to use the Fusion Duelist as a bait to get Nightshroud out. If your brother is still alive, it would be his attacker who knows where to find him."

There was some logic in it, clearly Nightshroud wouldn't put my brother somewhere where anyone could easily find him and since they haven't found a card with Evan's face on it, which meant he was still physically unharmed. Following Reiji's instructions would be indeed the best option for me and my sister. Problem was, where should we start our search from?

"Fine, we are in." I told Reiji. "But do you have any idea where we should start from?"

"Unfortunately, there is no recent footage to suggest where our targets are located." Reiji replied. "My teams are looking into the matter, if something shows up, I will make sure to inform the rest of you about it."

After that, the call ended and Levant put his Duel Disk back where he pulled it out from. So, there was no location where to start from, we didn't know the appearance of the duelist that Reiji wants us to protect, chances were that Nightshroud has changed appearance as well because it took them time to identify him. This was already a race against time and it already became several times harder than it should be.

"I suggest we split up." Avice spoke up. "This way we would be able to cover more ground and we already got Reiji's cameras, so if one of us finds either Nightshroud or that duelist, the others will be quickly formed about it."

"That's indeed a not-too-bad strategy." Levant nodded. "But if someone of us gets into contact with Nightshroud, make sure to not directly engage until the rest of us come. Everyone here witnessed how dangerous a duel against him could be."

"Ok, I'm going!" Ventus shouted and ran off, shouting 'Dattebayo!' or something.

"If we are going to split up, then Oni should go with Avice." I suggested, earning a surprised look from my sister.

Yeah, yeah, I already said many times that Avice wasn't responsible enough to take care of a child, but there was a difference in this situation. I'm much weaker than my siblings when it comes to dueling, so if I were to find Nightshroud, my chances to survive – let alone protect Oni – would be nearly zero. Avice on the other hand had Evan's strength, she would be able to stand up to the challenge and therefore would be a much better guardian than me. It made me feel pathetic for having to lean onto my little sister for such serious tasks, but it was the best option.

"Alright then." Avice nodded and walked over to Oni, taking her hand. "Let's go."

At first Oni nodded, but then, she ran over to me and gave me a hug, pressing her face against my stomach due to the difference in our height. The little girl looked up at me and I saw tears running down her cheeks.

"Neechan, niichan will be alright, right?" I felt my heart shred to bits while I listened to those few words.

We were really the worst, weren't we? Putting a little girl like Oni through so much, making her worry about us. It was also our fault that she was crying at the moment. All of this was because of us, there was no denying it. I put one hand against the back of her head and caressed her cheek with the other. I was trying to force myself to smile and reassure her that everything would be great.

"Don't worry. We will bring niichan back." I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"That's a promise, right?"

"Yes." I nodded to confirm. "It's a promise."

Slowly, Oni was able to let go of me and followed after Avice. How my little sister wasn't getting emotional I couldn't quite understand, but then again, it was Avice Greyson that we were talking about. Of course, she would always keep on believing that she and Evan was unbeatable and nothing could happen to them. Unless she see for herself that believe that she is superior to others with which our brother infected her would keep blinding her.

"I will cheek the corridors, that's where Nightshroud was last reported to have been." Levant told me and ran off, leaving me alone.

" _Just to make sure, Nightshroud is a Fusion Duelist too, right?"_ Yuki asked.

" _Pretty much, yes. We saw it in his duel against our, ahem, brother."_ Hema responded. _"What are you thinking about, Xyz?"_

" _If you are trying to infiltrate an enemy base, you won't make yourself a hideout inside of it, since such a move would be stupid."_ I saw down and listened to the two. They were my Xyz and Fusion personalities, so chances were they knew more about it than me.

" _True, true. A far better place to hide would be somewhere that isn't abandoned, but people also rarely visit it."_ Yuki groaned and turned to float upside down. _"It could be anywhere!"_

" _Not quite."_ Hema closed her eyes in thought. _"How about we… Hey original, you have fusion monsters in your Extra Deck, right?"_

' _Yeah.'_ I confirmed to them. My Extra Deck had four Xyz Monsters, one Synchro and two Fusions that I never used. 'What are you planning? To use me as bait? I'm not sure if it's going to work out well.'

" _Trust me, the last thing any of us would want is to put our own lives at risk."_ Hema crossed her arms. _"I can't believe that you haven't figured it out yet, but your deck isn't from this dimension. Our cards have a special ability that no other card has. Just take one of your Fusions Monsters, preferably the stronger one, and put it on the screen of your Duel Disk."_

I wasn't sure what she had planned, but I did as she said. Taking my strongest Fusion Monster, which was level eight by the way, I put it on the Duel Disk and the screen began to scan through the card. After a moment, the screen turned to show some sort of map with three red dots on top of one another.

'Ok, what just happened?' I looked up at my Fusion and Xyz personalities; both of which were grinning like little kids at me.

" _Did you forget that you are a tracer? Your cards did just that, they managed to track down others of their own breed."_ Hema stepped before me and then walked inside my body, her voice echoing through my head. _"We know where our prey was last time, so time to start hurting."_

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Within the safety of their own hidden place – an underground parking lot, filled with cars, but without enough lights or cameras for anyone to find out about the existence of the unwanted guest – a person wearing a hood was standing with their back against the wall. The person had their delicate fingers, running over the screen of their pink shield-shaped Duel Disk, viewing pictures of targets that they marked during the first round of the tournament.

The hooded person dropped their arm down, pressing it against the wall behind them and looked up. Was all they did really worth it? They wanted to prove the Professor how skilled they were and perhaps be allowed to join the invasion that was their only reason to go against his will, but the results were disappointing. Those Xyz Duelists in the Standard Dimension were amateurs, weaklings that stood no match against the power of Fusion. It wasn't a surprise though, Academia was able to easily overpower the Xyz Dimension due to a reason, because every one of them was a trained warrior, unlike that scum they had to hunt through dimensions.

"I wonder at times, you know?"

Hearing a voice, the hooded person quickly pushed themselves away from the wall and activated the blue blade of the Duel Disk, while they turned around to face the person that spoke to them. Standing a few feet away from them was a boy that was visibly taller than the first figure. His outfit consisted of an open red jacket that reached just below his chest. A black shirt and dark pants with robotic boots and a metal gauntlet on his left arm finished the boy's appearance; his eyes were hidden under the shadow of his cat hood.

Seeing the newcomer's clothes, the hooded figure's shoulders dropped a bit in relief, at least it wasn't an enemy, but it wasn't a friend either. If another Academia student was here that would mean that the Professor must have sent him to get them back to the Fusion Dimension. The hooded person clenched their fist tightly seeing the uniform of the boy that stood behind them.

"I did expect that the Professor might send someone after me." The hooded person spoke with a feminine voice. "But a single Slifer Red? Not even a Ra Yellow or the Obelisk Force, just you?"

"A Slifer Red?" The boy looked down at his jacket once more. This got the hooded person's curiosity as well, how could someone from Academia not know their own rank? "Oh, so that was what this is called, huh? I took the color red because I liked it, never really put much thought into it."

"Who are you?" The hooded person asked, a new found hostility in their voice. This boy wasn't from Academia.

The hooded boy stopped admiring his jacket and raised his head a little to look at the person behind him. He almost forgot about them, was that new body having problems with the memory or was it just bad at keeping its attention on something for more than five seconds? Eh, problems to solve later, now there was a Fusion scum to defeat and probably torture before finally turning them into another addition to his collection of cards.

"Don't worry, we will reach that." The boy replied, then put a finger on his chin. "Hmm, I forgot to finish what I was going to say. You know, sometimes I wonder if you like believing that you are the top predator around here. Well, do you?"

The hooded person didn't answer, they had no desire to play this stupid game and the boy knew it, so the moment he asked this question he quickly leaped at the figure standing before them. Before the opposite party could react and raise their Duel Disk to defend themselves, the Slifer Red caught them by the throat and slammed them against the concrete wall with force that made the hooded person's hood to fall down and reveal their identity. The blue haired girl gasped for the air that was pushed out of her with the last move, but she were unable to do so because the boy's arm was holding her neck tightly.

"D-Drop… me…" The girl managed to mutter two words, demanding to be let go.

"You can't talk well while like this, can you?" the boy asked her and let go, dropping the blue haired girl on the ground.

She gasped for air once again, taking in deep breaths. The girl couldn't understand the strange feeling that was creeping down her spine. It made her arms and legs tremble and her heart was beating faster than ever before. It couldn't be that she was scared of that man, could it? No! Collecting back all of her courage, the girl forced herself to stand back up with the cloak that concealed her appearance dropping down to her legs, revealing her to be wearing an outfit similar to the one of her attacker.

"What? Just a Slifer Red?" the boy asked her back mockingly and then pumped his fist forward, slamming it into her guts.

The girl opened her mouth, but no voice came out of it. Her legs lost all of their remaining strength and she dropped down on her knees, holding her arms around the place where the boy just hit her. It hurt so goddamn much, she couldn't take any more of this! With just two hits, he already got her a step away from calling unconscious. But the Slifer Red wasn't done yet, he walked over and grabbed the back of her ponytail, pulling it so that the girl would arch her head back and look him in the face. She did that and what came into view was going to remain inside her memory for a long time. Her green eyes widened with fear and the boy could see his own reflection in it, the black dragon mask with blue eye-pieces and the red gem on his forehead. The reflection made him feel warm inside, it reminded him who he was, the name many called him by – Nightshroud.

"I-If you… do something to… me… the Professor will..."

"He will come to find me?" Nightshroud asked curiously. He cupped the girl's cheeks with his free hand and leaned in until their faces were a few inches away from one another. "The Professor you trust into so much is just a coward who used others to rob me off everything I had! My powers, my true identity, this mask is everything that I have left, so do you think I care about what he would do next? By the time he learns about your fate, his corpse will have already gotten cold!"

"The Professor… will… destroy you!"

Nightshroud let go of the girl's hair and then slammed her head into the wall, earning another whimper from his victim. After a few seconds, he pulled her back and whispered into her ear.

"This body and this mask both belong to a God. Currently, I'm two Gods in one! I'm a force of nature that not even the Egyptian Gods could hope to match!"

"Stop right there!" a voice called from behind Nightshroud.

The masked Slifer Red dropped his victim and turned around, his hood hiding his mask from view once again. Standing against him, Nightshroud was surprised to see, was Elizabeth. After pinpointing the location of the blue haired girl with help from her personalities, the Greyson went to investigate by herself. Since the cards that she tracked didn't belong to Nightshroud she didn't know that he was there and following the suggestion of her counterparts, she choose that it was unnecessary to call for backup.

Just how wrong she was…

" _There are two of them!"_ Yuki shouted from within Elizabeth's head, making the later wince at how loud the voices were.

" _But why were they fighting one another?"_ Hema asked. _"It doesn't make much sense for me."_

" _That doesn't matter."_ Yuki spoke back. _"They were the ones that destroyed the Xyz Dimension and as its representative here, I want retribution. Elizabeth, please allow me to duel them! I promise to not hurt them for the sake of Reiji's plan, but I want to defeat them as revenge for what they did to my people!"_

'I won't stop you.' Elizabeth thought.

"You got nothing with this, turn away now and I won't hurt you." Nightshroud muttered to the Greyson.

He remembered who she was; the sister of the one who destroyed him before. The memory enraged him, he wanted to destroy them all, leave no trace of the Greyson family, but it wasn't possible. Nightshroud couldn't hurt her because somewhere deep within his new 'heart' something wasn't allowing him. He himself wasn't the same any more, when Evan dueled him, he destroyed the essence of this dark soul and now he was just fragments put together by the darkness of his new host. Truth was, he was no longer a God-like entity, just a ghost of his former self, a mortal human.

"After all of this, I can't ever turn away." Elizabeth replied and activated her Duel Disk.

"Then you are going to pay the price for you decision." Nightshroud replied and pulled his Duel Disk from underneath his jacket, attaching it to the gauntlet on his left arm.

' _That Duel Disk…_ ' Elizabeth took a step backward, she felt like throwing up there and then.

" _Hey, get your act together!"_ Hema called out. _"What's so important about the Duel Disk?"_

' _It's… It's Evan's!_ ' Elizabeth stated and suddenly backed out.

"So she has different personalities, doesn't she?" A small smile formed on Nightshroud's face.

Despite Elizabeth losing consciousness from the shock, her body never lost balance, let alone for it to fall on the ground. It was still upright, but there was a drastic change in appearance. From the ragged clothes, to the hazel eyes and the pale blue hair, she was a completely new person. She was Elizabeth Greyson no more, the name of the one that stood before Nightshroud at that moment was Yuki.

"You aren't surprised." The Xyz personality took note of her opponent's calm reaction. "Should I take it that you are used to it?"

"Believe me, you got no idea about that." Nightshroud put on his Duel Disk and activated it. Even the blade was the same as the one worn by Evan.

"S-stay out of this!" The girl that Nightshroud had beaten just a while ago spoke up. Like the others, she had stood up and activated her Duel Disk, which had a radiating blue blade in the shape of a sword.

"Actually, I'm going to take both of you at once!" Yuki called out and pointed at the girl behind Nightshroud. "For what you did to my home world… I will make all Fusions scums pay for destroying the Xyz Dimension!"

"The Xyz Dimension?!" The blue haired girl was taken aback by those words, while Nightshroud just chuckled.

"A survivor, huh?" He muttered. "Or just an artificial set of memories?"

"She isn't the only one who has a score to settle with you!" Koharu stepped out of her hiding spot that was behind a column and walked forward, activating her own Duel Disk. "I suffered from Academia's attack as well! My family, my friends, everything I had was taken and burn to ashes by the likes of you! I will make you pay dearly for all of the pain that you brought to me and everyone else!"

"I know about that." Nightshroud said and pointed at the girl behind him. "I'm a victim of their actions as well! All I want is to destroy them as well!"

"Liar!" Yuki yelled at him.

"If you really were a victim, why would you wear their uniform?" Koharu asked, pointing at Nightshroud's new choice of clothes. "I don't care if you were part of the invasion or not, I will destroy all of Fusion!"

"If the two of you are from Xyz, then my pride as a student of Academia won't allow me to let you leave this place!" The blue haired girl called back. "For the glory of the Professor and all of Academia, I will defeat both you and that traitor over there!"

"A four way Battle Royale is it then." Nightshroud sighed. He really hoped to get away with just killing the bitch from Academia, but in the end, he would have to face against the Xyz survivors as well.

All four duelists moved into position so that every one of them could see the rest.

"DUEL!" They all shouted at the same time.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Yuki LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Serena LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Koharu LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"It can't be…" Yuki and Koharu looked at their male opponent again. "You are Nightshroud?!"

"Took you time to figure that out." The Slifer Red raised his head and pulled down his hood. His hair was a combination of black with dark red edges, with red locks framing his face, while the middle layer jutted upward and two ponytails fell on his back.

"So you Xyz scum know that traitor?" Serena narrowed her eyes. "I can't believe it… if the word reaches the professor…"

"Shut up!" Yuki shouted back at her and turned to look at Nightshroud. As one of Elizabeth's personalities she was always with the Greyson and knew what type of enemy she had to face. "This man here is dangerous!"

"You are scared of the wrong opponent!" Yuki face-palmed. This girl was really naïve and stupid, wasn't she?

"If you three are done with the chatting, I will take the first turn." Nightshroud told his opponents and looked down at his hand. "Hmm, that would be good, I will start by Normal Summoning _**Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul**_!"

An extremely small dragon with two legs and wings appeared on the field. Its body was black with a red outline going through its wings and the top of its huge head. As the name suggested, the monster had dark purple eyes that stared at Nightshroud's opponents with some sort of emptiness inside of them.

* * *

 **Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul**

 **Level:** **4** **/Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Dragon** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **150** **0/DEF:** **120** **0**

 **Effect:** **When this card is summoned: You can discard 1 monster; add 1 "Polymerization" or "Fusion" Spell Card from your deck to the hand. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster on the field; it loses 300 ATK.**

* * *

"So he got himself a new deck…" Yuki muttered. From Red-Eyes to Purple-Eyes, too bad she had no idea how this new deck would play.

"I activate _Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul_ 's effect." Nightshroud stated. "I discard _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_ from my hand to add _Fusion Substitute_ from my deck to the hand. Then I'm going to set two cards and end my turn. Due to the rules of Battle Royale, neither one of us is allowed to attack during our first turn!"

" _So that's what he was going for, huh?"_ Hema's spirit appeared beside Yuki to assist her in the duel. _"Fusion Substitute is a powerful card, but it can only Fusion Summon by using monsters from the field as materials. Since you can't attack during this turn, he will use his next turn to call forth one of his Fusion monsters."_

' _So, all that I will have to do is get rid of his monster? Easy enough._ ' Yuki thought and looked down at her own cards. She had a strategy ready!

"My turn, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Yuki] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First off, I'm going to Normal Summon _**Celessence Mage Clay**_!" A woman with tan skin, blue eyes filled with light and short green hair appeared on the field wearing a robe made from leafs of different colors with belts wrapped around her legs as footwear and large chunks of dried out clay formed large gauntlets around her hands.

* * *

 **Celessence Mage Clay**

 **Level:** **4** **/Attribute:** **EARTH** **/Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **110** **0/DEF:** **160** **0**

 **Effect:** **When this card is summoned: You can shuffle 2 cards from your hand into the deck; add two "Celessence" Spell/Trap Cards with the same name from your deck to the hand. Once per turn, you can choose 1 of your unused Monster Zones; the chosen zone can't be used while this card is face-up on the field, also, Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand in face-up Defense Position.**

* * *

"I now activate the effect of _Celessence Mage Clay_ and shuffle two cards in my hand back to the deck, then I get to add two copies of a Celessence Spell or Trap card to my hand." Two cards popped out of Yuki's Duel Disk and she showed them to her opponent. "I add two _**Spiritual Robe of Celessence**_ from my deck to the hand and then I activate them both! I make two of my monster zones unusable to summon them on my field!"

Who rock columns appeared at the ends of Yuki's field while the two Spell Cards appeared next to her first monster. Both monsters were floating green robes with their hoods up and two large rings made of rock rotating around their bodies, protecting them.

* * *

 **Spiritual Statue of Celessence (Spell) Normal**

 **When this card is activated, you can choose 1 of your Monster Zones; the chosen zone can't be used while this card is face-up on the field, also Special Summon this card on your field as an Effect Monster (Spellcaster-Type/EARTH/Level 3/ATK: 600/DEF: 900). Monster your opponent control can't target face-up Spellcaster-Type monster you control for battle or with card effects, expect this one.**

* * *

"While a _Spiritual Robes of Celessence_ are on my field, you can't target other monsters I control with battle or card effects, and with both of them here, you can't do anything to my field!" Yuki smirked, she had Nightshroud in the palm of her hand.

" _An unbeatable Defense, good call."_ Hema commented.

"I'm not done yet!" Yuki took another card from her hand and played it. "I activate the Spell, _**Moving Collapse Within**_ _**Celessence**_! When this Spell is activated I choose one of my opponent's zones and if they have a card on it during the End Phase that card is going to be send to the Graveyard! Of course, I choose the zone on which _Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul_ is standing on!"

* * *

 **Moving Collapse Within Celessence (Spell) Normal**

 **When this card is activated, you can choose 1 Monster or Spell/Trap Zone on your opponent's side of the field. While this card is in your Graveyard, during each End Phase, if there is a card in the chosen zone, it's send to the Graveyard.**

* * *

" _Amazing!"_ Hema's eyes widened. _"With this, during your End Phase, you are going to get rid of his only monster without destroying it! I underestimated you, Xyz."_

"Now, I end my turn!" Yuki stated. "And during the End Phase, the effect of my spell is going to send your dragon straight to the Graveyard!"

"Not so fast!" Nightshroud raised a hand to stop the Xyz Duelist. "Before you do that, I'm going to activate one of my set cards, the Continuous Trap, _**Retribution of Purple-Eyes**_!"

* * *

 **Retribution of Purple-Eyes (Trap) Continous**

 **Once per turn, if you control a "Purple-Eyes" monster: You can target 1 Level 7 or lower Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it. While this card is face-up on the field, all face-up monsters on the field, except DARK Dragon-Type monsters, lose 200 ATK and DEF.**

* * *

"The effect of _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ allows me to revive a Dragon-Type monster from within my Graveyard as long as its Level is seven or lower!" A stream of purple flames burst behind Nightshroud. "I revive the _**Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon**_ that I discarded last turn for the effect of _Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul_!"

A large black dragon with purple scales covering the front of its chest, neck and wings appeared within the purple flames with a roar. Its long tail was covered in small blades with a scythe at the end. The dragon's legs were bend sideways so that it would be impossible for the monster to stand on them and instead of feet, they ended with two blades each. Making up for the lack of effective lower limbs, Arclaw had two pairs of large wings with black blades hanging from them, the second pair was bend in a way that made the wings to press against one another and create a half-arc above the monster's body. The dragon had a metal lower jaw with a pointy end and a mouth filled with sharp teeth, its eyes, like the name suggested, were purple with flames of rage burning within them.

* * *

 **Purple-Eyes** **Arclaw** **Dragon**

 **Level:** **7** **/Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Dragon** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **120** **0/DEF:** **100** **0**

 **Effect:** **If this card is Special Summoned: Its ATK and DEF become double its original ATK and DEF.** **Once per turn, you can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls: That target loses ATK equal to this card's ATK until the end of this turn.**

* * *

" _Damn it!"_ Hema cursed. _"He just replaced one monster for the other!"_

"Due to the effect of my _Arclaw Dragon_ , when it is Special Summoned, its attack and defense are doubled." Nightshroud's monster roared and the blades that covered its body began twice their original size.

 **Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon** **, ATK:** **12** **00** ***** **2** → **2** **4** **00, DEF: 1** **0** **00** *** 2** → **2000**

"Ugh, being able to avoid effects like this…" Serena looked down at the cards in her hand. Could she be able to do better than this man?

"Also, due to the effect of my trap card, all monsters that aren't DARK Dragons will lose two hundred points in both attack and defense." The purple flames flew out of Nightshroud's card and surrounded the monsters that Yuki controlled.

 **Celessence Mage Clay,** **ATK:** **11** **00** **-** **200** → **9** **00, DEF: 1** **6** **00** **\- 200** → **14** **00**

 **Spiritual Statue of Celessence,** **ATK:** **6** **00** **-** **200** → **4** **00, DEF:** **9** **00** **\- 200** → **7** **00**

"I will take the next turn!" Koharu declared and took a step forward. She looked at Yuki with the later giving a nod.

They were the ones who always lost, the ones who were always being hunted. Families, homes, friends, all of these things were burned to ashes by the enemy. All they had left were their life, a desire to survive that allowed their skills to transcend beyond any and all limitations. They were the Xyz Dimensions and today they were fighting back against their oppressors!

"I'm going to give you a taste of our vengeance!" Koharu pointed at Nightshroud. "You especially, I'm going to destroy to bits for using me and my friends as puppets! Here I go, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Koharu] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Perfect, just the card that I needed! I play _Foolish Burial_ to send _Magician of Wishes_ from my deck to the Graveyard!" A card popped from Koharu's deck and she took it, putting it into the slot that lead to the Graveyard. "Next, I Normal Summon _Necromancer of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 500)_ and activate its effect to revive _Magician of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_ from my Graveyard!"

"Two Level four monsters, that means…" Nightshroud knew what was going to happen next. In fact, he was a little excited to see it.

"These two monsters will become the foundation of the blade that will pierce through your heart! I overlay my Level Four _Necromancer of Wishes_ and _Magician of Wishes_!" The Xyz Duelist raised her arm upward and her two monsters shot into a galaxy portal that formed above her. " _Hope, the enigmatic force that unites us, come as the courageous protector of dreams! Xyz Summon! Heavenly warrior of light! Rank 4, King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)_!"

'A card that looks like the infamous Number monster.' Nightshroud thought, watching as Koharu's Xyz monster landed on the field. 'Just how much have the Tracers broken the timeline while I was being slowly killed by that bastard?'

"At this moment the effect of my _Magician of Wishes_ activates!" Koharu called out and her Xyz Monster raised its swords. "When its used as Xyz Material, you are going to take five hundred points of damage! Eat this, monster!"

 _King of Dreams, Hope_ 's swords began to glow with a white energy and the warrior swung them at Nightshroud, releasing a wave of white blades that hit the embodiment of darkness in the guts and knocked him down onto his back with a groan.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 4000 - 500** → **3500** **』**

Nightshroud groaned and forced himself to get back up. He was using his dark powers to turn up the damage done by monsters, but the last thing that he expected was for him to end as the first victim of that effect. Nightshroud gritted his teeth in pain and fell back down on his knee while holding his side; it hurt so badly…

"Due to my trap's effect, your monster is going to lose some of its attack and defense." Nightshroud growled.

 **King of Dreams, Hope,** **ATK:** **25** **00** **-** **200** → **23** **00, DEF:** **20** **00** **\- 200** → **18** **00**

"This is just a small taste of what is to follow!" Koharu called out and took a card from her hand. "I will set a card face-down and end my turn!"

Nightshroud removed the hand that he used to hold his side with and looked at the blood on it. Shit! If his host found out about that, he was going to be in big trouble. They made a deal according to which Nightshroud was allowed to use the body as long as no one else would find out about it and the bleeding wound just made keeping it a secret that much harder.

"All this talk about a revolution and five hundred damage is the best that you can do? Weak!" Serena called out and put her fingers on top of her deck. The Xyz duelists gritted their teeth in anger. "Hunting down your kind is no challenge at all!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Serena] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

'Back at the Academia, every one of these weaklings was required to use the standard deck, but they were allowed to take different types of decks with themselves when coming to the Standard Dimension.' Nightshroud thought to himself. 'What do you have in store for me, mortal?'

"Hm, it seems that my cards are telling me to go all out from the beginning!" Serena took one of her cards and put it on her Duel Disk. "I Normal Summon _Lunalight Kaleido Chick (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_ and then I activate its effect to send _Lunalight Cat Dancer_ from my Extra Deck to the Graveyard and change _Lunalight Kaleido Chick_ 's name to _Lunalight Cat Dancer_!"

' _Hey, Hema! I'm dumbstruck, why would she send one of her Extra Deck monsters to the Graveyard?_ ' Yuki asked the Fusion personality.

" _Unlike with Synchro and Xyz monsters, the requirement a monster has to follow in order to be a proper material for a Fusion Summon aren't connected to Levels."_ Hema explained. _"With Fusion monsters the most common requirements are Monster-Type, Attribute or name. In other words, the monster she plans to summon most likely requires Lunalight Cat Dancer as material."_

"I now activate _Polymerization_ to fuse _Lunalight Crimson Fox_ and _Lunalight Cat Dancer_!" The famous spell card flashed before Serena. "The beautiful beast dancing in the moonlight! Fox with blood red fur! Swarm in the vortex of moon's gravity and become a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Elegant beast dancing in the moonlit wilderness! Lunali _ght Panther Dancer (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)_!"

'She already summoned a monster with two thousand and eight hundred attack points!' Yuki's eyes widened in panic. Serena's Fusion monster just became the strongest monster on the field.

" _Lunalight Kaleido Chick_ is send to the Graveyard by a card effect, I can return the _Polymerization_ Spell Card that I used back to my hand. Also, _Lunalight Crimson Fox_ 's effect drops you dragon's attack to zero until the end of this turn!"

 **Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon** **, ATK:** **24** **00** → **0**

"Unfortunately, I can't attack during this turn, or else I would have defeated all of you right here and now." Serena sighed and threw her arm away. "I end my turn. At this moment your dragon's attack points return to normal. And I haven't forgotten about your trap's effect either."

 **Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon** **, ATK: 0** → **1200**

 **Lunalight Panther Dancer,** **ATK:** **28** **00** **-** **200** → **26** **00, DEF:** **25** **00** **\- 200** → **23** **00**

"During the End Phase of your turn, I will use the effect of _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ to revive _Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul_ _(Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_!" Nightshroud's first dragon revived once more with a loud roar. "Also, _Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul_ 's effect lets me discard _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ to add _Fusion Weapon_ from my deck to the hand."

" _He got himself a second material."_ Hema pointed out the obvious. _"Be careful, you got no idea what he might bring out next turn!"_

"Hmm, I tried to be nice with you." Nightshroud muttered. Darkness began to form within his palm and his hair spiked up. "But no more of that, I will let you feel a fragment of my true power! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Nightshroud] LP: 3500, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_ 's effect and target _King of Dreams, Hope_! Until the end of this turn, your Xyz Monster loses more than half of its attack power!" Nightshroud's beast roared and fired a blast of purple fire at the warrior, dropping him onto his knees.

 **King of Dreams, Hope,** **ATK:** **23** **00** **-** **1200** → **11** **00**

"Next, I activate _Fusion Substitute_ to fuse _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_ with _Purple-Eyes Wicked Dragsoul_!" A vortex of purple flames appeared behind Nightshroud and his monsters flew into it. "Dragons crawling within the darkness of night, burning in the flames of Hades and merge into one! Arise, the tyrannical force forge in purple flames of violence! Fusion Summon! _**Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon**_!"

Out of the purple flames raised a blue and yellow dragon, its scales covering the body like pieces of heavy rock with spikes on its shoulders and a dragon face with an open mouth on its stomach. The monster had a black ring on its back and additional mouths on it shoulders, its neck was covered in spikes and the head had a large jaw with two eyes placed on both the top and the bottom of it.

* * *

 **Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon**

 **Level:** **6/** **Attribute:** **DARK/** **Type:** **Dragon** **/** **Fusion** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **22** **00/DEF:** **1** **300**

 **2** **"Purple-Eyes" monsters**

 **Effect:** **During the Battle Phase, negate the effects of all monsters your opponent control whose ATK and/or DEF is different from their original ATK/DEF. During your Main Phase: You can Tribute any number of monsters you control; for the rest of this turn, this card gains an additional attack for every monster Tributed by this effect. IF this face-up card is destroyed and send to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower "Purple-Eyes" monster from your hand or Deck.**

* * *

" _So, that's his monster? Shouldn't be too hard to beat, just keep your focus."_ Hema told Yuki.

' _I know that already! Instead of telling me the obvious, why don't you go see how Elizabeth is doing?_ ' The Xyz personality retorted.

" _Just make sure you don't lose before I get back!"_

' _Sounds easy enough._ '

"I activate the effect of _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ to revive _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 1200)_ and its own effect doubles its attack and defense values!" The monster raised next to Nightshroud with purple flames burning over its body.

 **Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon** **, ATK:** **12** **00** ***** **2** → **2** **4** **00, DEF: 1** **0** **00** *** 2** → **2000**

"Next, I activate the effect of _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_! Once per turn, I can target a face-up monster on the field and reduce its attack by that of itself! I target _Lunalight Panther Dancer_!" The dragon opened its mouth and a sea of purple flames rained upon the Moonlight Fusion.

"I activate the effect of _Lunalight Crimson Fox_ from my Graveyard!" Serena countered as the spirit of her monster appeared on the field and stopped the flames. "I banish her to negate an effect that targets a Lunalightmonster and destroy it!" The flames turned back at _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_ , destroying it. "Then we all regain a thousand Life Points!"

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 3500 + 1000** → **4500** **』**

 **『** **Serena LP: 4000 + 1000** → **5000** **』**

 **『** **Yuki LP: 4000 + 1000** → **5000** **』**

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 + 1000** → **5000** **』**

"So, you weren't completely defenseless, huh?" Nightshroud could almost smile at the futile attempt to stop him, "But I'm not done! I will activate my Spell, _**Revivial of Purple-Eyes**_! With its effect, I revive _**Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon**_ from my Graveyard!"

A monster that looked like some sort of plan appeared on Nightshroud's field next. Its body was made from blue vines, five of which fell down and acted like roots, keeping the strange-looking dragon stable on the ground. Its main body was covered all in large and sharp violet petals with pink drawings inside of them. For more vines were raising from its back, tied together into pairs, they formed the monster's so called wings which had purple thorns covering them. Lastly, the dragon's head was barely showing up from underneath all the beautiful petals that covered its body, it was made of many small wines wrapped together to form its lower and upper which with a single purple eye in the middle of the head.

* * *

 **Revivla of Purple-Eyes (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 "Purple-Eyes" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it. If this card is in your Graveyard: You can banish this card; send 1 "Purple-Eyes" monsters from your Deck to the Graveyard.**

* * *

 **Purple-Eyes** **Bloom** **Dragon**

 **Level:** **3** **/Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Dragon** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF:** **200** **0**

 **Effect:** **If this card is Special Summoned: You can add 1 "Purple-Eyes" card from your deck to the hand, expect "** **Purple-Eyes** **Bloom** **Dragon" . If a monster you control battles an opponent's monster, during damage calculation: The ATK of each monster in that battle becomes equal to their original ATK, until the end of the Damage Step.**

* * *

"I activate the effect of Bloom Dragon to add a Purple-Eyes card to my hand! I add _**Purple-Eyes Deep Necragon**_ to my hand and then I will Normal Summon it!" The next dragon that appeared on the field didn't have much of a body to speak about, everything bellow its chest was gone with only four huge, twisted downward rib bones acting as its waist and legs. Instead of upper claws, the dragon had large and thorn black wings. The monster's skin was ashy in color and extremely dry, its head resembled that of a gargoyle with a small chin and two horns coming from the top of its head. Like all other dragons in the archetype, this one had deep purple eyes.

* * *

 **Purple-Eyes** **Deep** **Necragon**

 **Level:** **4** **/Attribute: DARK/Type:** **Dragon** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **1200** **/DEF:** **80** **0**

 **Effect:** **When this card is summoned, you can send 1 "Purple-Eyes" card from your deck to the Graveyard. If this card is send to the Graveyard, all monsters your opponent controls lose 1000 ATK until the end of the turn.**

* * *

'He is setting up for something big.' Yuki thought, watching the formation of Nightshroud's field. His dragons were much weaker than Koharu and Serena's monsters and due to her own combo, no monster could attack her, so the question was, what would he do with these monsters?

"I now activate the effect off _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ and tribute my two monsters to give him the ability to attack three times in the same Battle Phase! _**Dragons' Triple Rage**_!" _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ and _Purple-Eyes Deep Necragon_ turned into purple flames that the Fusion Monster absorbed. "Also, _Purple-Eyes Deep Necragon_ 's effect lowers all of your monsters' attack power by a thousand for the turn!"

 **Celessence Mage Clay,** **ATK:** **9** **00** **-** **1000** → **0**

 **Spiritual Statue of Celessence,** **ATK:** **4** **00** **-** **1000** → **0**

 **Lunalight Panther Dancer,** **ATK:** **26** **00** **-** **1000** → **16** **00**

 **King of Dreams, Hope,** **ATK:** **11** **00** **-** **1000** → **1** **00**

"Hope!"

"You bastard…"

Only Yuki didn't respond to having her monsters' attack values dropped by such a significant amount. He was planning something and she knew that, the Xyz personality only couldn't figure out what it could be. If Nightshroud choose to attack, Hope's effect would reduce his dragon's attack to 0!

"Finally, I equip Fusion Weapon to _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ , increasing its attack values!" The large dragon behind Nightshroud roared and its chest began to change, turning red with visible veins.

 **Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon** **, ATK:** **22** **00 +** **1500** → **370** **0, DEF: 1** **3** **00** **\+ 1500** → **2** **8** **00**

"Now, let's battle! _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ destroy all that oppose you with _**Underworld Violent Breath**_!" The dragon complied with its master's wishes and fired three fireballs from its mouth, one for _King of Dreams, Hope_ , _Lunalight Panther Dancer_ and _Celessence Mage Clay_.

"I activate _King of Dreams, Hope_ 's effect! When a monster declares an attack I can use one of its Xyz materials to turn the attacking monster's attack to zero! _**Black Sun Reflection**_!" The Xyz monster didn't move despite its monster order, leaving it completely vulnerable to Nightshroud's attack.

"It's pointless to try, while _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ is on my field, all of your monsters with attack different than their original values have their effects negated! This includes your friend's little combo over there!" Yuki gritted her teeth, with her Spiritual Statues' effects negated, the attack went through and all three girls screamed, their monsters destroyed within the purple flames.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 5000 - 3600** → **1400** **』**

 **『** **Serena LP: 5000 - 2100** → **2900** **』**

 **『** **Yuki LP: 5000 - 3700** → **1300** **』**

The purple flames remained on the field well after the attack ended. The floor and the walls of the parking lot had large cracks in them from the impact. Serena, Yuki and Koharu all slowly pushed themselves from the rubble, their clothes were torn and messed up, such a power in just one attack, if it wasn't for their monsters trying to take as much of the damage as possible, _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ would have killed all three of them on the spot.

"You still have the will to stand up?" Nightshroud was surprised by their will to keep fighting. "Fine then. I'm going to end my turn here."

"It's my move then." Yuki muttered and drew her next card.

 **『** **Turn 6 [Yuki] LP: 1300, Hand: 3** **』**

"Here goes! I overlay my two Level three _Spiritual Statue of Celessence_!" Yuki raised her hand and her monsters shot into the galaxy portal that formed before her. "Spirit dwelling within the celestial forest, hear the cry of creation itself and charge for to protect the lands unknown! Xyz Summon! _**Mirage the Druid of Celessence**_!"

A white centaur with orange ornaments on its hooves and tail ran out of the Xyz portal and landed in front of its master. The monster had large pieces of rock tied to the side of its legs and the belly as some sort of armor and vines that came from its back and wrapped around the upper part of the creature, creating a wood armor that hide the humanoid half of the monster from view. The creature had wooden blades pointing from its elbows and shoulders with a crown made of leafs resting on the top of its head.

* * *

 **Mirage the Druid of Celessence**

 **Rank:** **3/** **Attribute:** **EARTH/** **Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK:** **19** **00/DEF: 1000**

 **2 Level** **3** **EARTH** **monsters**

 **Effect:** **Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; inflict 400 damage to your opponent for each of their unused Monster Zones, and if you do, those Zones can't be used for the rest of this turn.**

* * *

"I activate _Mirage the Druid of Celessance_ 's effect! Once per turn, by using one of her Xyz Materials, I can inflict four hundred points of damage for each of your unused Monster Zones! _**Hard Missile**_!" Yuki's monster absorbed the Xyz Material and threw her arms forward, firing an array of sharp rocks at Nightshroud's field, blowing it up. "Additionally, when this effect hits, none of your unused Monster Zones can be used for the rest of this turn."

With this she caught him. If Nightshroud can't use his other monster zones, he will be unable to summon any more monsters and the combo that he used to resurrect then every turn wouldn't work anymore.

"That was a close call." The dust on Nightshroud's field settled down revealing _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ sitting down next to the Fusion monster. "You really thought that I wouldn't use the chance to reduce the damage as much as possible?"

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 4500 - 1200** → **3300** **』**

"Since _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ was Special Summoned, I get to search another card from my deck." A card popped out of Nightshroud's deck and he took it. "Was that all you could do?"

Yuki gritted her teeth, what was she supposed to do next? She had a monster that would have been able to end the whole duel with one strike, but in order to summon it, she would need a Xyz Monster without any materials attached to it.

"We are not done yet!" Elizabeth's Xyz personality turned toward Koharu when the later spoke. "I activate my Trap, _**Xyz Overrun**_! This card let's a Xyz Monster to use its effect a second time during this turn!"

* * *

 **Xyz Overrun (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 Xyz Monster on the field that activated its effect this turn; activate it's "once per turn" effect once again this turn.**

* * *

"Koharu, you…" Yuki smiled and turned back toward her own monster. "I use _Mirage the Druid of Celessance_ 's effect once more! _Hard Missile_!"

This time however, the monster didn't fire its missiles at Nightshroud, but at someone else. Serena screamed as the attack fell on top of her field and destroyed all of her Monster Zones.

 **『** **Serena LP: 2900 - 2000** → **900** **』**

"This was for our homeland." Yuki said while the Fusion Duelist was trying to stand back up. "Now, I activate the effect of _**Prophet of Celessance - Sunseed**_ from my Extra Deck! When I control a face-up Xyz Monster without Xyz Materials, I can use it as material to Special Summon her! The all-powerful spellcaster hiding within the heart of Celessance, become the beating heart of our land and shared thy chains of mischief! Xyz Evolution! _**Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed**_!"

A giant tree with a magical rune appeared on the field. Its large branch began to move and twist around wrapping around, they transformed into human arms with large bracelets made of dried clay and thorns locking themselves in place around them. The trees roots came out from the ground and transformed into human legs wit wines wrapping around them to create some sort of footwear, while the main part of the body transformed into that of an attractive woman with large breasts that were covered by a robe made of leafs and vines which started from the stomach and moved up, sticking from its shoulders, forming a large collar around the back of the monster's neck. Lastly, the crown of the tree transformed into the head of a young woman with big green eyes and long floating hair of the same color. The now female monster raised her left arm and a magical wand made from wood and vines tied into a ball on the top appeared in her palm with a crown made from small branches resting on top of her head.

* * *

 **Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed**

 **Rank:** **6/** **Attribute:** **EARTH/** **Type:** **Spellcaster** **/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK:** **27** **00/DEF:** **24** **00**

 **2 Level** **6** **Spellcaster-Type** **monsters**

 **Effect:** **ou can also Xyz Summon this card by using a Rank 3 or 4 Spellcaster-Type Xyz Monster you control with no Xyz Materials as the Xyz Material. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, its effects are negated. These effects last until the end of this turn. If this card attacks a monster, this card gains ATK equal to that monster's original DEF until the end of the Damage Step. When this card destroys an opponent monster by battle, destroy all cards your opponent control in the same column as that monster, and if you do, your opponent's Spell/Trap Zone and Monster Zone in that column can't be used while this card is on the field.**

* * *

"Now, I activate the effect of Sunseed! I detach a Xyz Material to target your _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ and turn it into a statue!" The spellcaster swung her wand a few times and then pointed it at the dragon, firing an orange ray that turned the monster into nothing more than a rock in the shape of a dragon.

 **Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon** **, ATK:** **37** **00** → **0**

"Let's battle now! _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ attack _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_!" Yuki's monster jumped at the dragon and fired an array of magical blasts at the unmoving statue. "At this time, the effect of _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ activates and she gains attack equal to the defense of the monster she attacks! _**Mystery of Life**_!"

 **Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed** **, ATK:** **25** **00 +** **1300** → **380** **0**

Nightshroud sighed as the attack hit his dragon and tore it to pieces while also reducing his own Life Points. However, what happened next surprised everyone else and made him smirk in triumph.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 3300 - 500** → **2800** **』**

"W-why?" Yuki fell on her knees.

What happened? Nightshroud didn't activate any cards or effects, his set card was still there and _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ 's effects were negated due to _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ , so how did he reduce the damage to just 500 points?!

"Why do you look so surprised?" Nightshroud asked the Xyz duelist. "Or did you forget that I had _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ on my field. Its effect makes it so that when two monsters battle, their attack will always be their original attack during the battle."

'That means…' Yuki looked at the remaining monster on Nightshroud's field. The original attack values of _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ and _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ were 2700 and 2200 respectively…

"I'm going to set a card face-down and end my turn." Yuki gritted her teeth and fell on the ground. Unlike her, Elizabeth wasn't much of a fighter, so the body had troubles taking so much damage without a chance to recover. At that point if she didn't end the duel on her next turn, she would probably pass out afterward.

"I will take on your feelings." Koharu told the Xyz personality and raised her Duel Disk. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Koharu] LP: 1400, Hand: 3** **』**

"It came…" All the necessary pieces to destroy Nightshroud's combo were collected! "First I activate _Monster Reborn_ to revive _King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)_! Next, I equip it with _**Sword Spear of Hope**_ to increase Hope's attack by five hundred!" A large spear with the blade of a sword attached to its end formed in place of the monster's regular weapons.

 **King of Dreams, Hope,** **ATK:** **23** **00 +** **500** → **28** **00**

* * *

 **Sword Spear of Hope (Spell) Equip**

 **Equip only to a "Dreams" Xyz Monster. It gains 500 ATK. The equipped monster can attack all of your opponent's monsters once each, also, if the equipped monster attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent. If the equipped monster would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can destroy this card instead.**

* * *

"Let's battle!" Koharu called out. " _King of Dreams, Hope_ will attack _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_!"

"At this moment I use the effect of _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ to revive _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon (Lv.6, DEF: 1300)_." The dragon formed on Nightshroud's field once more holding its wing close to its body.

"No matter what you do, my attack is still going to go through!" _King of Dreams, Hope_ cut in _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ half, destroying it. "And now the effect of _Sword Spear of Hope_ activates, inflicting the difference between my monster's attack and yours' defense to you as damage!"

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 2800 - 800** → **2000** **』**

"And don't think that I'm done with just this! My equip spell allows _Hope_ to attack all of your monsters, including the newly summoned ones! _**Raising Sun Blade**_!"

Nightshroud groaned and gripped his chest in pain after Koharu's monster destroyed his last line of defense, leaving his field completely open for direct attacks.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 2000 - 1500** → **500** **』**

"I will set a card and end my turn here!" Koharu finished. "How was that? Did you like the feeling of being hurt the same way you hurt my comrades!?"

'These mortals are really crazy if they think I'm actually going to lose.' Nightshroud thought to himself. With this new body and its dark powers, there was no mortal that could beat him ever again!

"It's my turn, draw!" Serena stepped forward.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Serena] LP: 900, Hand: 4** **』**

"First I activate Lunalight Perfume to revive _Lunalight Panther Dancer (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)_ from my Graveyard. Next, I activate the Spell Card, Polymerization to fuse _Lunalight Panther Dancer_ with _Lunalight Black Sheep_ and _Lunalight Purple Butterfly_ in my hand!" A vortex formed behind the Academia duelist and all three monsters fell into it, transforming into a new beast. "Elegant beast dancing on the moonlit wilderness! The beast lurking in jet-black dress! The butterfly that wields violet poison! Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! The king of beasts dancing atop the summit of the moonlight wilderness! _Lunalight Leo Dancer (Lv.10, ATK: 3500)_!"

"Just how strong Fusion Monsters does this brat have?" Nightshroud whispered.

"Do you see now, traitor? Academia will always be supreme to you and anyone else! Fusion Summoning is the strongest method out there and I will prove it! _Lunalight Leo Dancer_ attack _King of Dreams, Hope_!"

"I activate my Equip Spell's effect" Koharu countered and her monster blocked the attack with the spear. "I can destroy it to negate _King of Dreams, Hope_ 's destruction!"

"But you still take the damage!" Serena reminded the Xyz Duelist.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 1400 - 700** → **700** **』**

 **King of Dreams, Hope,** **ATK:** **28** **00** **-** **500** → **23** **00**

"At this moment, the effect of _Lunalight Leo Dancer_ activates she can battle twice per battle phase and when she attacks, all monsters on the field are going to be destroyed!" The Fusion monster swung her sword at Koharu's and Yuki's Xyz Monsters to finish them.

"I activate my Continuous Trap, _Dimension Gate_ to banish _King of Dreams, Hope_ from the field!"

"I activate my Quick-Play Spell, _**Heavy Heart of Celessance**_ targeting _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ to make her immune to destruction!"

* * *

 **Heavy Heart of Celessance (Spell) Quick**

 **Target 1 Spellcaster-Type monster on the field; this turn, neither player takes battle damage, also that monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.**

* * *

In their own ways, the two Xyz Duelists were able to avoid the destruction of their ace monsters by the effect of _Lunalight Leo Dancer_ , but after doing so, the field of Koharu was left without monsters to protect it from a direct attack. Serena lowered her Duel Disk and looked at her options. She could finish off either Nightshroud or Koharu, but which one should she choose? Defeating whom would prove her skills before the Professor? Some random duelist that ran away from the Xyz Dimension, or a traitor to the Academia who swore revenge to the Professor and his cause. The answer was actually pretty easy...

"I attack directly with _Lunalight Leo Dancer_!" Serena called out and her monster swung her sword at Nightshroud.

"Choosing to attack me was a mistake that you are going to pay dearly for." Nightshroud sighed and his set card flipped face-up. "I activate my other Trap, _**Slumber of the Dragon King**_!"

* * *

 **Slumber of the Dragon King (Trap) Normal**

 **When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: Negate the attack, then you can apply the rest of this card's effect. Banish your Graveyard monster required for a Fusion Summon of a Level 8 or lower Dragon-Type monster, then Special Summon that monster from your Extra Deck. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.)**

* * *

"This trap negates your direct attack and then, I can use _Purple-Eyes Bloom Dragon_ and _Purple-Eyes Deep Necragon_ in my Graveyard to Fusion Summon a new monster!" The spirits of the two Purple-Eyes monsters appeared before Nightshroud and blocked the attack, then transformed into a vortex of purple and black fire. "The vicious dragons ruling a valley of death combine and be reborn as a new horror! Fusion Summon! Dragon with blood of purple ember, Level Eight! _**Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon**_!"

A long white body with purple scales on the front appeared behind Nightshroud. The dragon that he summoned had a more serpent-like appearance without any legs to support it. It had two long and slender arms with three claws each and a pair of medium sized wings on its back. The dragon's purple scales became large around its chest, acting like sort of armor with a red orb attached to the center. Its mouth was filled with purple energy that glowed through its white skin and its eyes' color was a strange combination between purple and red.

* * *

 **Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon**

 **Level:** **8/** **Attribute:** **DARK/** **Type:** **Dragon** **/** **Fusion** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **25** **00/DEF:** **20** **00**

 **2** **monsters with the same Attribute**

 **Effect:** **(This card is always treated as a "Purple-Eyes" card.) Once per turn: You can send 1 face-up monster whose ATK is different from its original ATK, from either side of the field to the Graveyard, and if you do, this card gains ATK equal to the difference. If a monster is send to the Graveyard by this effect;** **until the end of this turn, replace this effect with that monster's original effects. During either player's turn, if this card's ATK changes, except by its own effect, you can destroy 1 card on the field. Your opponent can't activate cards or effects in response to this effect's activation.**

* * *

'A monster with Fusion in its name…' Yuki looked at the monster and bit her lip. 'Only the four heavenly dragons and the reincarnation of the lost lords share this trait, so could this be…!'

"Now that your second attack was negated, there is nothing else you can do, am I wrong?" Nightshroud crossed his arms.

"I end my turn here." Serena dropped her head. She couldn't believe how stupid she was to give that bastard exactly what he wanted by attacking him directly!

"During the End Phase of your turn, I'm going to use the effect of my _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ to revive _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon (Lv.6, ATK: 2200)_ and before anyone here complains, the move is legit because Emperor Claw always counts as a part of the archetype." Nightshroud explained and drew his next card.

 **『** **Turn 9 [Nightshroud] LP: 500, Hand: 2** **』**

Nightshroud looked at the card that he drew and then back at his opponents, eyeing carefully their fields. He had everything necessary to finish the duel gathered in front of his eyes, he just had to pull the trigger and let the pieces all fall into their place.

"I gave you two a chance to look back and leave." Nightshroud looked at Yuki and then at Koharu. "Instead you two choose to challenge a power that you knew nothing about, so now you are going to pay for your ignorance with your lives! I use _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ to revive _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 1200)_ and doubles its attack and defense values!"

 **Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon** **, ATK:** **12** **00** ***** **2** → **2** **4** **00, DEF: 1** **0** **00** *** 2** → **2000**

"Although you gathered three high Level monsters, their attack values aren't high enough to possess a danger for me." Serena pointed out.

"Be patient, I will get up to you, ok?" Nightshroud sneered. "First, I will activate _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_ 's effect to reduce _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ 's attack by its own!" The spellcaster screamed and her power left her body, leaving her to collapse on the ground.

 **Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed** **, ATK:** **25** **00** **-** **2400** → **1** **00**

"And now for the main act, I activate _Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon_ 's effect! I release a monster whose attack is different from their original value and give that difference to my dragon's own attack power! _**Tyrannical Soul Submission**_!"

The dragon opened its mouth and fired a purple laser at _Prophet of Celessance – Sunseed_ , hitting the monster straight on. The spellcaster scream as her soul was sucked out of her body and Nightshroud's ace absorbed it.

 **Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon** **, ATK:** **25** **00 +** **2600** → **51** **00**

"Its attack doubled?!" Serena stepped back. Just like that Nightshroud's dragon became strong enough to take down both _Lunalight Leo Dancer_ and her remaining Life Points with one strike.

"Last, I will equip _**Cinder of Purple-Eyes**_ to _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_!" The tattoo of a purple circle appeared on the back of the dragon's head and burned brightly.

* * *

 **Cinder of Purple-Eyes (Spell) Equip**

 **When the equipped monster destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to half the destroyed monster's ATK in the Graveyard. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, inflict 600 damage to your opponent.**

* * *

"Everything is done now." Nightshroud turned around and raised his hand, giving his dragons their orders. " _Purple-Eyes Rampant Dragon_ attack the fake, _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon_ destroy the Xyz survivor, _Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon_ show this mortal who is the superior master of Fusion!"

The three monsters' eyes glowed brightly and they raised their heads, firing beams of energy and balls of purple flames at Yuki, Koharu and Serena respectively.

"Wait!" Koharu called out after the demonic duelist. "I activate _Dimension Gate_ 's effect to destroy itself and return _King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)_ to my field!"

"Due to _Retribution of Purple-Eyes_ ' effect your monster's attack will fall to just two thousand and three hundred, too weak to stop my dragons' path of destruction!"

 _Lunalight Leo Dancer_ and _King of Dreams, Hope_ were stuck by the dragons' attack and exploded. All of the girls screamed from the force of the attacks, which were unlike anything else. The energy made the whole building to shake, the duelists were all launched into the air while the wall and the ceiling to break and large pieces began to fall down onto the field.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 700 - 100** → **600 - 1250** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Serena LP: 900 - 1600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Yuki LP: 1300 - 2200** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Nightshroud** **』**

Yuki cough and tried to regain her sense, everything around her was so loud, the ceiling was falling down and the alarms of the cars parked were going out like crazy. Her whole body was hurting like hell and she felt dizzy, everything was so dull, it was hard to tell if she was even alive any more. Hema's and Elizabeth's voices were screaming inside of her head, but the Xyz personality couldn't make out what they were saying. She turned back to where Nightshroud was standing during the whole duel. The embodiment of darkness was standing there, looking back at her while pieces of the ceiling fell between them. He reached up to grab his mask and then a rock fell between them blocking the girl's vision while the voices inside her heart became clearer and she heard Elizabeth's next sentence.

"Get out of there!"

Quickly realizing where she was, Yuki looked up a large piece of rubble was calling straight at her head. Her eyes widened but her body didn't move, after all the damage she took in the duel, it was a surprise that she was conscious to feel her demise.

"Elizabeth!" A black blur moved before Yuki and grabbed her arm, pulling the girl away in the last second.

"You are…" the Xyz personality look up at her savior.

Evan's crimson eyes stared back at Yuki while he held both her and Koharu in his arms. Deep within her, Elizabeth was crying in both relief and happiness, but on the outside a brother and a would-be-his-sister were just staring at each other's eyes, trying to read one another.

* * *

 **Avice: Previews!**

 **Chapter 27: The Reflection**

 **Summary:** After the extreme Duel against the new host of Nightshroud and Evan showing up to Elizabeth's rescue, the group all reunites once more and the twins learn about Sora's duel against Shun. The Greysons and Koharu all go to get answers about the current events when Reiji informs them that Sora has disappeared from the medic bay. A new search ensued.

 **Chapter 28: Souls of Light and Darkness**

 **Summary:** Avice who had just walked onto the duel between Yuya, Yuto, Sora and Nightshroud finds herself unwilling to face against Nightshroud and his dragon that had the power to turn others into its pawns. As Sora finds himself victim to the controlled by Nightshroud Dark Rebellion, the young Greyson finds Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph resonating with Nightshroud's deck…

 **Avice: Are we sure that Nightshroud isn't the new main character of this story? 'Cause he showed up a lot during the last few chapters...**

 **Chapter** **29: What the Future Withholds**

 **Summary:** With the duel between Yugo and Yuto becoming more vicious by the second, all five duelists find themselves on the verge of losing control over their own minds. At the same time Elizabeth find herself facing against a hooded man who warns her that if she doesn't stop to follow after her siblings, in the future they will be the ones to kill her.

* * *

 **A/N: And another chapter done! There are some things that I would like to expain about it, in case they left you wondering, but before that I want to tell you all that today is a special day for me! I'm not going to get into details about it, but as a treat today I'm putting a new chapter for bot this and my VRAINS story, so for those of you who are following both of them, here, I got something for you guys!**

 **Now that this is done, I want to pointed out that this chapter happens a lot before Reiji vs** **Barrett, so Serena's companion is in fact, still in Standard, although that doesn't really matter for the story, if anyone wonders why he wasn't with her while a Fusion Hunter roams the streets of Miami City, well, neither of them knew about Nightshroud, so he probably went to scout the area and** **Nightshroud used that chance to strike. Or maybe he got turned into a card already? Who knows...**

 **Avice: Hey, hey! What about our new Purple-Eyes archetype? The writer doesn't seem to care enough to ask, but did you guys like it? It might be a little bit of a Red-Eyes and Blue-Eyes rip-off in term of a name, but what are your opinions on it? Like it? Hate it? Share your opinions with us!**

 **Now that Avice is done... Thanks to** Ghost of Magic **who favorited this story!**

 **Now to jump onto the reviews.**

ScalchopWarrior **: First off, about the Yuya bashing... I admit that it won't be completely gone, since Evan and Avice are assholes, but I never intended 'tomato head' to be interpreted as an insult. Like, when Elizabeth was calling him that in the last chapter, she meant it more like a silly nickname toward a friend. If you have a better suggestion for a nickname, I'm all ears.**

 **Also its ironic when people tell me that they like to watch Elizabeth dueling more than Evan and Avice when her deck is the worst from the trio. In fact, its even worse than Oni's and that's why I use Elizabeth in duels as little as possible... I'm angry for myself because I do, in fact, want for Elizabeth's deck to be good, but blame me for giving her a mechanic that I myself know nothing about how to use properly.**

bennyf5302 **: Oh, thanks for the compliment. I personally don't see much of the** **quality in it. Perhaps, because I'm someone who tends to look down at my own work and writting skills I often rely of you guys' reviews to keep me writing. What I mean however, isn't that I want nice reviews and in fact, I encourage you guys to point out any** **criticism** **toward my story that you might have, no matter how petit it might me. Just seeing that people spent the time to actually look at what is written makes me extremely happy, so thank you.**

 **That's everything for today. See you guys next time and remember to F/F/R!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	27. Chapter 27

**So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Evan and Nightshroud are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and Emperor Claw, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and Nightshroud, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

The Reflection

 **Evan's POV**

I looked back at the destruction behind me and winched, it would take a lot of money and media manipulation for Reiji to make this incident go unnoticed. Great, clearing other's messes was the last thing that I wanted to be doing today, but at least I learned something about my sister that she didn't tell me about. I looked back at Eliz, or whoever that look-alike was called, they had the same face and Duel Disk, but everything else about them was completely different. Most noticeable was that sharp look into her eyes, she seemed to be trying to figure me out. I didn't like that.

"So Koharu, the great Xyz duelist that was so powerful she didn't trust me because of a Fusion monster had to have her ass saved from a Fusion duelist again?" It was really hard not to mock her when she was in such a pathetic state, lying on the ground, trying to force herself to kneel back up. "I hope that this won't become a hobby for you. I could care less about saving damsels in distress."

"How did you find us here?" I turned toward my sister's look-alike. She had pressed her back against the wall and was sitting there with her eyes half open.

The questions how I found these idiots and why I didn't show earlier were ones that I would rather not give them an answer for; it was a personal matter. Instead, I walked over to her and pressed my body against the wall next to her while still standing. Noticing that my Duel Disk was still on my gauntlet I removed it and put it back onto the belt while my left hand patter the look-alike on the head. See, if I tried to avoid answering the question, she would think there was something suspicious, although I had no idea how she came to be, I would rather not have this 'thing' stalking me.

"I found you the same way that you found this place, or so I believe. Don't tell me that you were too stupid to figure it out and just ran into this mess by coincidence." I crossed my hands and waited for her to respond.

"Wait, so you already found out that the monsters inside our decks can be used to trace other duelist's cards?" I nodded trying to maintain a stoic face.

Our monsters could do all of this and they never told me about it?! While I wasn't showing it, I was actually amazed to hear that my cards had such an ability. But the real question was: Why the heck hadn't Wolfy and Foxy told me about that feature? I swear once we get home, I would use all of my dark powers to give them a physical body and bitch slap these two so hard that…

"I found that they were able to do that ages ago!" I waved off the look-alike's question. "But I never thought that you would be able to use it, so I didn't bother telling you about it."

Ha, that look-alike must be really sharing a body with my sister, both of them are equally stupid! She couldn't realize that her questions were helping me out to build my alibi! Talk about having a brain with the size of a peanut, with a bit of discipline this one could turn into a nice and obeying puppet.

"But let's get to the serious questions, ok?" I asked and slapped the look-alike across the back of her head. "Who the heck are you and where is my real sister?"

"Auch!" The look-alike yelped, but she didn't move to try and respond to my violent slap, seeing how eager she was to fight earlier, the lack of response would mean that she was too weak to move. "My name is Yuki, as for the second part, I'm going to give her control right now."

I raised an eyebrow at what she meant by that. The girl closed her eyes and multiple blue cracks formed across her body, breaking her apart and rebuilding her again in just a fraction of the second. If my darkness hadn't grown up as much as it did in, I would have definitely missed the transformation. The girl's hair returned to being short and black with blue highlights, the outfit was also the same as the one that Eliz wore last time I saw her. Next, she opened her eyes and they were like my sister's as well, there wasn't the sharpness and suspiciousness that was present in Yuki's.

"Ahhh!" Elizabeth suddenly gritted her teeth and curled into a ball, her shoulders trembling. So the different personalities also had a different level of pain tolerance despite sharing the same body? Certainly an intriguing thing to find out… Maybe I should do a few experiments to try and learn more about Eliz's interesting new condition.

"Don't be a baby now, the other you didn't yell in agony, so it shouldn't be that bad." I crossed my hands and looked away from my sister. She was probably acting like it hurt just to get some attention, but I can tell you all, that no matter what dramatic performances she might perform, I won't be carrying neither her, nor Koharu back to the stadium and Reiji. "Come on now, we got to go back and give Reiji an explanation as to why a parking lot was reduced to nothing but debris. Actually, correction, you two are going to be doing the explaining while I take care of my own duties and catch that Fusion Duelist that you two missed."

"The duelist!" Eliz's eyes went wide open and she looked around the place. "Nightshroud! He is after that Fusion Duelist as well, but Reiji wants us to protect her from that monster!"

Wait, Reiji ordered them to protect the fusion bitch? What kind of games is that Glass Guy trying to play on us? I looked at the door with an 'Exit' sign above it; it was opened so that meant the girl was able to get away while I was busy dragging these two idiots away from the debris.

"After the sort of performance that the two of you pulled, I'm sure that Nightshroud won't be showing up again for a while." I hated to admit it, but my sister did something useful for once. Even if I didn't like the idea of acting as a bodyguard for some invader from another dimension, I would follow with Glass Guy's request. But only for now of course. "Let's be going then. And if little Koharu over there has come past her self-entitlement, I might be willing to drag her back from the rabbit hole."

I pushed myself away from the wall and stepped forward to go help Koharu, but then a sudden jolt of pain shot through my body. I bit my lip and put a hand on my side silently as to not alert the girls too much about my condition. With any luck they would be too busy licking their own wounds to notice.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Damn it Eliz!

I turned back to look at her and shook my head. "It's nothing serious, a piece of debris hit me while I was pulling you to safety."

"You have become an even bigger asshole that you were before." I laughed a bit at the comment,

"I don't feel any difference than before. It's more likely that you just became more sensitive than before." She actually glared at me for the comment, but I ignored the look she was giving me. There was no point telling her that she was proving my point with her childish behavior.

* * *

"Where have you been?! You know how worried I was about you!"

I sweat dropped as Avice was quite literally climbing onto me. She had her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs locked around my lower back while she was nuzzling against my jacket. Without much of a choice I put one of my arms around her lower half to hold her and patted the back of her head with the other. If there was something I regretted today, it would be making Avice worry about me.

"Come on, you know that nothing bad could happen to me." I tried to reassure her and kissed her forehead.

"I already know that!" She shouted back at me and pouted. "I was just worried that you might have stopped liking me that much because you usually take me with yourself, or at least tell me what is going on."

"Oh… So my little Avice was feeling like I stopped to love her as much as I do?" It was my turn to frown, the idea that I could stop caring about my sisters was just absurd, even more coming from Avice. I have always shown her the most love! "Such silly thoughts you are having, serious, I would never even for a moment forget about you!"

"That still doesn't explain where you were during the whole ordeal." I rolled my eyes, of course, Levant had to interject with one of his stupid questions.

Currently all of us, sorry, I meant to say most of us – since Kurosaki apparently had better things to do – were inside Reiji's meeting room. The man with the glasses himself, Levant, Ventus, Koharu, Sawatari, Oni and my other sister were all staring at me, apparently waiting for an explanation. I owed it that much, from their respective I probably disappeared without a trace, but I would be proud if my disappearance caused a moderate level of panic among the Lancers and they realized how important my presence was for all of them.

"I was researching the incident with the missing duelists just like how Reiji asked me to do." I replied and look at the CEO of LDS himself. "I found out that they all have appeared inside the database within the last few weeks and months, from where I deduced that they were most likely spies from the Fusion Dimension and that the hunter must have been someone from Xyz, so I began to look for clues at old areas of Xyz activity."

"Wait, so you were trying to capture Xyz Duelists!?" I glanced at Koharu from the corner of my eyes, my, my, she was really angry.

"Whenever I would have to capture someone or not depended on how the suspect, or suspects were going to behave. I know that you and Kurosaki weren't the only ones that came here from the Xyz Dimensions, so it was naturally to believe that your other friend might be involved in these attacks. Of course, after saving you from Nightshroud I figured out that my initial theory was wrong."

"I don't care what your excuses might be, going after survivors from my world is a big no!" I couldn't believe that she was so quick to take the bait, did she lost some brain matter in the last duel?

"Evan's explanation makes some sense, but there is still something I can't quite get." I held back a groan and waited for Levant to ask me his next question. "You sudden disappearance from the cameras' view at the same time when Nightshroud attacked Koharu who was standing just behind you. I don't understand why Nightshroud wouldn't have attacked you as well, after all, you are the one person he must hate the most right now."

"If I remember currently what happened during my duel with him, Nightshroud was badly damaged by the lost. He must be too weak, if he is attacking people directly instead of using minions or some of his tricks." I explained to them. "A weaken Nightshroud should know that his chance to beat me in a duel would be extremely low, so he must be trying to stay away from me until a part of his strength gets restored. I don't suffer any loss of memory, but I would have heard something if Koharu was attacked right behind my back."

"So you are calling me a liar now!?" Koharu screamed at me.

"Please, be calm." Reiji interjected and looked at me. "What are you suggesting?"

"That if Nightshroud has truly attacked her he must have used some silent trick to make the cameras stop recording life." I explained to him. "Most of the people in this room already know that this person is able to do many amazing feats, there is no reason to think that changing a camera's recording couldn't be one of them."

"That seems too far stretched for me to be true." Koharu crossed her arms. "But we don't have any evidence for the later and the fact that you are unharmed despite the camera's showed your disappearance is, so far, enough to prove that your point might be somewhat possible. There exist software with this kind of function out there, I will give you that."

"Good then." Phase A was somewhat done, now to Phase B, I would have to talk with Reiji. "Anyway, I heard from my sister that you didn't want the Fusion Duelist that Nightshroud was going after to be hurt, correct?"

Now it was time for everyone's eyes to move from me to Reiji and make him the center of attention. The CEO pressed his arms onto the table and leaned forward giving a single nod to confirm my allegations. "That's indeed what I told her. You must be curious as to why I would ask such a thing, and I promise that this will be explained in due time, but now it's not the moment."

"Actually, the reason I asked you about that is connected to the reason why Kurosaki isn't among us. I'm worried that he might have heard about this and…" I stopped there, there was no need to say anything more.

"You shouldn't worry about that." Levant walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. I wanted to suplex him for thinking that I'm fine with him touching my clothes, but I held back from doing anything. "Kurosaki is in his room, resting after his duel with Sora."

"His duel with Sora?" Ah, right, he was the one that the candy-lover had to go against, wasn't he? "I wasn't here to see, so did the freak get what he deserved."

"Well, in case you are referring to the candy guy as 'freak' then yes, he lost." Ventus spoke up. "I'm actually feeling bad for the poor pal, he got a building dropped on top of him."

"Oh?" How disappointing, I missed to see the faces that everyone from You Show made when they saw Sora getting creased like paper. "And where is that Fusion trash at the moment?"

"He was moved to the hospital form medical attention, obviously." Levant answered.

"And where exactly inside that hospital if I might ask?" I asked again, this time turning to look at Reiji.

"For what specific purpose do you need to know that?" Oh, so Reiji doesn't have a hundred percent trust in me? Can't say that I expected anything else from someone as smart as him.

"For safety purposes." I replied, looking straight at Koharu.

"Why were you glaring at me, while saying that?!" A human can't really be that easy to bait, can it?

"For a very clear reason." I responded. "This isn't mean to be taken as an insult toward anyone in this room, no, in this alliance, but I personally believe that we should be more careful with refugees from the Xyz Dimensions. You have lost a lot in the battle for your home world, I understand that, but I'm afraid that the emotional trauma you live with might take the better out of you and result in either Koharu, or Kurosaki, to try and attack Sora for personal vengeance."

"That's crazy! After all I went through, do you think I would waste a chance to defeat Academia for something as stupid as personal vengeance?"

"When you joined Elizabeth in the duel against Nightshroud, you weren't doing to keep the Fusion target safe, were you? You wanted to destroy them as well, wasn't that true?" Koharu didn't respond to my question and instead she lowered her head in defeat. "I didn't came here to try and attack anyone, but I believe that it would be the wisest move to restrict of Xyz allies' movement until everything is prepared. With the way she acted during this meeting, Koharu already proved that her negative emotions could take over in a room filled with allies, what could we say about her being in one room with someone who's associated to the complete destruction of her home and normal life?"

"That's a valid worry to have." Reiji spoke out. "For the time being, I'm going to change Koharu's statues from active to an observer. Same will go about Kurosakiwhile he isn't dueling."

"That's ridiculous, am I under home arrest or something?!" Koharu protested. "You want me to just stay in one room during the whole day and watch the footage of some stupid cameras? My place is on the battlefield!"

"Your place is somewhere where innocent and civilians can't be harmed by your actions." Reiji glared at the Xyz Duelist and she completely dropped in defeat. Just like I needed.

"I believe we just said all that had to be said on this meeting." I told the others. "We got a Fusion Duelist within our reach, we don't want to let him escape, right? Everyone should return to their duty and secure the perimeter around the hospital."

The others, especially Ventus and Levant glanced at each other before nodding and walking out. I put my hood back on and followed after everyone else…

* * *

" _So you weaker the others' trust into the Xyz Dimension as you wanted, master."_ Foxy's spirit said while she rested her head on my lap inside the hospital. Good thing that only I could see spirits, or her actions would have made things a bit too awkward to explain to the personal and, well, everyone else. _"What's your next plan?"_

' _There is no new plan._ ' I retorted. ' _Koharu was getting suspicious of me, so I needed a way to get rid of her, but I plan to do the same with everyone else. Reiji thinks that he is holding all of us by collars, and in a sense, he does. There are things he doesn't want us to find out at the moment and for that purpose, he is willing to use us against one another._ '

" _You know that he has a collar around your neck as well, so what's going to be your next action?"_ I glanced down at Foxy and stroked her behind the ear as a reward for asking me this. I still couldn't understand how I was able to touch the spirits at times.

' _I'm going to earn his trust without playing his game obviously. I will have him tightening everyone else's collars while loosening mine. If the others can't interfere with my business, Reiji wouldn't be able to know about it either._ ' At the moment the biggest obstacle on my way were the Lancers, so I had to get rid of them, especially Ventus and Levant. As Tracers they would be most suspicious of me. ' _Once I get enough of his trust, when we jump to the next dimension, our group will be too big for him to look after everyone, so I'm going to use that chance and explain to him the benefits of letting me work outside the Lancers' group. This way I'm still going to have pawns to rely onto and won't be obliged to take part if the whole saving the dimensions bullshit that they are going for._ '

I could really care less what will happen with Xyz, Synchro, Fusion, or even Standard for that matter. I would sacrifice all of those places one after the other and do anything necessary, but this whole interdimensional conflict is going to have only one winner and his name is going to be – Evan Greyson.

" _Hmm, that sounds like a nice plan, master."_ Foxy purred in my lap, despite not being a neko. What? _"No surprise that I turned out like this, being created by such a brilliant mind. With you wielding my power, we surely are going to win at the end."_

'Ah, yes, that reminds me of something.' I ran my fingers through Foxy's neck. It reminded me how much I wanted to grab it and watch her fight for her breath; that stupid fox bitch… 'Why didn't you tell me that you were able to track down other duelists through their monsters?'

" _Hehe, could you believe that it slipped my mind?"_ I glared down at the bitch as she tried to laugh it off.

' _And could you believe if I said that I wasn't going to punish you, but it slipped my mind?_ ' I asked her back. Two could play that game and she was just a small particle of my mind, so what chance did that damn fox had against the ringmaster?

" _Mhm, master is so cruel~"_ For some reason, the damn fox smirked even more. _"I can't believe that I turned out like this despite being created by such a cruel and sadistic mind!"_

' _You are a devil, my mind can't be anything worse than hell._ ' I replied and grabbed her around the neck. The fox gasped and moved her arms to try and push me away, but my darkness overtook her spirit before it could fight back and she was send back to the deeps of my soul where the other spirits were currently residing.

After forcing the damn fox to finally disappear and leave me alone, I leaned against the chair. Finally, after this long day, I could close my eyes and rest for a bit before anything unexpected happen. Or so I thought until two guards ran past me and toward Sora's room. At the same time the spirit of my Fusion Monster, _ChronoDevil Grey Reaper_ flew through the floor and bowed before me. I had ordered that one to spy on Sora's room in case something were to happen. Despite its appearance, Grey Reaper was much more royal than the damn fox and wolf were. Heck, almost every of my other monsters was more loyal than them!

" _Your highness, something happened."_ I raised an eyebrow. Why the monster was using a noun that usually refers to someone with power like a king or emperor was beyond me, but I didn't mind it.

' _Wait for a moment._ ' I raised a finger to stop it before it could say anything further. Reiji was calling me as well, something was really going on there.

"What is it?" I answered Reiji's call first.

"Sora Shiunin has ran away." Ha, color me surprised that such a thing could happen. "I want you to track him, but don't try to subdue unless he is trying to teleport away, understand?"

"I believe that you informed the others as well, so I'm going to coordinate with them first." I told Reiji and turned off his call. Gesturing for my monster to continue, I awaited to hear more specifics.

" _That insect from the Fusion Dimension ran out of his room chasing after the Xyz piece."_ I raised an eyebrow. Grey Reaper's wasn't completely clear to me, what was a Xyz piece?

' _What the heck is that Xyz nonsense that you mentioned?_ ' I leaned my head against my fist. ' _Give me a clear explanation, don't be shy on details._ '

" _It's one of the pieces left behind by a force beyond the understanding of mortals. It looks extremely similar to the Pendulum piece you call Yuya."_ My eyes widened. So that useless performer had some application after all. Who knew? _"From reading its intentions, I was able to determine that the Xyz piece was going toward the park. This is all I can tell you at the moment, your highness."_

' _Ok, ok. You can go back home now._ ' I waved it off and my spirit returned to the others. So Yuya was part of some force whose understanding was beyond the capability of mortals? How ironic, he must be the weakest piece of the bunch.

"Evan!" I stood up from my chair and turned to the left in time to see Levant and Ventus both running toward me. "Did you hear what happened?"

"Brother!" Just a few seconds later, my sisters and Oni came as well from the other side. Aw, was I so popular that every time something happens everyone runs to inform me? Ha-ha-ha, you guys are going to make me blush. "You learned about it as well, didn't you?"

"Reiji called me as well." I waved it off. I really didn't need any of the additional body count to follow me, so… "If Sora ran away, he must definitely know that we have figured out his true identity. An extreme flaw in Reiji's strategy was that he had someone from Xyz to duel Sora that must have been a big giveaway, everything that followed has just confirmed it for him."

"I don't think that this is important at the moment!" Levant clenched his fist. "We must find his whereabouts, together!"

"For such a smart guy, you seem to be missing the most important details." I sighed and walked past the group. "Sora should know that he is being hunted down, why is he trying to run instead of just teleporting back to his Dimension?"

Of course, it must be his pride. He always talked about Fusion Summoning with strong sense of pride, so the reality that he lost to a Xyz Duelist, the same type of duelists whose entire world was already destroyed by Sora's comrades, must have shook the candy-lover to his core. He probably want to prove his usefulness by either eliminating Yuya's counterpart or finding Shun for a rematch. In either case, he already followed the Xyz piece toward the park which would mean that I got to send these losers somewhere else.

"What are you suggesting then?" Levant crossed his arms.

"It's simple. If he stays that would mean that he either seeks revenge against Kurosaki , or he has a different kind of objective." I looked back at Levant. Could he figure it out?

"I heard that he was spotted multiple times at sites investigated by LDS personal." Levant rubbed his chin in thought. "Don't tell me… Could he have been trying to infiltrate the LDS?!"

"What gave you that idea?" Avice asked.

"Reiji's father is the one behind Academia, the CEO confirmed it himself." Levant clenched his fist.

"Now that he knows that we know about him, he got nothing to lose." I reminded them. "He might try an attack, I'm not sure how the Fusion Dimension destroyed Xyz, but they probably didn't just use duels, right? You two should probably go back and make sure that Reiji is secure. If Sora doesn't try to attack him, then we are surely going to track him down. The idiots from You Show are probably going to look for him as well, so we might use them as bait."

"I will go back." Levant said and turned around to leave. "With me, Kurosakinagi and Koharu, Sora is going to have one hell of a time if he choose to launch an attack alone!"

"Then I will join the search!" Ventus threw his fists forward. "Let's go!"

"Wait!" I put a hand on the ninja's shoulder before he could get away. "Did you watch the recordings from the duel? Sora is extremely skilled at physical activities as well. If we separate too much, I'm afraid that he might take out my sisters. Why don't you go together with Elizabeth, have the two of you watch each other's back while I go with Avice and Oni?"

"Yes, that's a good idea!" Ventus clapped his hands together. "Come on, let's dattebayo!"

"Wait, I don't think…" Before Elizabeth could say anything, the ninja guy grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away.

That was easy. I couldn't ask for Levant to take Ventus with himself because that would be too suspicious, but I got him to pair up with Elizabeth and since she doesn't know any ninja arts, he would have to search at the speed of a normal human, which means that I was able to at least slow him down. Not a bad achievement for just two minutes talking without any previously prepared plan. Only one thing was left to do…

"I already figured out that Sora is in the park." I turned back to Avice. "We won't be needing the losers to get in our way, so I tried to send them to other locations. I suggest to try and surround Sora, you will enter through the north while I enter through the south, ok?"

"I was waiting for you to come to me with something like that." Avice smiled at me. "Let's go Oni."

"But niichan will be left alone!" I sighed at the little girl's protest and kneeled down next to her.

"Don't worry, niichan can take care of himself." I said, patting Oni on the head. "Now, be a nice girl and follow after neechan, ok?"

The little girl looked worriedly at me, before finally nodding. I smiled at her and gave Avice a sign that she could go; as much as I enjoyed Oni's company, I didn't need her running around in my legs for this. I hope Avice won't mind too much if I finish dealing with Sora and Yuya's Xyz counterpart before she manage to get there.

" _Is it finally our time to shine again, boss?"_ _ChronoDevil Void Lancer_ appeared to ask me.

' _I will think about it on the way._ ' I told my monster and put my hood on once more.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I followed my brother's instructions and entered the park from the north entrance, but there was no sight of Sora anywhere nearby. This place was actually huge so I didn't have any idea where to start searching for, so I closed my eyes and thought about what my brother told me. He wanted us to surround the Fusion Duelist from two sides, which would mean he expects us to get there at the same time as him, so somewhere around the center? Actually, how did my brother knew where we should look at in the first place? Just thinking about all of that was giving me a headache that I was perfectly fine without.

"Neechan, look! Yuya!" I looked at Oni and then at where the little girl was pointing.

Indeed, that idiot was there as well, running through another pathway. I quickly put a hand on Oni's mouth and stepped back so that the trees would hide us from view, he was talking to someone through the Duel Disk, so it didn't seem like he noticed us. Why the heck would Yuya be here, I expected You Show to go and search for Sora, but was that idiot really going to find out where the candy-lover went?

"Let's follow him quietly." I whispered to Oni and removed my hand from her mouth.

"O-ok." She nodded to my request and we followed after the same pathway through which the You Show idiot came.

As we went closer toward the center of the park, I began to see lightnings followed by a huge explosion and the roar of a dragon. Don't tell me that someone started a duel already! I gritted my teeth and grabbed Oni by the waist, raising her off the ground so I could run without having to worry about dragging the little girl. And unsurprisingly, the first thing that we came across once we arrived at the scene was Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon fighting a pitch black dragon with a Xyz material.

"Continuous Trap activate! _Phantom Fog Blade_!" I looked at Yuya's lookalike when he activated some sort of a trap. "This card negates your attack, and as long as I control it, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon can't attack!"

Sora began to scream something at the lookalike about baiting him into attacking and other things that I didn't listen to. I looked into the duel and wondered if I should take part as well, help this stranger defeat both Sora and Yuya…

"I activate Timegazer's Pendulum Effect! Once per turn, it can negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card that targets a Pendulum Monster! _Inverse Gears_!" I gritted my teeth, what was that idiot doing defending Sora?!

"What are you doing, Yuya?!" I yelled, getting the boy's attention. "Why are you defending Sora?"

"A-Avice?! You were here too?" Yuya's shoulders seemed to drop a bit, seeing that I and Oni were there as well.

"Trap Activate! _Booby Trap: E_! This card copies the effect of a Set Trap I control! Since it now has the same effect as _Phantom Fog Blade_ your attack is negated. And as long as I control this card, your dragon can't attack." I sighed, at least the look-alike had some sort of counter for Yuya's Pendulum effects.

"If you can't do anything, then get lost!" Sora pushed Yuya away. Good, he was starting to show his true colors…

"Sora…"

"He is my prey! Don't interfere, Yuya!"

"Your prey?! What the heck is that?! What does that even mean!?" I walked over to Yuya, as much as I didn't like him, I didn't want him to stay blind about the reality of the situation.

"Do you still not get it, Yuya? Sora isn't who he wanted us to think he was!" I shouted and pointed at the Fusion Duelist. "He is the true villain here and you are trying to protect him!"

"Avice what are you…"

"That's enough!" Sora cried out and draw a card. "I'm ending this, activate, the set card on my field, _Designer Frightfur_! With this card's effect, I can Special Summon _Edge Imp Tomahawk (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ from my Graveyard and have it be treated as a Frightfur monster!" He brought back that monster, but why treating it the same as his Fusion Monsters? "Then I activate the effect of my _Edge Imp Frightfuloid_ in the Graveyard and have it be treated as a Frightfur monster!"

'Two monsters that are treated as the Fusion sub-type…' I thought, looking at what Sora had. 'Don't tell me that he's going to summon that thing!'

"Then I activate _Frightfur Fusion_ from my hand!" It was just as I thought! "Using _Edge Imp Tomahawk_ on my field with _Edge Imp Frightfuloid_ and Frightfur Bear in my Graveyard, I perform a Fusion Summon! I will make you realize how powerful I'm! The real power that I developed at Academia! I'll bring out the strongest monster with real Fusion Summoning! Come out, _Frightfur Chimera (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)_!"

That was bad, Sora's monster was stronger than the Yuya look-alike's dragon and its effect cancelled Trap Cards in addition to stealing the monster that it destroys by battle! If the look-alike lost their ace, I would have to step in and…

"Destroy that cheap Xyz Monster, _Frightfur Chimera_!" The giant Fusion Monster opened its mouth and fired a rocked at the black dragon, blowing it up. The look-alike screamed as he was knocked back.

 **『** **Yuto LP: 3000 - 300** → **2700** **』**

"Oni, are you ok?!" I looked down at the girl and she nodded, but I could see that she was scared.

"When _Frightfur Chimera_ destroys a monster by battle, I take control of-!" Sora was making an almost manically expression, when it suddenly changed to anger. "W-what's this?!"

The smoke from _Frightfur Chimera_ 's attack cleared and the pitch black dragon was still on the field, unharmed. Its owner looked forward just as surprised as the rest of us, then looked down at his Duel Disk.

"I used the effect of _**Purple-Eyes Metalegg**_." Another voice spoke up and I looked up. Standing on top of the roof of the platform, was a duelist in a red jacket and with Nightshroud's mask over its face. So that was the new form of Nightshroud that everyone was talking about…

"When a dragon monster is under attack, I can reveal _Purple-Eyes Metalegg_ from my hand to negate the destruction." Nightshroud explained and jumped down in between the Yuya look-alike and the rest of us, landing on top of an egg-shaped metal ball with spikes on the side and two purple eyes glowing through a hole at the front of it. "Afterward, _Metalegg_ Special Summons itself on my field!"

* * *

 **Purple-Eyes** **Metalegg**

 **Level:** **2** **/Attribute: DARK/Type: Dragon/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF:** **1** **800**

 **Effect:** **If a Dragon-Type monster on the field would be destroyed by battle, you can reveal this card from your hand; negate that monster's destruction, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand. You can send this face-up card you control to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Purple-Eyes" monster from your hand or Graveyard.**

* * *

"W-who the heck are you?!" Sora demanded to know, while I tried to pull Oni as far away as possible.

"Neechan, this is…"

"Yes, I know." I muttered back at Oni.

The new Nightshroud jumped off his dragon and looked around, until his mask's blue eyes meet with my own. I froze at the contact, feeling that all of the muscles in my body just gave up trying to run away. The masked guy then turned back to Sora and cracked his knuckles before replying to the Fusion Duelist's question with:

"I'm here to hunt you down."

* * *

 **Aivce: And the repviews today are for...**

 **Chapter 28: Souls of Light and Darkness**

 **Summary:** Avice who had just walked onto the duel between Yuya, Yuto, Sora and Nightshroud finds herself unwilling to face against Nightshroud and his dragon that had the power to turn others into its pawns. As Sora finds himself victim to the controlled by Nightshroud Dark Rebellion, the young Greyson finds Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph resonating with Nightshroud's deck…

 **Avice: Literally the same thing as last time, but don't worry. As per the author's rules, new reviews are going to show up in Chapter 28!**

 **Chapter** **29: What the Future Withholds**

 **Summary:** With the duel between Yugo and Yuto becoming more vicious by the second, all five duelists find themselves on the verge of losing control over their own minds. At the same time Elizabeth find herself facing against a hooded man who warns her that if she doesn't stop to follow after her siblings, in the future they will be the ones to kill her.

* * *

 **A/N: So after being away from the main attention of this story for 4 chapters, Evan is finally back and with some sort of long-term plan as well! Yay, someone is definitely going to get hurt by his actions.**

 **Surprisingly, we got many new readers on board since last chapter so let's welcome them! Thanks to** Ryo551 **and** JohanPhantom **for favoriting this story. Thanks to** Micky223 **for following. Also, big thanks to** qaws **and** FearMeHorror **for doing both!**

 **Onto the reviews:**

FearMeHorror **: You are true about that, although I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "chaotic characters" since Evan isn't trying to cause chaos. He more evil-ish than chaotic.**

ScalchopWarrior **: First, off, I want to point out that Kaito having a different deck because Dr. Faker not existing won't make any sense, since Faker is Kaito's father... I know what you wanted to say, but the way you worded it was too funny to miss the chance of laughing at it.**

 **The whole, if Nightshroud doesn't use Red-Eyes, he isn't Nightshroud anymore thing really annoys me because you seem to be mistaking the actual "Nightshroud" with Atticus. The** **"Nightshroud" I'm using in this story isn't** **Atticus - the Red-Eyes user - but the actual manifestation of Darkness which had different hosts during GX. I mean, if you look through its wikia page,** **Nightshroud has also used the "Clear" and "Darkness" archetypes as well. His deck depends on his host and right now** **Nightshroud has a different host, so that also explains where the Purple-Eyes archetype came from... His new host.**

 **"Serena is...bearable"Do you mean that Serena's deck is boring canonically, or that I sucked at portraying her using it? Context matters here!**

 **Actually, the inspiration for Yuki's deck came from the "White Night" deck that Alexis used in GX with the whole Zone manipulation thing. That probably doesn't matter much though since she used that deck for one forgettable duel and never again...**

 **So that was everything for today. A bit too short A/N? Maybe. Do I care that much about the A/N? Not anymore.** **See you guys next time and remember to F/F/R!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	28. Chapter 28

**So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Souls of Light and Darkness

Avice held Oni close to herself while her green orbs glared furiously at the new intruder. Nightshroud - the final enemy from the GX anime, a terrifying being and for some reason the current tormentor of the Greyson family. Wherever they went and whatever they did, he would usually be there as well, causing trouble for everyone involved. This time wasn't an exception either, the iconic villain was standing in front of Avice and Oni, towering above them with his red jacket fluttering against the cold night wind. Only difference this time around was that his targets weren't them.

Nightshroud glanced at the girls just to confirm that they were there before returning his attention toward his true prey. Raising his Duel Disk's blade, he raised his right hand and petted his monster's chin while staring at Sora through the lifeless blue eyes of his mask. Fusion Duelists. All of them were so arrogant, believing that they were superior, that they were invisible, yet they never proved themselves to be worth anything as duelists, even less as people. But despite how weak they were, in large numbers even insects could cause huge problems; the same logic could be applied for the Fusion Dimension. In large numbers they were all dangerous, so he choose to take them down one at a time.

"It's my turn, I draw." Nightshroud stated, taking a card from the top of his deck and adding it to the four that were already in his hand. He looked down for a few moments before taking two cards from the left side. "I play Polymerization to fuse the Purple-Eyes Metalegg on my field with Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon in my hand! The vicious dragons ruling a valley of death combine and be reborn as a new horror! Fusion Summon! Dragon with blood of purple ember, Level Eight! _Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 2500)_!"

"A Fusion Monster…" Yuto clenched his fists in anger while Sora top a step back in shock.

"You are a Fusion user?" Sora looked at Nightshroud in confusion. "Then… Why are you fighting against me?"

"I'm nothing like you." Nightshroud stated. "You are all just amateurs following blindly the blabbing of a crazy man. The only cause I serve is my own, and right now I wanted to destroy you all for what that maniac did to me!" After saying that, he turned to address Yuto. "Keep that in mind, Xyz. I'm not helping you because I feel bad about what happened to your world!"

"I didn't need the help of a Fusion user!" Yuto protested.

"Of course not." Nightshroud sighed and looked behind himself where his ace was standing still. "Are you ready, Emperor Claw?"

The Fusion monster raised its head and roared, its body emitting a strange purple aura that caused both Odd-Eyes and Dark Rebellion to roar back with a red and blue aura burning from their bodies. While the three dragons' began to resonate with one another, Avice felt a sharp pain shot through her chest and fell down on her knees.

"Neechan!" Oni put her hands on the older girl's shoulders and looked down at her.

"It's ok!" Avice muttered and looked down at her Duel Disk, a card inside of it was glowing. "S-Sola?" Avice's eyes widened, her own ace, Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph was the source of the strange light.

The young Greyson raised her head to look at the others, Nightshroud, Yuto and Yuya were all holding their chest with sweat running down their faces while the dragons' auras became stronger. Then she noticed something else, inside Nightshroud's deck, another glow was coming from his Main Deck.

"I activate _Return of the Dragon Lords_!" A spell that showed a young warrior kneeling in front of a dragon statue flashed on Nightshroud's Duel Disk. "When this card activates, I can revive a Level Seven or Eight dragon monster from my Graveyard! Rise, _Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 1200)_! Also, when Arclaw is Special Summoned, his attack and defense double!"

 **Purple-Eyes Arclaw Dragon, ATK: 1200 *2** → **2400, DEF: 1000 * 2** → **2000**

"Now for the best part!" Nightshroud gestured toward his revived monster. "I activate Arclaw's additional effect to reduce Frightfur Chimera's attack by its own!" The dragon roared and fired a blue electricity at the machine, deactivating it.

 **Frightfur Chimera, ATK: 2800** → **400**

"My monster!" Sora's eyes widened seeing his best card being overpowered so easily. "You bastard!"

"I now activate Emperor Claw's effect!" Nightshroud stated. "I release a monster whose attack is different from their original value and give that difference to my dragon's own attack power! The one I choose is obvious your own Frightfur Chimera. Tyrannical Soul Submission!" The dragon opened its mouth and fired a beam that absorbed Chimera's soul.

 **Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon, ATK: 2500 + 2400** → **4900**

"If you just attacked over my monster it would have been enough to defeat me…" Sora gritted his teeth. "You dare to play around with me like that!"

"You weren't a threat for me from the start." Nightshroud put a hand on his hips. "What I have in mind is to finish you in a more… ironic manner. Emperor Claw, attack Dark Rebellion!"

"W-what?" Avice, Yuya and Sora all exclaimed at the same time when the fusion monster suddenly turned around and fired a blast toward Yuto's monster.

"As expected from a Fusion user!" Yuto gritted his teeth and gestured toward his left where his set card flipped. "Continuous Trap activate! Phantom Fog Blade! This negates your attack and as long as I control it, Emperor Claw is unable to declare an attack!"

"That's a pointless trick." Nightshroud sighed and clicked his fingers, returning the trap to its set state, further surprising everyone watching the duel. "When Emperor Claw uses its effect to steal a monster's 'soul' it also gains its effects. Since Frightfur Chimera was able to seal your trap from activation, my Emperor Claw is now able to do the same! _**Tyrant's Power Flame**_!"

Dark Rebellion roared and charged at Emperor Claw, but the later wrapped its body around the Xyz's neck and crushed it. Yuto screamed as he was pushed back by the fusion monster's tail and his life points dropped into the red zone.

 **『** **Yuto LP: 2700 - 2400** → **300** **』**

"The effect that Emperor Claw obtained through Frightfur Chimera now activates." Nightshroud continued as a black vortex appeared behind him with a familiar silhouette inside of it. "I revive _Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (RANK.4, ATK: 2500)_! Now to finish off the trash, Dark Rebellion, finish the fusion scum! Lightning Disobey of Rebellion!"

"Sora!" Yuya screamed as the attack connected and the Fusion Duelist was send flying back by the force of the impact.

 **『** **Sora LP: 1300 - 2500** → **0** **』**

"Y-you…" Sora breathed faintly as he tried to keep his eyes on Nightshroud who stood in front of his view. "I will…" before he could finish, his Duel Disk began to glow and he vanished, leaving Yuya to fall on his knees in both confusion and despair.

"Sora…" The entertained clenched his fist and turned back to glare at Nightshroud while trying to suppress his tears. "What did you to do him!?"

"Nothing. He went back to the Fusion Dimension." Nightshroud replied calmly.

"Went back?!" Yuya didn't seem satisfied with that answer. Nightshroud turned toward Yuto and surprisingly, the Xyz Duelist seemed to agree wordlessly.

"He was originally a person from that world." Yuto stated.

"That world…?" Yuya's eyes narrowed.

"He's telling the truth." Avice walked forward and put a hand on Yuya's shoulder. "You might not want to believe it, it's really crazy I agree, but we already found plenty of evidence that this is possible. Just think about it, if Sora and Kurosaki's hatred was because of a school rivalry, you would have heard about it before."

"I can't believe that!" Yuya shook his head. "You are telling me that there are other words that this one!? Just tell them to give Sora back! He was injured after his duel with Kurosaki!"

"You won't have to worry about that." Yuto told him calmly. "Academia should have their own doctors."

"Just what the heck is Academia?!"

Both Yuto and Nightshroud clenched their fists as the bad memories connected to that name resurfaced into their heads. There was no way. Neither of them could ever forgive the monstrosities that Academia caused!

"Academia is a training school for Duel Soldiers in the Fusion Dimension!" Yuto stated boldly, causing Yuya to freeze in shook at the revelation.

"There's no point in continuing this duel any longer." Nightshroud sighed and turned back at Yuto. "Sorry for the dragon, but I didn't have any Xyz monsters to finish that bastard off with."

Yuto just seemed to nod in agreement. "This duel no longer has any reason to continue. I activate the Quick-Play Spell: Emergency Provisions! I send any number of Spell or Trap Cards that I control to the Graveyard in order to recover a thousand Life Points for each." The two traps that he had on his field vanished as Yuto's Life Points recovered. "And I end my turn."

 **『** **Yuto LP: 300 + 2000** → **2300** **』**

"But if you do that, I can attack you directly with my Odd-Eyes and defeat you!" Yuya pointed out. The Xyz Duelist was leaving himself wide open for Yuya to attack!

"If you want to, then do it." Yuto stated calmly, surprising Yuya.

"There's no way I could!" The entertainer shouted and pulled his Main Deck out of the Duel Disk, deactivating it.

"Finally a smart move." Nightshroud sighed and pulled his deck out as well with Yuto following suit. Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon both disappeared.

"You said that Sora would be the first step in destroying the Fusion Dimension." Yuya reminded Yuto of his early words. "But with Sora disappearing like that, aren't you relieved somewhere deep down? Even back in your Duel with him, you would have won if you used two Overlay Units… But you tried to finish it using only one to destroy Sora's monster. Could it be that you really don't want to fight?"

As Yuya questioned his look-alike, Nightshroud stepped toward Avice and Oni. The Greyson kept the little girl behind herself and raised her Duel Disk, ready to fight if necessary. However, what happened next surprised the both. Nothing. Nightshroud stopped and just looked at them without anything indicating that he meant to harm them. He looked to be in complete peace of mind for some unknown reason.

"I didn't came here for you." Nightshroud stated calmly. "Truth is, I did, in fact, meet with your brother earlier today, we made a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Avice narrowed her eyes. She couldn't believe that Evan would accept a deal with someone who tried to kill him just a few nights earlier like that. "And if what you said was true, then why did you attack my sister after that, huh? Any excuse to defend your action with, or?"

"I didn't want to fight her, but she attack me on her own so I defended myself." Nightshroud shrugged. "As for the deal, it's not your place to worry about that, little one. It's something between him and me, but as a result, I won't hurt any of you, unless you provoke me."

Avice looked down and thought about it, despite what she told Nightshroud, it was absolutely in Evan's nature to make a deal with someone that tried to kill him once, heck, he would probably even sell his own soul to the devil without a second thought if in return for that, he was going to win something. Plus, if Nightshroud was lying, he would have attacked her and Oni by now, but instead, the masked duelist was standing there, waiting to see if she would believe in his words or not. For the moment, that was enough of a proof that they were no longer enemies.

"I believe you then." Avice nodded and Nightshroud's lips curved up a little into a smile.

Just then, a green light flashed in front of everyone and they all turned toward it, only to see someone wearing a white suit with a similar helmet, riding a motorbike. He also seemed to have hit a streetlamp and caused it to collapse on the ground.

"Damnit, what's this thing doing here!? Jeez…" the newcomer cursed and removed his helmet, revealing his face which looked exactly like that of Yuya and Yuto.

"You're!" Yuto spoke first, catching the new Yuya look-alike's attention.

"Ah! You're!" the riding duelist's eyes widened as well, realizing who he was looking at. "It's finally time for me to finish you! I've been looking for you!"

"Why does he have the same face as me too?" Yuya protested while Nightshroud, Avice and Oni looked from the sides. Just as things turned a bit for the better, they were going to get much worse than originally.

* * *

"Come on, can't you slow down a little bit!" Elizabeth protested as she was forced to follow after Ventus. Since he was a ninja and she not, the difference in their stamina was obvious.

"Huh? You are tired already?" Ventus titled his head to the side, confused. "But we searched only half of the city."

"Half the freaking city!" Elizabeth yelled back at him. "We even looked at areas that Yuzu and Gongenzaka have searched through!"

"Better safe than sorry." Ventus shrugged.

"You not-so-little piece of-" Elizabeth was about to give Ventus the cursing of his life time, when she was stopped by noticing something not too far away from them. It was a human, or so it appeared, she couldn't tell because of the huge cloak and hood that kept its identity hidden. "Who are you?"

The unknown figure didn't respond and instead it raising its left hand which had a strange metal wristband with a deck. It flashed and a curled dark blue blade with a pattern on each side burst to life. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and reached back for her own Duel Disk. That would be perfect, she still lacked a win in a one-on-one duel, so this could as well be the turning point for her win/lose ratio. Or so she thought until Ventus activated his own Duel Disk, linking it with that of the unknown intruder.

"What the heck?" Elizabeth called out. "This one was mine!"

"You shouldn't waste your time with this!" Ventus exclaimed and turned back to look at Elizabeth with a smile on his face. "You got a friend whose whereabouts are unknown, go look for him while I take care of this guy or gal's problem!"

"Ventus…" Elizabeth's eyes widened softly hearing his words. She smiled back and nodded, agreeing with the ninja. "Thanks. And don't lose!"

"Don't worry, I won't!" Ventus replied and turned back to face his opponent. "Let's duel!"

 **『** **Ventus LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Unknown LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Elizabeth Greyson!" a female's voice called out for the girl before she could move too far away from where Ventus was dueling.

The girl turned around to face the person that called out her name, only to find that the huge buildings and the dark streets she was running through were replaced by huge green trees. It took her only a moment to realize that she was in the park, which also begged the question about how the heck she went from being with Ventus to being alone in a park in the matter of a few moments. Of course, saying that she was alone wouldn't be fair because there was another person with her, one that wore the same hood and strange Duel Disk as Ventus' opponent, but the body build was different, much taller.

"Are you the one that called out for me?" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and cautiously reached behind herself to grab her Duel Disk.

"Indeed, it was me." The hooded woman raised her hands to grab the hood and pulled it down. Long blond hair fell to her lower back and pale blue eyes stared at Elizabeth's darker ones "My name is Solar and I came here to warn you."

"Warn me?" That caught Elizabeth's attention. Usually people with hoods like Solar's wanted to attack people, not warn them. That's what animes told her at least.

"Yes, you must give up on your siblings and leave this world." Solar told her.

"Give up on Evan and Avice?" Yeah, so much about possible listening to the warning, it was officially off the table. "Why would I do that?"

"It's crucial to abandon them for your own survival." Solar ran a hand through her own golden hair. "You had visions about what a future in which you remain by their side would look like, don't you? The power that they hold is something suitable only for a god, no, it's something that only a whole pantheon could control! Your siblings lack any sort of empathy toward the human kind, they despise it, want to burn it all to the ground and if you remain here, that's exactly what's going to happen. Everybody here is going to die by their hands, you included!"

"If your problem is with my siblings, then why don't you talk with them about it instead?" Elizabeth waved her arm to the side.

"You don't have to worry about that." Solar replied. "I will deal with the main problem once I make sure that you are at a safe distance from both of them!"

"Deal?" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, she had a bad feeling about what that woman meant with those words. The Greyson took her Duel Disk and put it on her arm, activating it. "I won't allow you to hurt my brother and sister!"

"Then I must apologize in advantage." Solar bowed and activated her own Duel Disk. "Because I will have to use force."

"Duel!" Both of them cried out.

 **『** **Solar LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Elizabeth LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" Solar declared and took a car from her hand. "As I control no monsters, I can Normal Summon _**Spirit of Grelyson - Springer**_ without a tribute!" Multiple black cubes of various sized flew together, creating a somewhat humanoid looking monster with long limbs. The top of its head had the appearance of a peaked cap and there were blue circuit lines, like the ones on Fragments, covering its whole body. A single blue circle was located on the front of its face acting like an eye.

* * *

 **Spirit of Grelyson - Springer**

 **Level:** **8** **/Attribute:** **LIGHT** **/Type:** **Machine** **/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF:** **0**

 **Effect:** **If you control no monsters, or all monsters you control are "Grelyson" monsters, you can Normal Summon this card without Tributing. If this card is used for a Xyz Summon of a LIGHT monster, you can treat it as 2 monsters.**

* * *

" _I have never seen a monster like this before."_ Yuki commented from inside Elizabeth's head.

" _And those lines… It reminds me too much of a Fragment."_ Hema added.

"So you Normal Summoned a Level Eight without a release? But its attack and defense are both zero so it must have an effect, right?" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes waiting to hear the rest of that monster's abilities.

"You are quick to catch up." Solar almost chuckled there, but she managed to keep her serious face. "But now, I'm going to show you a power that expands through timelines! When Spirit of Grelyson – Springer is used as Xyz Material for the summoning of a light monster, it can count as two monsters!" The strange machine split into two and they shot into the sky. "Twin hopes sleeping in my memory! Pierce the rivers of darkness separating the lights and make them one! Xyz Summons! Come forth, Number 38! _Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy (RANK: 8, ATK: 3000)_!" A huge dragon made from blue energy tear through the summoning vortex and flew behind its Summoner, roaring at Elizabeth.

"A Number!" Elizabeth gulped. Those monsters, her brother once told her about them and how overpowered some were in the anime.

"Judging by your expression, it seems like you are you familiar with numbers' nature, aren't you?" Solar ran a hand through her hair once again. "I end my turn here. Poor thing, I can't imagine how you must feel, knowing that you are going to lose before your first turn has even started."

* * *

Inside Academia things weren't all peaceful either. The moment Sora returned, his wounded body was moved to be treated and his memories read while the duelist was still unconscious. Quite the fuss was going on back and forth along with rumors that the Professor was preparing a secret invasion against Standard, however, a certain few individuals didn't care much about either of that.

Using the darker corridors in order to not draw much attention, three duelists were making their way toward one of the many laboratories inside Academia's main buildings. From the last to the first, there was Hikaru who was right following after a boy dressed in black and gold medieval knight-esque armor and a floor-length red cape, both of which, in turn, were called by a large muscular man in a blue uniform. Many of the students of Academia called than man by his infamous nickname - Professor Cobra.

"So, it's finally starting, huh?" Hikaru sighed and put his hands behind his head. "We are invading Standard?"

"It's best if all of that waiting was worth it." the duelist in knight armor spoke in a monotone tone.

"We aren't going to invade Standard." Professor Cobra corrected them. "According to the Professor, Standard isn't an enemy, he's just going to displace a special squad to capture someone who he needs for his… experiment."

"So, we are going to be a part of that special squad then?" Hikaru asked.

"Incorrect again." Professor Cobra opened a door that lead toward a lab.

Standing inside was a rather tall man with a dark skin and extremely short green hair with black goggles over his eyes and a white lab coat. The strange professor was looking at a large tank filled with a liquid and a not fully developed humanoid creature floating inside of it. His name was Doctor Polk.

"Aha, now I get what's all of this about." Hikaru waved a finger. "What's up doc, still watching this… Ugh, disgusting thing?"

"What you call a disgusting thing is going to become one of, if not the most powerful human in around a week." Doctor Polk told him. "Better hope that he won't be able to hear you."

"You are sure that it's going be a male?" Hikaru asked with a small smirk earning himself a glare from the doctor.

"It was predetermined by fate many years ago." Polk replied and turned around to face and the other guests. "I got a special mission for the usual group, could you contact the others?"

"Kaiser Ryo isn't here at the moment, but I'm going to let him know when he shows up." Professor Cobra told her and turned around, walking out of the room.

"So, do you want them dead or alive?" the knight in black armor asked.

"I simply want you to test them out." Polk answered. "See how strong they truly are, I'm sure that the True Darkness, even in its undeveloped state, is going to be more than a match up for your Gentle Darkness, Supreme King."

"Tch." The Supreme King clicked his tongue and walked around the lab to see if there was anything noteworthy there.

"So, is that everything?" Hikaru asked.

"I figured out that you might take something with yourselves on the mission." Polk turned back and made a gesture with his fingers. Out of the darkness inside the laboratory walked a girl with green hair and eyes, her only piece of cloth being a long white coat. "If it's not much of a haste for you, could you take her as well? She still hasn't had her field test yet."

"Wow." Hikaru muttered and walked past the girl, looking her up. "So one of them has already grown up? But, she looks a lot as a girl that appeared inside Sora's memories."

"That's the mystery of Light and Darkness, since they already choose their hosts, every time I choose to create artificial ones, the new ones will end up looking almost the same as the original." Polk explained. "Because of that, I'm going to need a blood sample of Darkness host in order to accelerate the completion of my second masterpiece."

"How are you going to call this one then?" Hikaru asked while poking the girl's cheeks. She however, didn't seem to react at all despite how annoying the boy was.

"Do you remember what the girl from Sora's memories was called?"

"I think it was Avice or something. Why?"

"Then Evice would work."

* * *

 **(Omake... Sort of?)**

 **Remaining Safe**

Miami City, a place once boiling with life was reduced to nothing more than ruins of buildings. The mighty tower of Leo Corporation that once stood as a monument of the town was completely devastated. The sun that shone brightly above the small utopia was turned into a black cloud that hung above the dark dystopia. Those who had survived the initial destruction were hiding inside holes as to not get any unwanted attention. The only sound that reigned in that dark city of despair and death was the soft wind and a certain someone's lunatic laugh.

"Who's your God now? Hahahahahaha!" Evan, who was standing on top the remains of Leo Corporation asked mockingly, as if knowing that there were still living humans to hear him.

"What the heck are you doing?" Elizabeth crossed her arms and looked around. Her attention was directed toward a skyscraper whose foundations were destroyed by the ChronoDevil monsters that caused it to collapse on top of a kindergarten.

"Hahaha- I'm… I'm laughing at those weaklings! Hahahaha! It's so funny!" Evan shouted back before returning to his lunatic laughter.

"You threw a building on top of another building that was filled with children!" Elizabeth yelled at her brother. "People died, children died. That's not funny!"

"I know, it's hilarious." And back to the lunatic laugh he returned.

Elizabeth stared at her brother with the most serious expression that a human could muster. She was going to show him how funny a tragedy could be. Slowly the scenario of the destroyed Miami City started to become foggy and fade away, but Elizabeth's serious expression didn't change even as she found herself lying down on her bed, inside their apartment, the lights of the still intact Miami City glowing against her window.

"I'm going to teach you funny." Sitting up, Elizabeth took her phone and began to look through her contacts. Yuya Sakaki, Reiji Akaba, Yuzu Hiiragi, Noboru Gongenzaka, Seto Kaiba, Shingo Sawatari, Sora Shiunin… And there it was! The number that would cause Evan nightmares! She quickly clicked the call button and waited for the person on the other side to pick up. And the name of the contact was…

…Solar.

* * *

 **Avice: Oh, you are back? Good, because we just got our new stock of previews! Originally there were supposed to be five new ones, but the author cut them to just three due to spoilers, so shhhh!**

 **Chapter** **29: What the Future Withholds**

 **Summary:** With the duel between Yugo and Yuto becoming more vicious by the second, all five duelists find themselves on the verge of losing control over their own minds. At the same time Elizabeth find herself facing against Solar who warns her that if she doesn't stop to follow after her siblings, in the future they will be the ones to kill her.

 **Avice: Yeah, that one was here for a while, nothing new, but at least we know now that Elizabet his facing against a Number! Also a mistake originally said that she was facing a man, whoops.**

 **Chapter** **30** **:** **Golden Doors and Broken Words**

 **Summary:** After the duel between Yugo and Yuto concludes, a bright light engulfs the area and the Greysons find themselves in a place they have never seen before – a destroyed world existing between the dimensions with a golden castle in the sky above it. The siblings set out to find a way toward the strange castle, but at the same time, unknown creatures lurk in the ruining world waiting for them…

 **Avice: Someone remember Chapter 25 of Arc-Twins? Yeah, that's pretty much it.**

 **Chapter 31: Legion of Corrupt Souls – Coregirum**

Summary: As Graild, one of the three guardians of the Pendulum of Destiny explained the siblings the fate of the "Original Dimension" Berberus, one of the sapient Fragments created after its destruction invades the Sanctuary demanding the destruction of the newcomers. In order to save his sisters' lives, Evan takes on a duel against the strange creature, however he soon find himself overwhelmed by Berberus' Coregirum deck.

 **Avice: Ah, about time for my brother to get a duel, thanks that you didn't forget about him, writer!**

 **Chapter 32: Ashed Land of Kings and Queens**

Summary: With his vicious strategies and combos Berberus manages to quickly overwhelm Evan's ChronoDevils and drives him into a corner. Seeing the boy pushed to his limits, Graild tells the siblings about the one who gave the beginning of the Original Dimension's destruction. Remember a moment from his own past, Evan allows his darkness to consume him and unleashes a fierce comeback.

 **Avice: Interesting trivia, but the "** **Queens" in the title refers to me. The reason why it's in plural is because I'm so good that being just A Queen isn't enough. I'm ALL the Queens!**

* * *

 **A/N: So, that's it for today, not much really happened in this chapter, but it was meant to be mostly building up for the next few chapters, so that's why it's so short. Next one is going to definitely be a lot longer since I'm going to have Ventus' and Elizabeth's duels in it. I wonder if giving a detailed** **description of Yuto vs Yugo would be necessary since it's going to be mostly the same as canon... Probably not.**

 **Anyways, I know from experience that asking you guys for an opinion never really works out for me, but I'm going to try anyways. Since this chapter reveal some of the GX characters that are going to have their time in this fanfiction, I was wondering, which characters from ZEXAL would you like to see? I already got plans for 5D's, and I don't want to spoil anything, but you are most likely going to see a second pair of twins in this story when we get to the Synchro Arc, hehe. I also got plans for ZEXAL as well, but they aren't so sure, which is why I wondered what you guys might expect from there. Also, just for research, would a somewhat of a romantic relationship between Evan and Rio Kamishiro be out of place?**

 **Also, there is a chance that I'm going to start another YGO story some time soon, so I wanted to tell you about it. That one is going to be a completely original one though and will feature most of my already existing OCs like Evan, Avice and Roxy. Not much to say about that project except that it's going to most likely be published in either the Arc-V/Vrains crossover tab or the Duel Monster tab, so look out for it!**

 **Anyways, I want to thanks to** sggharris **for following and favoriting this story!**

 **Also, a response to our review from** ScalchopWarrior **: Aww, I'm sure that Evan loves you too! As for the** **"A bit curious as to why Sora didn't get warped back to Fusion like in canon" part, you didn't really miss anything, I just wanted to use this as a chance to show how awesome Emperor Claw was and have Nightshroud curb stomp Sora with Dark Rebellion... Sorry not sorry.**

 **I understand where you come from with** **Nightshroud and Red-Eyes being his signature deck, but things are going to get much more clear once the Battle Royale begins and my Neo New** **Nightshroud using Purple-Eyes would make as much sense as what I told you about him changing hosts.**

 **Ah, also...**

 **#** **ROXANNETOBECANCELED**

 **That's all I got to say for today. Before I leave though, I want to say a few words about the great numbers when it comes to the** **Traffic Graph of this story. THANK YOU GUYS FOR IT! I always put follow/favorite/review at the end because seeing you invest into this story encourages me to write more of it, but the truth is that only seeing that some of you spent some of their time to read a chapter or two of it, really touches my heart! Thank you all for it!**

 **Avice: And kisses from me!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice Out!**


	29. Chapter 29

**So many reasons we believe** **,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart** **.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world** **,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth"** **,**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take** **,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way** **.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue** **.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us** **.**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes** **!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery** **!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you** **!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread** **,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and_ _Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls** **!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

What the Future Withholds

 **Avice's POV**

"Ah… Ha…" After Yuya's second look-alike showed up my body started to feel like it was on fire. I clutched my chest and tried to focus even though my vision started to get blurry. That look-alike must have a dragon as well, its presence was probably the reason why my body and my Astral Angel cards were reacting like this. All of their voices meet inside my head, I could hear Odd-Eyes, Dark Rebellion and another voice all calling out toward me, trying to order me around. Or, was that their way to beg for help?

" _Little one, give us the power of darkness again!"_

" _Make us one again!"_

" _We want to be whole again!"_

They keep asking me fuse them together, make them whole, but I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Their voices just kept echoing inside my head, like whispers from a long forgotten nightmare. In return to their request I could feel that my Astral Angels were feeling a very strong condemnation toward the monsters. My cards… they seemed to believe that Odd-Eyes, Dark Rebellion and the other one were all too weak and didn't deserve any help. Well, I had to agree there, if you are a dragon and you got to beg a human for help, then you are a very pathetic excuse for a monster.

"Are you feeling it as well?" I glanced at Nightshroud. The masked man had a bit of sweat dropping from his chin, was he affected by the dragons the same way as me? But why?

"What is all of this?" I demanded to know. Why was I the one feeling the dragons' emotions and not Yuya or his look-alikes? Wait, didn't a similar thing happen in my brother's duel with Yuya, so Odd-Eyes and his friends, they want help from both of us.

" _It's too early for you to learn the details about it."_ Sola's spirit formed next to me and crossed her arms. _"All that matters is that there is a dark presence within Yuya and his counterparts and their dragons are trying to awake it. All we must do is stay away and let the monsters do their stuff."_

' _A dark presence?'_ I thought before turning to look at the three. While I was thinking about the dragons, Yuto and the other guy have already started a duel and the guy with the motorbike already controlled a Synchro with 2200 ATK. _'Shouldn't it be better if we, you know, stop that dark presence from awaking instead of helping it out?'_

" _No, that won't be a good idea."_ Sola shook her head. _"I have known these dragons since they were wyverns, and I also know what the dark presence is. All you gotta do is trust me on it."_

' _Screw that! If it's such a positive thing to let the dark presence has its way, then why don't you give me the details, huh?'_ How was I supposed to believe my spirits if they won't tell me what they know. _'I… I don't like Yuya, but I don't want him to get hurt because of me! Do you at least understand that!?'_

"It seems there isn't much that I could do here." Nightshroud said from beside me and turned around to leave.

"Wait! Are you going to leave them like this?!" I shouted after him and pointed at the three doppelgangers. "There is a dark presence inside of them, don't you need to feed on it in order to survive?"

Nightshroud turned his head a little to look back at me and I winched a little. His dark mask was scaring me every time I saw it. After a while of us staring at each other, he turned his head back and kept walking. So, I was left to deal with all of this chaos, huh? Neither of my Astral Angels seemed to desire the cancellation of this duel, so even if I tried to interfere my deck wasn't going to support that decision and I would only end up getting destroyed by the doppelgangers and their monsters. Speaking of which, their duel was getting fiercer with the second.

"Take seventeen hundred points of piercing damage!" the D-Wheeler shouted as his Synchro slammed its blade into the ground next to Yuto, causing the Xyz Duelist to scream as his body was launched into the air along with the debris.

 **『** **Yuto LP: 3500 - 1700** → **1800** **』**

"What a shockwave!" I had to agree with Yuya there, normal Solid Vision wasn't supposed to create so much damage, even during Action Duels. Well, at least the one in this dimension.

"I set one card and end my turn." The two duelist didn't even seem to be noticing that Yuya was there. They must be putting all of their focus on that duel…

After the Synchro guy ended his turn, Yuto didn't keep up from the ground. He was lying there and the pained expression on his face showed that it must have hurt him a lot. The Xyz Duelist kept his teeth gritted and I could only guess that he was doing it as to not scream how much pain that attack caused.

"Yuto!" I tilted my head toward Yuya. The Pendulum Duelist ran toward his Xyz counterpart. Seriously, his soft heart was only going to get him into trouble.

I also just remembered, where the heck is my brother?! We were supposed to get here at around the same time and yet, he hasn't shown despite how much time has passed.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Hey, where the heck did you took Eliz?" Ventus shouted at the hooded person before him, but his opponent didn't reply. "Tch, you aren't going to talk? Fine then! I'm taking the first turn!" The ninja duelist looked at the cards in his hand for a moment before taking two of them. "I set a monster and another card. That's going to be my turn!"

"Then it's my turn." The hooded person stated and drew his sixth card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Unknown] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Geargiauger (Lv.4, ATK: 500)_ and activate its effect! When it's summoned, Geargiauger can add a Level Four or lower EARTH Machine from my deck to the hand! I add _Geargiaccelerator (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_ and Special Summon it by its own effect!" In an instant a green drill driven by a gear and a sport car driven by the same kind of machine appeared on the hooded person's field. "I now overlay my Level Four GeargiaugerandGeargiaccelerator! Xyz Summon! _Gear Gigant X (RANK: 4, ATK: 2300)_!"

"I activate Gear Gigant X's effect!" the hooded person continued. "I use one Xyz Material to add a Level Four or lower Machine to my hand. I choose Geargiarmor. Next, I'll attack your set monster with Gear Gigant X!" The monster jumped and threw its fist toward the set card. It turned face-up transforming into a white dog with armor.

'Heh, you fell for it!" Ventus rubbed the edge of his nose. "When Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter is flipped, I can destroy a card on your field! The only one you currently have is Gear Gigant X so obviously, I'm going to choose it!"

The dog jumped onto the robot, biting onto its shoulder. The machine threw its head back and exploded taking Ventus' monster with itself. The hooded duelist gritted their teeth in annoyance while Ventus smirked a little bit and reached toward his deck.

"Ryko's second effect activates upon being flipped face-up as well. I send the top three cards of my deck to the Graveyard." Ventus took the top three cards of his deck and slide it into the Graveyard. "Now the effects of both _Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden_ and _Felis, Lightsworn Archer_ activate! First, Miverva sends the top card of my deck to the Graveyard and then Felis' effect lets me Special Summon her from the Graveyard, since she was sent there from my deck."

Ventus got rid of one more card from his deck while an animal-girl with a bow appeared on his field with 2000 defense. The other duelist simply moved to grab another card from their hand.

"I set two cards and end my turn!" the duelist finished with two cards appearing by their feet.

"That's all?" Ventus asked a little… disappointed. Usually, when someone that hide their identity attacked the protagonist in an anime, that unknown attacker was a strong foe. "I guess that means it's my turn then. I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Ventus] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner (Lv.3, ATK: 1000)_!" a woman in a white dress appeared on Ventus' field. "Lumina's effect activates! I discard a card to Special Summon a Level Four or lower Lightsworn from my Graveyard! I choose _Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_!" Two blue orbs formed in Lumina's hands and she threw them at the ground. A lightning bolt fell from the sky and Raiden formed in its place, kneeling on the ground.

"But that's not all!" Ventus continued and gestured toward his warrior. "Once per turn, Raiden lets me send the top two cards of my deck to the Graveyard and if I send a Lightsworn it gain two hundred attack." Ventus took the top cards of his deck a little cautiously, but soon his eyes lightened up after he realized what cards he got. "Yes, I activate the effect of _Wulf, Lightsworn Beast (Lv.4, ATK: 2100)_ to Special Summon it from my Graveyard since it was sent there from the deck! Also, Raiden still gains two hundred points of attack."

 **Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn, ATK: 1700** → **1900**

"Let's go now! I tune the Level Four Felis, Lightsworn Archer to the Level Three, Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner!" the animal-girl turned into four green rings that flew around Lumina and a beam of light shot through them. "Synchro Summon! Come out! Level Seven - _Michael, the Arch-Lightsworn (Lv.7, ATK: 2600)_!"

"Tch." The unknown Duelist clicked his tongue. Out of all the possible opponents and decks, he had to face against a Lightsworn duelist.

"Next, I the Level Four Raiden, Hand of Lightsworn to the Level Four, Wulf, Lightsworn Beast!" A second beam of light followed with another knight showing up. "Synchro Summon! Come out! Level Eight - _Avenging Knight Parshath (Lv.8, ATK: 2600)_!"

"Are you going to talk now?" Ventus kicked the air like he was aiming for the unnamed Duelist. His opponent however choose to remain silent. "So be it then. I activate Michael's effect! I can pay a thousand Life Points to banish one of your cards! I choose your left facedown!"

 **『** **Ventus LP: 4000 - 1000** → **3000** **』**

The hooded Duelist looked down at their card and then pressed a button on their Duel Disk. "I'm going to activate it." The Trap Card, _Geargiagear_ flipped face-up on the opponent's field. "When this card is activated, I can Special Summon two Geargiano from my deck! Come out, _Geargiano (LV. 3, DEF: 500)_ and _Geargiano Mk-III (LV. 3, DEF: 1000)_!" Two gears with cartoon eyes and hands appeared on the field with a blue aura around them, meaning that they were in defense position.

"So, I went for the wrong one, huh?" Ventus rubbed his chin in thought.

"Geargiano Mk-III's effect activates." The hooded Duelist continued. "When its Special Summoned, I can revive a Geargia monster from my Graveyard, as long as its effects are negated. Come out, _Geargiaccelerator (Lv.4, DEF: 800)_! Then, due to the effect of Geargiagear, the Geargiano monsters I summoned have their levels increased by one!"

 **Geargiano, Lv. 3** → **4**

 **Geargiano Mk-III, Lv. 3** → **4**

"Heh, nice try." Ventus smirked and crossed his arms. "You probably plan to Xyz Summon a Rank Four on your next turn, But I got two monsters so I can get rid of two materials right now! Let's go! Avenging Knight Parshath, attack Geargiano Mk-III!" The Synchro monster jumped in front of the gear and slashed it with its sword. "Further, when Avenging Knight Parshath attacks a Defense Position monster, you take piercing damage!"

 **『** **Unknown LP: 4000 - 2100** → **1900** **』**

"Then, Michael with destroy the original Geargiano!" Ventus pushed his fist forward and the Lightsworn Synchro charged toward the remaining gear.

"Trap Activate!" The hooded Duelist gestured toward his second set card, which was… "Dimensional Prison lets me banish your attacking monster!"

"Uh, oh." Ventus' eyes widened slightly as a black vortex appeared on the field and sucked his monster inside of , the Arch-Lightsworn had the ability to recover both Life Points and recycle cards when it gets destroyed, so banishing it would cause problems for Ventus and his deck. "Then I'm going to set a card and end my turn!"

"Hmm, that was quite the weak turn for a Tracer." The Duelist replied. "I expected more than just this."

"A Lightsworn's deck main and only gimmick is to mill itself until someone drops death, so I'm not sure what exactly your expectations were." Ventus sighed and looked down at his cards. One of his sets should be enough to keep his alive for the next turn and the other… Well, let's just say that it was going to be the card that would decide the outcome of this duel…

"My turn, draw!" the hooded Duelist drew his next card.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Unknown] LP: 1900, Hand: 5** **』**

"I now overlay my Level Four Geargiano andGeargiaccelerator! Xyz Summon! _Gear Gigant X (RANK: 4, ATK: 2300)_!" A second copy of the familiar machine-type monster appeared and pushed its left fist forward. "Next, it's effect activates! I detach a Xyz Material to add Geargiano MK-II to my hand and then I Normal Summon it! Geargiano MK-II's effect lets me Special Summon _Geargiarmor (Lv.4, DEF: 1900)_ from my hand!" A monster wearing heavy defensive armor appeared next to the smaller one and hit its shields against the hard ground.

"Special Summoning as many monsters as possible for Xyz plays? Your deck is pretty lineal, my dude." Ventus pointed out. "It isn't an interesting game when all the opponent's cards have almost the same effects."

"I'm not done!" The unknown Duelist shouted, mildly annoyed. "I activate Transmodify to release Geargiano MK-II's and Special Summon _Geargiauger (Lv.4, ATK: 500)_ from my deck!"

 **Geargiano Mk-III, Lv. 3** → **4**

"I overlay my Level Four GeargiarmorandGeargiauger! Xyz Summon! _Gear Gigant X (RANK: 4, ATK: 2300)_!" the third and final copy of the Rank 4 Xyz appeared beside its counterpart. ""Its effect activates! I detach a Xyz Material to add another copy of Geargiaugerto my hand! Finally, I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Geargia Change! With it, I Special Summon Geargiano, Geargiano MK-II and Geargiano MK-III to then overlay all three of them! Xyz Summon! _Geargiagear Gigant XG (RANK: 3, ATK: 2500)_!"

"So that's your boss monster?" Ventus looked the giant up and down. "But I won't just stand around and wait for you to enter the Battle Phase where its effects are useful! Trap Open, Glorious Illusion! This trap has the effect to revive a monster that's currently in my Graveyard, so raise up, _Celestia, Lightsworn Angel (Lv. 5, ATK: 2300)_!"

"What the?! When did that monster get in the Graveyard?" Ventus hadn't used it before so… Of course! He must have milled it with one of the Lightsworn's effects during the previous turn.

"That's a really pointless question." Ventus shook his head. "But it's still your turn, so…"

"I equip _Gravity Blaster_ to one of myGear Gigant X, raising its attack power by four hundred points, making it stronger than your Synchro monster!" The duelist declared.

 **Gear Gigant X, ATK: 2300** **\+ 400** → **2700**

"Let's battle! I attack Avenging Knight Parshath with my powered-up Gear Gigant X!" the machine jumped in front of its opponent and slammed its metal fist into the fairy's chest, destroying it.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 3000 - 100** → **2900** **』**

"Next, Geargiagear Gigant XG is going to attackCelestia, Lightsworn Angel!" The giant pulled out its blaster and fired a straight shot, piercing the angel's body. An explosion followed shortly after, pushing Ventus back.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 2900 - 200** → **2700** **』**

"And finally, my last Gear Gigant X is going to attack you directly!" the last Xyz monster jumped in front of Ventus and threw its metal fist forward. Only, instead of taking it, the ninja duelist grabbed the machine's arm mid-air, stopping it.

"Heh, not a bad turn." Ventus smiled while his Life Points dropped.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 2700 - 2300** → **400** **』**

"I guess, I should get a little bit serious during the next turn, right?" Ventus tilted his head to the side in thought and then pushed the Xyz Monster back. "But now that you made all of your plays, it's going to be my turn, right?"

"Tch." The hooded Duelist looked down at his cards on last time before dropping his head in defeat. "T-turn end."

 **『** **Turn 5 [Ventus] LP: 400, Hand: 2** **』**

The ninja Duelist looked at the card that he drew for a moment, before he took the other one and played it instead. "I Normal Summon my second _Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner (Lv.3, ATK: 1000)_!" the familiar monster appeared on Ventus' field and summoned two blue orbs in her hands. "Lumina's effect activates! As you already know, I discard a card to Special Summon a Level Four or lower Lightsworn from my Graveyard! I choose _Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_!"

"Talking about lineal playstyle, this is exactly the same play that you made last turn." The hooded Duelist mocked.

"But I'm going to do things a little differently this time!" Ventus declared and pointed at his last set card. "I activate the Trap, Lightsworn Judgment! When this card is activated, I put it on the top of my deck and if I so happen to mill it, I will be able to add Judgment Dragon straight from my deck to the hand!"

"Lightsworns' have the ability to mill several cards during the End Phase, is that what you are hoping onto?"

"Nope." Ventus shook his head. "Remember, Raiden's effect lets me mill two cards right now! So, let's do it!" Ventus took two cards from his deck and send them to the Graveyard. "I activate Lightsworn Judgment's effect to add Judgment Dragon to my hand! Also, the second card that I milled wasWulf, Lightsworn Beast and its effect allows me to Special Summon it from my Graveyard!"

"Now, I'm going to Overlay my Level FourRaiden, Hand of the Lightsworn and Wulf, Lightsworn Beast to Xyz Summon, _Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn (RANK: 4, ATK: 2000)_! Her effect activates as well! I detach a Xyz Material to send the top three cards of my deck to the Graveyard. For every Lightsworn that I set, I get to draw a card! The ones I got are… Solar Recharge, Light Spiral and Lightsworn Sabre!"

"So, you got rid of three cards from your deck just to draw a card?" The hooded Duelist asked. He was confused, Ventus' deck has gotten very thin already, probably half of it was gone to the Graveyard at that point.

"One card is all that I need!" Ventus said. "First, Lightsworn Sabre's effect activates when its sent to the Graveyard, so it equips itself toMinerva, the Exalted Lightsworn, boosting her attack by seven hundred!" A blade made from blue light appeared in the Xyz Monster's hand as she swung it a few times to test it out.

 **Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn** **, ATK: 2** **0** **00** **\+ 700** → **2700**

"When there are four or more Lightsworn monsters with different names in my Graveyard I can Special Summon _Judgment Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!" The white dragon appeared behind Ventus and the other Lightsworn monsters, roaring. "And now, let's great the special star for today's show!"

"S-Special star?" underneath the hood, the opponent's eyes widened hearing that declaration.

"Yep, I return a card from my hand to the top of my deck in order to Special Summon the _Plaguespreader Zombie (Lv.2, ATK: 400)_ that was resting within my Graveyard!" A black portal appeared before Ventus and the decaying creature raised from it, emitting a pained moan as it moved beside the Lightsworn monsters.

"A DARK Zombie? Why the heck are you using such a card in a Lightsworn based deck?" the Duelist asked.

"Because it's fitting?" Ventus shrugged. "Did you forget that I'm a Tracer? Our skills and knowledge about the far surpass that of the regular Duelists! We are able to see the true consistency between cards that goes beyond the archetype they are part of! And that's exactly the kind of power that will allow my Judgment Dragon to evolve through the darkness and obtain the power to cast its judgment on you! I tune my Level TwoPlaguespreader Zombie to my Level Eight Judgment Dragon!"

The zombie leaned its head forward and its body turned into two purple rings that flew into the sky. Judgment Dragon roared and flew through them, transforming into eight stars that then turned into a beam of light.

"Roll back the tide of the dead and emerge from the river of grief that flows through the underworld! Synchro Summon! _Dragocytos Corrupted Nethersoul Dragon (Lv. 10, ATK: 4000)_!"

"Let's battle!" Ventus cried out and pointed toward his opponent. "Dragocytos Corrupted Nethersoul Dragon, destroy Geargiagear Gigant XG! _**Ghost Stream**_!"

The dragon roared and opened the mouth on its chest, firing a translucent purple cloud in the form of a skull that melt away the machine's body.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 1900 - 1500** → **400** **』**

"When Geargiagear Gigant XG is destroyed, I can add Geargiano Mk-II from my Graveyard to the hand." The hooded duelist muttered. It was no point in doing that anyways, even if he used Geargiagear Gigant XG's effect during the battle, after the damage step Levant's 2700 ATK Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn could have ended the duel by attacking his 2300 ATK Gear Gigant X… It was over.

"When Dragocytos Corrupted Nethersoul Dragon destroys a monster by battle, its effect lets it attack a second time in a row… Destroy Gear Gigant X and end this duel! _Ghost Stream_!" the hooded Duelist this time cried out as the second attack destroyed his monster and ended the duel.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 400 - 1700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner** **:** **Ventus** **』**

"Now, tell me where you took Elizabeth!" Ventus grabbed the hooded Duelist by the collar.

"Ugh, what-! Where am I?" The Duelist looked around confused, before his eyes stopped on Ventus. "Who the heck are you!?"

"What the?" Ventus tilted his head a bit and dropped the guy, who began to crawl away from the ninja. "That guy was brainwashed… The heck's up with this world!"

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

" _That's a nice looking dragon!"_ I rolled my eyes at Sunny's optimism. We were facing a Number, from what I remembered these cards had an ability to change reality or some shit, so how could she smile while facing a foe like this!?

Or maybe Hema and Yuki were right and my Synchro personality is an idiot…

" _It would be amazing if you manage to survive for two turns against that thing."_ I rolled my eyes once again at Hema's pessimism. It was just a dragon with 3000 ATK that can't be destroyed by battle. So, I would just have to use a card effect to get rid of it.

' _I think that I just found this thing's weakness.'_ I told my counterparts. _'If instead of trying to overpower it, we avoided battling, or lured it into a trap and destroyed it with a card effect, everything should be alright.'_

" _Easier said than done, Standard."_ Hema crossed her arms. _"Your opponent wouldn't leave a monster like this out on the field without some sort of protection. Since she didn't play any set cards that would mean her monster has a build in protection."_

' _You mean, more build-in protection than the 'can't be destroyed by Number Monsters' bullshit?'_ Well, that would be a real pain in the ass to deal with. If, Hema's instincts were true, something that I sincerely hoping wasn't the case in this particular scenario. Or everyone time when she tells me how screwed I'm in general.

" _That would be a good time to use your secondary ace, Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda."_ Yuki informed me. Ah, yeah, she was absolutely right! Miranda had the ability to let one Spellcaster I control attack directly, so I should, theoretically, be able to get past the dragon and attack Solar directly!

"Ok, here goes nothing!" I shouted and drew my sixth card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Elizabeth] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate the Continuous Spell Card, _Oracle Sister Recruitment_!" I declared, playing the familiar card. "With this Spell, I can pay eight hundred points to search any of my lower level Oracle Sister monsters!"

"So, you are trying to search for your combo pieces? But as long as you use Spells, that won't work on me! I activate Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy's effect! When a Spell is activated, I can negate its activation and attach it to Number Thirty Eight as a Xyz Material! Scale Storm of Annihilation!" The dragon roared and spread its wings firing some sort of light projectile that caught my Spell and pulled it forward, transforming it into another orb that orbited around the beast.

"Ok, that was a failure." Yuki shook her head and looked at my hand. We got to play protectively for the time being.

"I set a monster and a card. Turn end!" I bit my lip. Was that going to be everything that I could do?

Damn it! Spells were forty percent of my deck and now I was locked from using them. Even if the dragon could absorb only one per turn, Solar wouldn't be so stupid as to waste the effect of a card with a weak effect. No, she would aim for my best cards which effectively leaves me with just my monsters and traps! How great, I could barely use this deck properly with access to Spell Cards…

"Hmm, it's not like you could do anything else, standing before such a powerful creature even the strongest of duelists would tremble in despair." Solar raised her right hand toward me. "Only the darkness of defeat awaits you and there is no way for you to avoid it!"

I gritted my teeth, listening to that woman was annoying me beyond belief. I didn't know if it was because of her monster, or her personality, but I just wanted to beat the all loving hell out of her. Because, if I didn't do that, if I allowed myself to fall here, then Evan and Avice could both be in danger. Yes, that's right, the reason why I picked up dueling again, why I spent countless hours and nights trying to figure out this new deck of mine. It wasn't because of myself that I did it, for me the world of dueling lost its magnificence long ago, when I was a young and naïve girl. I picked up dueling again because of my siblings, so I could stand beside them in this world!

"You can keep babbling, but that won't make me give up fighting!" She was only wasting her time, I wasn't going to betray my family! "You can keep talking down on me, but that won't help proving your point to me one bit!"

"So, you would protect them even if that means the death of innocent people? Where's your morality?" I bit my lip, how could that woman of all people talk about morality to me.

Yes, I had dreams about that same fate she told me about, I have seen Evan and Avice destroying Miami City countless times before, their monsters piercing my heart while the two looked down at me with cold, unfeeling stares. It was a nightmare that I got to relive over and over to the point that I couldn't deny what Solar told me, the chance for these nightmares to happen in reality was huge and if such a tragedy was allowed to happen I would be the one guilty for not stepping in sooner. But, would it be right to kill someone because of the possibility that they might do something bad? I didn't want to give up on either of my siblings because of that, no, I wanted to try and solve the issue without bringing harm to anyone!

"My brother and sister and innocent as well." I pointed out. Their futures might hold darkness, but right at the moment neither of them was guilty of any crimes! "If you truly care about innocent people's lives, why don't you try to reach a non-violent solution instead? Why… Why don't you help me turn my siblings away from the path they are walking?!"

"You are trying to achieve the impossible." Solar shook her head. "Changing someone's destiny is impossible if they have chosen it willingly. The only thing left for me to do would be to bring peace to the world at the cost of two already lost souls. It might hurt you, but it's for a greater good."

"Greater good my ass!" I gritted my teeth. "Let's duel and let our cards decide which one of us is right!"

" _That's the spirit!"_ I heard Yuki encouraging me. _"Just be careful, we don't want to deal with two numbers at the same time. If things go too rough, either me or Hema is going to take over for you, 'kay?"_

I didn't reply to Yuki. She might be more skilled than me as a duelist, however, this wasn't just about winning. I don't know why, but my guts are telling me that Solar wouldn't accept this defeat if it was one of my other personalities that dueled her, so I had to do this by myself! Or, while I was in control of the body. Yeah, a little support won't hurt as long as they don't take control over my body.

"If you want to let our cards decide, then I'm going to be the definite winner!" Solar told me. "Here, I go! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Solar] LP: 4000, Hand: 5** **』**

"First, I discard a card to Special Summon _**Occupant of Grelyson – Suglich**_!" A small black ball with circuit lines going through jumped out of Solar's Duel Disk and landed on three orange leafs that acted as its legs, carrying the main body.

* * *

 **Occupant of Grelyson – Suglich**

 **Level:** **3** **/Attribute: LIGHT/Type:** **Plant** **/Effect**

 **ATK:** **300** **/DEF: 1400**

 **Effect:** **You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by discarding 1 card.** **An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card on the field as Xyz Material gains this effect.**

● **When it's Xyz Summoned: It gains 1000 DEF.**

* * *

"This creature you see here, is one of the last remaining specimens of its species." Solar told me, gesturing toward her monster. "All of them were destroyed by the corrupt darkness that's now hanging above this world as well! But you won't care about that, right?"

"A monster has its own species?" I was dumbfounded to learn that. Was she just messing with me, no, Solar's body language didn't suggest this to be a lie. But how? Duel Monsters were just trading cards, not living organisms!

"Of course it does. My world, a place known as Grelyson, was one of the few phenomenons where Duel Monsters could obtain a psychical body without the use of technology. They all lived alongside us in harmony, our duels weren't just a way to entertain the crowd, but to also build a stronger, deeper bond with our monsters, our companions. Unfortunately, that place is now nothing more than ruins."

"For a world like this to exist…" I smiled a little at the thought. "You know, my siblings have strong bonds with their cards as well. Even when they were little, they also endorsed each one of their monsters. If you are like this as well, then maybe it's possible for you and them to understand each other's motives."

Solar shook her head. "It's too late for that. I Normal Summon a second _Occupant of Grelyson – Suglich (Lv.3, ATK: 300)_. Now, I overlay my two Occupant of Grelyson – Suglich!" The two monsters jumped energetically as they turned into beams of light and flew into the Xyz Portal. "Little harbinger of light, pierce the dark clouds with your fortune bringing wings. Xyz Summon! Number 49! _Fortune Tune (RANK: 3, DEF: 900)_!"

A second Number appeared, just like how Yuki expected, but it was much smaller and weaker, so it wasn't much of a danger for me. In fact, it was a little cute holding that tree branch with its mouth.

"The effect of Occupant of Grelyson – Suglich activates! When a monster is summoned using it as Xyz Material, that monster gains a thousand defense points!" Solar explained and a white ball of light appeared around her monster, shielding it.

 **Number 49: Fortune Tune, DEF: 900 + 1000*2** → **2900**

"Now, let's battle!" Solar shouted and her dragon moved in front of my set monster, which flipped face-up to reveal itself as Oracle Sister of Hope – Raisin, a monster with 2000 defense. "I attack your set card with Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy! Titanic Burst of Destruction!" The dragon fired several beams from both its mouth and wings, obliterating my spellcaster in an instant.

" _You are lucky that she didn't summon anything in attack position."_ Yuki informed me.

" _But there seems to be something off about her playstyle."_ Hema commented. _"It's like she is holding back for some reason. She's not trying to fight you using her full strength."_

Well, I felt a little lucky that she wasn't going all out, even if it was insulting, at least that gave me a chance to fight back, even if I couldn't see a way to defeat that huge behemoth standing between me and her.

"I end my turn there." And she didn't set any cards like last turn. Does she truly believe that her Number monsters were undefeatable?

"I draw!" Come on, a good card please!

 **『** **Turn 4 [Elizabeth] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

I looked at the card that I drew and… Yes, it was a good one!

"Since my opponent controls a monster and I control none, this girl can be Special Summoned! Come out, _Oracle Sister of_ _Reinforcements – Lein_ _(Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_!" my spellcaster appeared on the field wearing a small wooden wand. "Then I Normal Summon _Oracle Sister of Nature – Rose (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_. Let's go! I overlay my Level Four Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein and Oracle Sister of Nature – Rose!"

"Magicians with various tricks! Gather right here and bring the flames of life! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Magician dancing through the flames! _Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda (RANK: 4, ATK: 2000)_!" My two Spellcasters turned into beams of light that flew into the cosmic portal and a ball of fire came down, bursting upon making contact with the ground, transforming into the spellcaster.

"I activate Miranda's effect!" I continued. "Once per turn, I detach an Xyz Material to allow one of my monsters the ability to attack you directly! _Miranda's Ritual_!" My monster absorbed one of her Xyz Materials into the magical wand and fired a fireball directly at Solar. Although I couldn't defeat her Numbers, I could just avoid dealing with them and attack her directly instead!

"How pathetic." W-what? Solar didn't seem worried about my attack at all, could she possible… "I activate Hope Harbinger Dragon's effect! I detach a Xyz Material to change your attack toward my dragon!" The huge beast roared and appeared in front of my magician with its mouths loading a blast. "Titanic Burst of Destruction!"

"Aaaaaaahhhh!" I cried out and fell on my knees, feeling the shockwave that followed after my monster got destroyed. It seriously hurt me for some reason…

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 4000 - 1000** → **3000** **』**

" _Damn it! Quick, activate Miranda's other effect!"_ I nodded to Yuki's request and did just that.

"When Miranda's destroyed I can add an Ancient Artifact card from my deck to the hand." I explained and opened a screen that showed all of the cards I could search. Most of them were Spells, so Hope Harbinger Dragon would absorb them… What was I supposed to do?!

" _Quick, add this one!"_ Hema pointed at one of the cards. It was a trap…

' _What are we going to do with this one?'_ I asked. Using its effect, I could copy the effects of a monster in my Graveyard, but none of the ones I currently had was very useful.

" _Just do it!"_ I winched, hearing Hema yelling inside my head. Ok, ok, no need to get violet over a card.

"I add _**Ancient Artifact Soul Remoter**_!" I showed the card to Solar before putting it with the others that were in my hand. "Next, I'm going to set two cards and end my turn!"

* * *

 **Ancient Artifact Soul Remoter (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 Spellcaster-Type monster on the field and one in your Graveyard; banish the second target, and if you do, equip this card to the first target. The equipped monster gains the effects of the monster banished by this card's effect. If this card leaves the field, destroy the equipped monster.**

* * *

"Setting cards? That means that you are continuing this duel, are you sure about it?" Solar put a hand on her hips while she asked me. "You are standing in front of a Number, even I can't control their power, so a direct attack might hurt quite a bit."

"That doesn't matter!" I gritted my teeth. No matter through how much pain I have to go, I would rather die that give up on my siblings. "I already told you, let's have our cards choose how this duel is going to end! Until the last card is played, and the last Life Point is spent, I'm still in this game!"

"You just don't know when to quick, do you! Fine then, I will put an end to this. My turn!" I took a deep breath, pissing Solar off wasn't a very good idea, but that was done already, so not much I could do there.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Solar] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"First, during the Standby Phase, the effect of Fortune Tune gives me five hundred Life Points!" Solar pulled her arms to the side with the Number monster flying over her head, shaking the tree branch, dropping sparks onto her body.

 **『** **Solar LP: 4000 + 500** → **4500** **』**

"I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Xyz Chart**_!" Solar's spell showed Stellarknight Triverr, Constellar Pleiades and Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand flying toward a glowing roadmap in the open cosmos. "With this Spell, you can't target my Light Xyz Monsters with your Spell or Trap Cards!"

* * *

 **Xyz Chart (Spell) Continuous**

 **LIGHT Xyz Monsters you control cannot be targeted by, or destroyed by, your opponent's Spell and Trap Effects. If you control a face-up Xyz Monster without a Xyz Material, you can attach this card to it as a Xyz Material.**

* * *

"With this, the cards that you set can't affect my monsters! How's that? I have studied your way of dueling, it's lineal which makes reading through your strategy all the easier!" I didn't respond to Solar's mocking. "Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy, put an end to this duel with Titanic Burst of Destruction!"

The dragon charged its attacks and fired all of the beams toward me. I bit my lips. That was going to hurt a lot, but…

"I activate my trap, _**Stand of Fallen Sisters**_!" My trap, the artwork of which depicted several girls in magical outfits trying to stand back up while the city around them was in fire and ruins, flipped face-up and a barrier formed between me and Solar's monster. "This trap halves the damage that I would take!"

* * *

 **Stand of Fallen Sisters (Trap) Normal**

 **When an opponent monster declares an attack: Halve the battle damage, then** **target 1 monster in your Graveyard with ATK less than or equal to the amount of damage you took; Special Summon that target.**

* * *

The beams hit my barrier and it cracked. That wouldn't do, the attack was too strong for my trap to completely negate the beams. I could only raise my arms to protect myself before the barrier shattered and the beams all hit me. Thankfully, I was able to hold back from screaming, but my body was hurting like hell after taking that 1500 worth of damage.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 3000 – 1500** → **1500** **』**

"Afterward, I can revive a monster in my Graveyard as long as its attack is less than the damage I took! Come back, _Oracle Sister of Hope – Raisin (Lv.4, DEF: 2000)_!" My magician appeared back holding her staff defensively.

"So, your trap was meant to reduce damage? I know that his isn't anything amazing, but I wasn't expecting you to use something like that instead of, let's say, Mirror Force or anything like that." I leaned my head back and looked at the night sky, trying to ignore the soaring pain.

"Then I guess it's time to activate the rest of my cards." I was only able to glance back at Solar when she choose to continue with her turn. "I activate two copies of **Law of the Under-Xyz**!" This time, the card showed Baby Tiragon with a huge aura behind its body. "This spell inflicts damage to you equal to the attack of a Light Xyz Monster whose current attack is thousand or less. Fortune Tune has only four hundred attack so, twice that is eight hundred damage."

* * *

 **Law of the Under-Xyz (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 LIGHT Xyz Monster you control with 1000 or less ATK: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK. If this card is in your Graveyard, expect during the turn this card was sent there, you can banish this card to target 1 LIGHT Xyz Monster with 1000 or less ATK: This turn, that monster can attack your opponent directly.**

* * *

The little bird flew toward me and pecked my forehead twice before I slammed my Duel Disk against it, knocking the monster away.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 1500 – 400** → **1100 – 400** → **700** **』**

"I end my turn." Solar finished her turn and took a step back, dropping her arm that carried the Duel Disk. "Your Life Points are already below one thousand and mines are going to keep raising thanks to Fortune Tune's effect. Aren't you going to just give up already?"

"I still have cards to draw." I told her and looked down at my deck. The Oracle Sisters always had an answer when I got in a bad situation, so I trusted them this time as well. "Here I go, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Elizabeth] LP: 700, Hand: 2** **』**

I looked at the card that I drew and…

My blood froze. It was the Equip Spell, Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword. Its effect could grant one of my monsters an extra 800 attack, but that was useless in this situation. Why? Why did I drew this card instead of something useful!?

" _Calm down, we can still win!"_ Hema appeared before me and clenched her fists. _"Our hope hasn't abandoned this duel yet, believe me and we will be able to get out of this together!"_

I looked at her and then back at the cards that were currently in my hand. I thought and thought, but no matter how hard I tried, there wasn't anything that I could do with this!

" _Activate Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein's effect from the Graveyard!"_ Hema ordered me.

" _I banish Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein from my Graveyard to add an Oracle Sister monster from my deck to the hand!"_ A hologram appeared before me to choose which monster I wanted to add.

"Add **Oracle Sister of Shades – Jane**!" I did as Hema told me and got the Level Two monster.

"I Normal Summon _Oracle Sister of Shades – Jane_!" A little girl whose white hair was curled at the ends jumped onto the field holding a deck of cards in her right hand. She was wearing a blue overall over a white shirt and black socks that reach all the way up to her thighs. She turned around before she made a peace sign with her left hand and winked.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of** **Shades** **–** **Jane**

 **Level:** **2/** **Attribute:** **LIGHT/** **Type: Spellcaster/** **Tuner/** **Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF:** **20** **0**

 **Effect:** **When this card is Summoned, change this card's attribute to either EARTH, FIRE, WATER or WIND. Once per turn, you can pay 500 LP: add 1 "Fusion" Spell Card from your deck to the hand. If your LP is lower than your opponent's, you can instead Fusion Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type Fusion Monster, using monsters on your side of the field as Fusion Materials.**

* * *

"Choose the attribute of WIND!" Hema threw her arm forward and I complied, doing the same as her.

"I activate Jane's effect! When she is summoned, I must change her attribute to one of the four natural ones! I choose to give her the attributed of WIND!" my monster shuffled her cards and then revealed that their backside has changed from yellow to green. "Now, I activate Jane's other effect! By paying five hundred Life Points, I can add a Fusion Spell Card to my hand!"

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 700 – 500** → **200** **』**

"Foolish! No matter what card you choose, Hope Harbinger Dragon will negate and absorb it!" Solar smirked as she looked down at me. "Your plan is doomed to fail!"

"You think so?" I grinned and looked at my monster. "When my Life Points are lower than yours, instead of adding a card, I can Fusion Summon without the use of a Fusion Card!"

"You can what?!"

"I fuse Oracle Sister of Hope – Raisin with Oracle Sister of Shades – Jane!" My two monsters grabbed each other's arms and flew into a colorful vortex.

" _Spirit of wind running through the empty forest."_ Hema began to chant.

"Water deity through which the remnants of hope dwell." I joined in with her.

" _Become the foundations of a new element and give a cold greed to the darkness! Fusion Summon! The magician in control of blizzards and storms!_ _ **Oracle Sister of Sailors – Aqueen**_ _!_ " We changed together as my two monsters combined to form a new force of nature!

From the portal that was overhead, a young woman jumped and threw her anchors to the ground, pulling herself down. The monster had long green hair and a black scarf with a golden skull symbol tied around it. Her skin was light blue with a dark green left eye and a yellow right eye. The monster wore a two-piece blue swimsuit with a white belt on her waist which was connected to the two anchors with heavy metal chains.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of** **Sailors** **–** **Aqueen**

 **Level:** **4/** **Attribute:** **WATER WIND/** **Type: Spellcaster/** **Fusion/** **Effect**

 **ATK:** **14** **00/DEF:** **120** **0**

 **1 WATER monster + 1 WIND monster**

 **Effect: While** **there is a face-up Spell or Trap Card on the field** **, this card can attack your opponent directly.** **If your LP is lower than your opponent's you take no damage from battles involving this card.**

* * *

"A monster with two attributes!?" Solar cried out and took a step back. "T-that shouldn't exist here!"

"Too bad, because it does!" I told her. "Aqueen's effect lets her attack you directly while there is a face-up Spell on the field, including your Xyz Chart! _**Blizzard Shark Bike**_!"

My monster swung the two anchors in front of herself, creating a vortex of water that rotated before her. It slowly froze into a ring of ice and then, she then threw her weapons forward with the ring following after them. The anchors' hit the ground in front of Solar while the frozen water transformed into the head of a shark ready to bite of my opponent's upper body.

"I activate Hope Harbinger Dragon's effect! I detach a Xyz Material to change your attack toward my dragon!" In an instant, the huge dragon appeared right behind Solar and opened its mouth, firing several blasts. "Titanic Burst of Destruction!"

The attacks connected and my monster cried out in pain as she was destroyed, however, my Life Points remained intact due to Aqueen's additional effect. This was it, the moment that I was waiting for, her monster no longer had any Xyz Units to redirect my attacks with!

"This is the end." I told Solar. "I win."

My opponent's eyes widened. "You can't mean…"

"My set card!" I called out as the card flipped face-up. "The trap card, _**Elemental Circle**_! When an Oracle Monster I control is destroyed, I can Special Summon a monster with the same attribute straight from my hand or deck!"

* * *

 **Elemental Circle (Trap) Normal**

 **When an "Oracle Sister" monster you control is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-type monster with the same attribute but a different name from your hand or Deck. Then, apply one of the following effects.**

 **If your LP are higher than your opponent's, you can target 1 card on the field: Destroy it.**

 **If your LP are lower than your opponent's, the Special Summoned monster gains ATK equal to the difference until the end of your opponent's turn.**

* * *

"From my hand, I Special Summon the WATER attributed _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!" My ace appeared on the field causing a blizzard to form out of nowhere. "Then, since My Life Points are lower than yours, until the end of this turn, Elemental Circle will increase Sina's attack by the difference!"

 **Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer, ATK: 2400 + 4300** → **6700**

"And lastly, I activate _Ancient Artifact Soul Remoter_!" My final card reveal itself. "This card lets me banish a monster from my Graveyard to grant its effects to Sina! I banish Aqueen, which gives my ace the opportunity to attack you directly!"

"A direct attack with sixty seven hundred attack?!" Solar cried out.

" _ **Vortex Arrow**_!" I and Hema shouted my monster's attack and she fired a green ball of magic that exploded into Solar's face.

 **『** **Solar** **LP:** **45** **00 -** **67** **00** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner:** **Elizabeth** **』**

"Im-… Impossible!" Solar groaned. She was lying on the ground, defeated. But there was still fire in her eyes, I could tell, she wasn't going to give up on her goal so easily, even though I defeated her personally.

"The reason why you lost is because you are alone in pursuit of your goal." I walked over to her. "Unlike you, I have a family and friends that I must return to. They all gave me their strength to summon my Fusion Monster and defeat you."

Solar didn't respond to that. She just stared at me silently, hopefully thinking about what I told her. Just then, I noticed something from the corner of my eye, it looked like…

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Look out!" Avice grabbed Oni and jumped on the ground as Clear Wing flew above them and slammed into The Phantom Knights of Break Sword, destroying the monster, while also knocking Yuto.

 **『** **Yuto** **LP:** **18** **00 -** **5** **00** → **1300** **』**

Avice gritted her teeth and looked back at the two Duelists. Yuto and Yugo were still going at it and the more the duel continued, the less willing she became to try and stop them. And just to make things worse, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon was summoned, causing the pain in Avice's chest to grow along with the voices of the dragons that called out toward her.

"I will destroy you… and everything!" Yuto shouted. "I activate Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's effect! By using one Overlay Unit, it can halve the attack of an opponent's Level Five or higher monster until the end of this turn and increase its own attack by that amount! Treason Discharge!" The dragon's wings opened and purple electricity flowed through them before shooting forward, hitting Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.

"I activate Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's effect!" Yugo shouted back. "When a Level Five or higher monster is targeted by a monster's effect, it can negate that effect and destroy that monster! I will negate Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's effect targeting Clear Wing Synchro Dragon and destroy it! Dichroic Mirror!"

The white monster roared and spread its wings, which began to glow, redirecting the electric current, which flew toward Avice and Oni. The little girl cried out and grabbed onto the older one, while the Greyson held a hand over her chest, unable to move. The pain, it was causing her body to paralyze, she had no way to avoid a direct hit in that state. Avice wrapped her other arm tightly around Oni and prepared for the attack to hit them.

"Does acting like a dumb damsel in distress run in the family or something?" A new voice spoke and momentarily, a hand grabbed the back of Avice's collar, pulling both her and Oni out of the way.

Avice looked up and her eyes beamed at the familiar sight. "B-brother!"

"What the fresh hell is going on here?" Evan asked.

"Long story short, these Yuya look-alikes are called Yugo and Yuto and they were trying to kill each other for the last ten minutes." Avice explained and pointed at the two Duelists. "They dragons' being trying to call out toward me and-! ARGH!" Avice cried out and clenched her fist against her chest. Show white feathers surrounded by a blue aura began to form on the girl's back while she lied on the ground in agony.

"Neechan!" Oni wrapped her arms around the fallen girl. "Are you ok, neechan! Niichan something's -!"

"AHHHHHH!" Evan cried out and fell on his knees holding his hands over his face as a murderous black aura began to form behind him in the shape of wings.

"Niichan!" Oni's eyes widened as she looked between the two Greysons. That wasn't supposed to happen, at least not yet!

" _My, my, quite the something were these dragons able to achieve in such a short time span."_ Foxy said and moved a finger down her own chest. _"Mmm, I can feel the darkness pouring through master, he is going to awaken soon enough. How about you, Sola?"_

" _Same here, my little girl is soon going be consumed by the light."_ The spirit of Avice's ace, Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph confirmed. _"I didn't expect them to reach the awakening process so soon, but it seems that their advancement isn't for free. What if their bodies don't manage to withstand the energy?"_

" _You are always looking at things from such a dark perspective."_ Foxy moved her light hand in front of herself and held it out. She looked through the gap between her thumb and index finger and saw Evan. The boy was held between her fingers, and knowing that it was true, the fact that she was able to manipulate his heart, made her feel a strange sense of fulfillment and happiness. _"Twenty years… We have been waiting for this to happen for more than twenty years! There's no way for master to disappoint me after making me wait so long."_

Sola chuckled at the thought. She spent more than twenty years in waiting for Avice to come back to her as well. _"At long last, I will be able to completely regain my title as the Destruction Angel Queen."_

"Yuto!" Suddenly, the two spirits had to turn their attention toward the field. The Synchro Dragon had just delivered its last strike and the Yuya was running toward his collapsed Xyz Counterpart. "Hey! Are you okay!? Yuto!"

The entertainer kneeled down to his counterpart. Suddenly, the cards of Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon began to resonate with each other and a sphere of light formed on the field. The pain within Evan and Avice subdued enough for them to look up as well. Even Oni, who was worried about the siblings, couldn't turn her gaze away from the light.

"W-what's this?" Avice asked. "It feels…"

"It burns…" Evan bit his lower lip in pain.

In a moment, the sphere of light began to collapse and then… Everything was cut off. A powerful explosion of light wipe up the whole park. In the last moments, before everything faded, the appearance of both Greyson siblings had changed. A pair of huge white angelic wings were coming out of Avice's back, while the sclera of Evan's eyes had turned black and a pair of demonic horns came out his forehead.

* * *

"This is…" Elizabeth's eyes widened as the light consumed her body before it faded away, into the sky. A moment later, Solar looked left and right in confusion, before realization came to her. The Duelist of Grelysonclenched her fist in anger.

* * *

"What the?" Ventus stared at as the strange light was consumed by the night sky and darkness seized over the city once again. What neither him, nor any of the other Lancers realized was that Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni were no longer in that world…

* * *

 **Previews:**

 **Chapter** **30** **:** **Golden Doors and Broken Words**

 **Summary:** After the duel between Yugo and Yuto concludes, a bright light engulfs the area and the Greysons find themselves in a place they have never seen before – a destroyed world existing between the dimensions with a golden castle in the sky above it. The siblings set out to find a way toward the strange castle, but at the same time, unknown creatures lurk in the ruining world waiting for them…

 **Chapter 31: Legion of Corrupt Souls – Coregirum**

 **Summary:** As Graild, one of the three guardians of the Pendulum of Destiny explained the siblings the fate of the "Original Dimension" Berberus, one of the sapient Fragments created after its destruction invades the Sanctuary demanding the destruction of the newcomers. In order to save his sisters' lives, Evan takes on a duel against the strange creature, however he soon find himself overwhelmed by Berberus' Coregirum deck.

 **Chapter 32: Ashed Land of Kings and Queens**

 **Summary:** With his vicious strategies and combos Berberus manages to quickly overwhelm Evan's ChronoDevils and drives him into a corner. Seeing the boy pushed to his limits, Graild tells the siblings about the one who gave the beginning of the Original Dimension's destruction. Remember a moment from his own past, Evan allows his darkness to consume him and unleashes a fierce comeback.

* * *

 **A/N: Welp, this one is finished as well... I now have huge regrets of publishing** **Tales of Light and Darkness before this chapter because of** **Aqueen, but if I have to be honest, it was a last second idea to introduce the "Double Attribute" in this chapter.**

 **So, now after Chapters 30, 31 and 32, I will try to accelerate things, so I could get to the Battle Royale as quickly as possible, as that's where things will get serious. There is also going to me a Mirror Duel that will probably be painful for both me (to write) and you (to read it), but don't worry, I'm already thinking of how to solve that. Honestly, even with that I don't think that I will be able to get to the Synchro Arc before Chapter 40 because there is going to be a lot going on during the second and third round of the Miami Championship. I also plan to write 2-3 "Extra" Chapters between Standard and Synchro. The main purpose of those chapters would be to have the Lancers and the Greysons bond a little bit and feel like an actual group of allies instead of Evan's pawns...**

 **Thanks to** Ethan Kironus **for favoriting this story. Also, big thanks to both** Vulpimaru **and** animebella09 **for BOTH following and favoriting this story.**

 **Now to the reviews... And there are Six of them this time?! You guys and girls and great!**

bennyf5302 **: No worries, I don't plan to have the romance appear out of nowhere and romance isn't sometime I never focused onto in the first place, so... It's just going to be a little side thing that's going to happen for a bit.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Well, I'm not sure where the evil maniac Nightsgroud that everyone used actually came from, but this version can't act like that even if he wanted because, as I mentioned several times, currently the Nightsgroud of Arc-Tracers is so weak that he can't even properly hold control over its host.**

 **You aren't missing anything, I just simply skipped the part when Nightshroud says "Turn end." and moved to Yuto's turn.**

 **The Evan fighting Avice in the opening is Evan fighting Avice, no counterparts or anything like that. I simply created that "scene" for the aesthetic and to showcase the idea that Evan and Avice represent polar opposite forces (Darkness and Light).**

 **Same thing goes for the omake, things that happen there don't always reflect what's going to happen in the story. I might sometime have an omake where Evan and Jean-Michel Roget are playing chess together, but that doesn't mean that they will be friends in the actual story.**

 **Also, it's a little funny how so far every response to the Evan x Rio is "yeah, that seems wrong". Just to let you know, there is that thing called character development and not even that dweebshit known as Evan is immune to it.**

EternalKing **: Thanks for the critism! Truth is that even now, 26 chapters after the one on which you put this review, I'm still trying to figure out how to make the duels better. I'm not sure if the last part about the characters being 'edgy' applies to their current selves as well, but I will admit that when I started this story, I was a stupid little shit and liked making my characters** **'edgy'. I'm almost sure that I was able to fix that as time went on.**

Darwin-18 **: Omg, someone who's actually with a pisitive viewpoint about Evan x Rio? May the gods bless your soul!**

ThePLOThand **: Since you wrote two reviews, I choose to respond to them together. First I don't know what you meant with "inter-" in your first review and second, my Ra I actually completely forgot that the "fallguys" existed! You are right that they would be interesting to have and I sure as hell will use them, so thanks for that!**

 **Tracers and Fragments aren't just cool names. It might feel this way because currently, Tracers don't do their main role, but everything will be explained in chapter 31. Also, I'm stupid so what does the "OF cheat mode" mean?**

 **To the second review, *sigh* oh boy, where do I start with Evan? You see, when you speak about both him and** **Fullcross I have hard time understanding if you mean the Evan from this story or the one from Destiry Gears. If its the former, then I agree that he is selfish, but the Evan from** **Destiry Gears is actually very different from his younger self in terms of goals and motivations. Even then, this young Evan does everything for his sisters as well, so he isn't completely selfish, but other than that he doesn't have much empathy toward the rest of humanity. Heck, Evan doesn't even like himself all that much. If you were to ask Evan to write all of his flaws on a paper and he is serious about it, he could write you a whole book worht of his own flaws.**

 **Because you mentioned him, pointing out the flaws in Fullcross' long I want to say that a definitive trait for both Evans is that they hate such "absolute" ideas because from they experience, ideals can very easy turn into dogma and then become fanaticism. So yeah, if something like that were to happen, it would be pretty interesting. I won't say anything about Nagito, I'm familiar with who he is, but beyond that I got no opinion on either him or the franchise he is a part of.**

 **I have actually planned about 80-90% of the story, including how its going to end. There are just some more minor things that I haven't made a choise about, but my plans always change, so I can't tell you how much of those** **80-90% will remain unchanged until I get to writing them. One thing I can say is sure however would be the ending. The reason is obvious.**

 **I'm not sure if I ever said that I don't like it, sorry if I did, but everyone has a different taste for music, so I would rather say that your taste is much more different than mine. However, I fucking loved the music from** **Ludesia, those pieces were very awesome indeed.**

 **Anyway, that's everything I got to say. Thanks to everyone for reading, I will see you next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer Out!**


	30. Chapter 30

**So many reasons we believe,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth",**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us .**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon were mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Golden Doors and Broken Words

 **Evan's POV**

A bright light: That was the last thing that I remembered before everything… faded? I wasn't sure, did the world disappear, or was I the one that got erased? I still felt the after effect of the pain that I felt when I saw the two dragons, my body was still tense and something was missing. A part of me just wasn't there. I felt a void inside my chest, like a black hole has opened inside and took away my heart. Wait, was it mine? Or was it _his_? No, who's _him_?

"Ugh!" I groaned and put a hand on my head; a severe headache was killing me. It was so strong that I couldn't think straight and part of my thoughts got altered and honestly, I just wanted to just keep lying here and rest for a little longer. My entire body felt sluggish and weak, like how I usually was when I caught a cold or a sickness in general. A warm soup made by Elizabeth and Avice's soft legs as a pillow, yes, that's what I needed at the moment. No, wait, what's with that weird image? Enough of that, the more I tried to think, the more messed up my thoughts became.

I opened my eyes to see where I was. At first, my vision was blurry, I couldn't make out anything, but after a while… Everything began to feel better. My headache began to fade and strength returned into my body as I could finally see where exactly I was. I didn't know what to think of the scenery before me. The ruins of what must have once been a city. All of the buildings were demolished to the ground. There were just one or two sphere-like buildings that remained in a recognizable state, but they were built under very strange angles… Wait no, from the look of it, they were originally built on top of a small island that somehow got dropped in the middle of the city…

No, I'm not drunk, this is exactly what seemed to have happened. Then there was also the soil, which was… bluish-grey with circuit patterns? I wasn't sure what to say about it, when I tried to touch it, I felt a strange coldness creeping down my spine, even thought I was wearing gloves which should have kept me warm enough. This whole world felt so fake and artificial, even the sky wasn't an expectation to that. It was black with a bit of blue and pink added in and a barely noticeable outline of a circuit pattern added to the mix. Oh, there were also floating islands with buildings, but just like the ones that have fallen, these seemed to have been destroyed as well. There was just a single floating golden castle that seemed to have remained untouched.

I couldn't make out most of the details about it because that thing was very high into the sky, maybe somewhere in the stratosphere. In fact, I couldn't even really see it, but I somehow knew where it was and that it was a castle for some sort. It was just a thought that occurred inside my mind and I… believed it? I had a gut feeling that these sudden thoughts popping inside my head wasn't normal. Maybe the air of this place was affecting me. Come to think of it, where was this place anyways? The floating islands, the strange buildings, it felt like I was teleported to a planet that just underwent a major alien invasion. Come to think of it, could this be some sort of an Astral World/Barian World Fusion? No, I must be overthinking again.

"Evan?" I turned around after hearing my name being called and saw Elizabeth sitting on the ground a few feet away from me. Oni and Avice were there as well, both of them were groaning as they started to wake up as well.

"Neechan, is that you?" Oni muttered and tried to look around before rubbing her eyes. Judging by that, I would say that her vision got blurred as well, so we all must have suffered the same side effects.

Actually, this scenario reminded me on when I and my sisters woke up in the world of Arc-V for the first time. Actually, it was the exact same thing as back then! A blinding light, followed by a headache upon waking up. The ground was scorched with blue color and an artificial feel to it. Even the sequence in which we woke up was creepily consistent. This couldn't just be a Déjà vu, right? Was, whichever force teleported us here trying to remind us about that or am I just reaching again? I also noticed something else, our Duel Disk were in their 'Power Mode' as the AI would usually say, but they entered that mode only when there was a Fragment nearby, so why now?

"Wow, did we do this?" Avice leaned against my shoulder and pointed toward the destroyed city. "Wait, this doesn't look like the Miami City at all, does it?"

"No, it doesn't." I shook my head. "The whole aura of this place is different."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I feel it too." Avice told me, wrapping her arms around my neck from behind. "When I looked at this city, I feel like I'm staring at an old picture. This whole thing just seems so unreal and fake. Is it possible that all of this is just a hologram?"

"No, that's too big, must take a lot of energy to support a hologram of that size. They even changed the appearance of the sky and there is no actual sunlight… But as you said, this feel like an old picture, something that didn't happen now, but at some point in the past it did. That feeling can't be really explained with words, can it?"

"A flashback in present time?" I actually chuckled at that. It surely felt like it wasn't that we got pulled into a flashback, but that the flashback came to us. That was actually a weird way to try and put it, wasn't it?

"So, are we going to start wandering around like we did the first time something like this happened?" Elizabeth walked over to us, holding Oni's hand.

"This is going to be a hard mode scavenger hunt." Avice sighed. I had to agree with her, unlike when this happened with the Standard Dimension, there was absolutely nothing here, no people or anything else. We would end up just wandering around without any aim or idea where we are going.

"Judging by how our Duel Disks went into their Fragment Hunting Mode from the start, I say we first find a more secure place to say and then look for any clues as to what the fuck this place is." I suggested to them and then looked at the city. Finding a place to stay was easier said than done when the whole place has collapsed into ruins. "How about that sphere-like building there? It seems to be the most preserved one, so let's get there!"

"You always have to take the lead, don't you?" Elizabeth sighed. "But I was honestly thinking about the same thing, so let's just be careful on our way, ok?"

I nodded to her request. It wasn't like I planned for us to just start running toward a building located in the middle of a ghost town that might actually be filled with freaks who want to kill all of us. Actually, that could possibly be used as an advantage, Fragments were more primitive in nature. Since I already have some basic knowledge on the subject and neither Levant nor Ventus seem to be here to get into my way, I might actually be able to trick the Fragments into working for me. Heh, if that works out I might as well 'domesticate' a few of the female ones afterward…

"Stop master, that's pervy!" I felt something hard hitting me on the back of my head and I felt on my face. Ouch!

"What the?"

"Where did she make from?"

"Niichan!"

While my face was lying on the cold ground, I heard both of my sisters and Oni talking. There was also the voice of whoever attacked me, but I didn't pay much attention to that. The sudden attack caused my head to start hurting again, but this time it was both the front and the back that were in pain. I reached behind and touched the spot that was hit before moving my hand to look at it, thankfully, there was no blood so the hit wasn't strong enough to seriously wound me. That was a relief, so now I could-

"Aaaaaahhhh~" A loud moan of pleasure erupted from behind my back, quickly blanking whatever thoughts I originally had. I turned around to see what was happening so fast, that I was lucky my neck didn't break, not that I could think about it after what I saw.

I won't get into much details but Wolfy was lying face-first on the ground while Avice was pulling her tail with Elizabeth standing at the side, covering Oni's eyes.

"That thing's not coming off." Avice pointed out and pulled the tail again, provoking another scream from Wolfy.

"P-please… Y-you w-will… T-t-tear it-t off…" I sighed, listening to the spirit's pathetic begging for mercy. Usually, if Wolfy or her sister Foxy tried something like what she just did to me, I would have torn her tail right off without a second thought, but I was curious about how exactly was she able to physically touch me when she was just a monster spirit.

"That much is enough, I know her, sadly." I rubbed the space between my eyes and gestured for Avice to let go of Wolfy's tail.

"That still doesn't explain how your friend-cosplayer got here." Elizabeth interjected.

"That's not a cosplayer." I retorted and grabbed Wolfy's ear, pulling it to get her back onto her feet. "I never told you, but since we got to Standard, I was able to see Duel Spirits and this one here is among the top two most annoying ones that I got to deal with. Is that right, Wolfy?"

"S-sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry." She reached with her arms to try and pull away, but I just yanked her ear back, forcing another yelp. "I-I-It's just too hard… when you think pervy thi-! AAAAAHHH! Sorrysorrysorry! I won't try to push you again, I swear onto my life!"

Normally that would be enough, but only a fool wouldn't notice the flaw in trusting in her word. "On your life? Aren't you a Duel Spirit? I don't think that you classify as a living being."

"That's so mean of you, master!" She started to cry. Fuck it, I don't need her to alert the whole city with her loud mouth!

"Listen you little piece of-"

"EVAN!" Now it was my turn to winch. I rolled my eyes and looked at Elizabeth to hear out what she wants. "There are children here, could you please cut the crap and deal with your problems in a more… peaceful way?"

"… You actually don't seem surprised to hear that I can talk to spirits." I pointed out. I know, I know, that has nothing to do with what we were talking about a moment ago, but it got me curious.

"We were transported to alternative worlds twice already. Hearing that my brother can talk to ghosts, is just somehow blank in comparison."

"Touché." I admitted and let go of my Duel Spirit's ear. "Now then, mind explaining to me how you were able to him me? Actually, cross that. How do you have a physical body when you are a spirit?"

"That's not my doing, master!" Wolfy complained, rubbing her ear. Come on, I didn't pull on it that hard, did I? "It's because of this place, it's not natural. In fact, this whole world seems to be stuck in a state between existence and disappearance, everything and nothing. It's unable to distinguish between physical and spiritual beings. Perhaps that strange anomaly is the reason why spirits can physically exist here. I already explained how things could react to the time-space flow, didn't I?"

"No, you didn't." my sisters replied in unison.

"Not to you... Yes, that sounds about right." Wolfy sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I will keep it short. There is a time-space flow that exist between dimensions and multiverses and it's very poisonous, radioactive, corruptive, pestiferous…"

"It's bad, we got it!" I shouted. "Get straight to the point!"

"R-right!" The Duel Monster nodded and turned toward my sisters. "Unless you have a proper equipment or a mapped link between the dimensions, when you try to travel from one to the other, you will get affected by the time-space flow and your body will be reconstructed. There might also be side effects like talking to spirits, gaining multiple personalities, visions and so on."

"Ok, that explains our powers." Avice crossed her arms. "But what about this place?"

"Well… What do you think happens when an entire world gets put into a poll of time-space poison?" I got what Wolfy was referring to. That must have hurt a lot…

"Now that I look carefully at it, this place seems kind of familiar." Wolfy muttered, rubbing her chin. Note, her tail swayed back and forth while she touched her chin. "It has been a while since I last visited though, so I don't remember its name. A few spirits whom I knew told me that this place was completely destroyed by some girl with four bracelets. I guess that would explain how this place got into this state of existing nonexistence."

' _A girl with four bracelets, huh?'_ the four bracelets seemed to be an awfully specific detail to remember, so did they have something to do with what happened to the world?

"We should be careful then." Avice stated. "If this place is such a mess, who knows what other abnormalities might come looking for us."

I had to agree with her. As Wolfy said, there were other spirits who were able to come back to their own realm after the destruction, so it won't be too far from reality to expect some of them to have stayed here, or for new ones to have come. I sighed and put my hood back on before gesturing for Wolfy to follow after us. There was no better defense against monsters than another one. But if you want me to be honest, I believe more in Phantomus and his ability to protect my family than I believe in Wolfy. No discrimination or anything, but I'm sure that there was a reason why his attack is 2500 while hers' just a pathetic 700.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

As the Greysons made their way into the destroyed city, a single figure was standing next to a crack inside a floating building and looked down at the newcomers. Her ruffled purple and white hair fluttered behind her by the gentle wind and the look in her yellow eyes became gentler as she moved a hand over her chest. A purple crystal floated next to her and pressed against the girl's shoulder, trying to get the girl's attention back to itself. She noted that, but her yellow eyes remained onto the five individuals that walked through the empty city. Seeing them send both a wave of happiness and a bitter sadness through her chest.

"It's been so many years since I last saw them..." The girl spoke softly and patted the floating crystal with her other hand. "I missed them so much."

The crystal beamed brightly and a strange sound came from it. In response to that, the girl's warm smile dropped a little and tears began to form into her yellow eyes.

"No, I can't meet with them yet. _They_ will get angry if I do that." She replied and sat down next to the edge of the crack.

The crystal beamed again, persisting. Despite not having eyes, it could clearly see the pain that its owner was going through.

"Don't worry about that. I will be able to talk with them one day, I was promised that much." The life inside her yellow eyes began to burn brightly once again as she continued. "One day I will be able to stand beside mom and dad again."

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

This city was complete shit! Yes, it was expected since the place got demolished and everyone is dead, but it was so empty and strangely clean. No remains of blood or anything else, like someone came and cleared the place after it got destroyed. It was very unnerving.

"Wait." Wolfy stopped in front of us. Her ears began to move and she sniffed the air. "Something's not right about this…"

"I already felt the same way several minutes ago." Avice sighed and crossed her arms.

I stepped beside my sister and looked around as well. I was genuinely worried about being here, from the limited knowledge that I had about Arc-V this wasn't supposed to even exist. Not just that, so far several things happened a bit too differently from how the canon should go. From the side these changes might appear small and meaningless, but when you are in the center of everything and you realize that you aren't even supposed to be part of this, the way that you see 'continuity' begins to change as well. Our family wasn't part of this universe, the darkness inside of me and the Tracers as a whole weren't supposed to exist in Arc-V.

But I'm getting carried away with my thoughts again. What mattered at the moment is that in no part of Arc-V have I heard about the heroes visiting a death dimension, so I had nothing to make plans and preparations about. In some ways, you could say that in this reality our future is blank, it doesn't follow the same predictable tropes as Standard and the other Dimensions do. Anything can happen in this ghost world.

"Ghosts!" Oni cried out.

I turned my eyes toward where she was pointing at and… She was right. I could see people walking down the streets of the destroyed city, but they didn't seem to be, well, alive. There was no spark of light inside their eyes and their bodies were transparent with only quiet moans and whispers that I couldn't make out escaped their mouths as the group walked toward us.

"There's nothing to worry about." Wolfy told us. "Those are just lost souls."

"While I can't imagine what you mean by 'lost souls' I'm not sure how much my theory overlays with what you really mean." Avice pointed out.

"I told you how a girl destroyed this world, didn't I? I also said that apparently she sent this dimension to a state of nonexistence. What do you think happened with the survivors that weren't lucky enough to get dragged into a different dimension before this one entered this state?" I got it now. She called them lost souls because that's what they are. "These 'ghost' that you see are an afterimage of all the humans who were affected by the space-time flow. They aren't death, but they will never be alive again, just images cursed to roam the dimension until their existence completely fades away."

"That's… sad." Oni muttered.

"It surely is." I couldn't bear to look at these 'ghosts'. Although I could care less about humanity in general, I was getting angry that someone could do something like this. To be cursed to roam a death world for the rest of eternity, that's a fate worse than death.

"There's something!" Wolfy said and pulled out her whip.

A low, growling sound came from inside some ruins. I gulped and moved back, raising my already activated Duel Disk. The growling became audibly louder and I could make out that it was coming from more than one directions. It… sounded from everywhere. So we must have been surrounded while we looked at the lost souls. Tch, what a pain in the ass.

The growling suddenly died down and completely disappeared for a moment. Then a huge white wolf with blue circuits going through its body jumped over some ruins and leaped toward me. Without a second of a hesitation I slammed the card I drew onto my Duel Disk and Phantomus appeared before me, throwing his fist toward the beast's mouth and shove his arms into its throat. The wolf fell down and tried to trash around, but the gears on my monster made a single clicking noise and a blade came out from the back of the beast's head.

"What was this?" Avice turned toward Wolfy.

"A corrupted Duel Spirit." My monster replied and swung her whip, hitting another wolf in the face before it could leap toward us. "Even our own kind isn't protected against the dangers of space-time, and usually the weakest of us end up like this."

"If those are Duel Monsters, then I'm going to join in as well!" Eli pulled a card from her deck as well.

"Don't!" Wolfy grabbed her hand before the card could call onto the blade. "ChronoDevils and Astral Angels are connected to time and space respectively, so we can withstand the poison, but Oracle Sisters and Performallusions aren't, so stand back with the little girl."

"So my cards are immune to the corruption?" Avice stepped beside me and looked at her Duel Disk. "How do you know that about my deck?"

"Please, 'mistress' Avice, the angels of space and the devils of time were allies for as long as our clans' history exist." Wolfy bowed before my sister and kissed the back of her wrist. "Now please, use your ace, Sola Starlit to support our leader in battle."

"Ha, I was going to do that without you asking me." My sister waved off the annoying wolf girl and played a card, summoning her own ace. "Come Sola, let's battle!"

"Linear Ray Artillery!" Not even a moment after being summoned, Sola Starlit unleashed a storm of ray blasts onto practically everything around us, incinerating anything that was in-sight, ruins from buildings, corrupted monsters, just name it and I can tell you that it was destroyed. After finishing, the electric fairy flew back down and stretched her arms upward with a cheeky smirk on her face.

"You see, that's why I was called Destruction Angel in the past." The spirit said and leaned onto Phantomus' shoulder in the same way that Avice did to me. "I think I just beat you a few dozen to one, brother."

"Amazing work, Tracers!" A new voice called out and two humanoid creatures came out of the smoke created by Sola's attack.

Both 'things' were tall with very long legs and arms. Their bodies were blue in color with white circuit patterns and parts of their bodies were… disconnected, erased, you put the word that fits best. But that was it, either a part of their legs, arms or waist was just floating into the air without anything connecting it to the rest of the body. I wasn't sure how that worked, but I wasn't surprised to see such creatures either.

"Who are you?" Ah, Avice asked it before I could.

"Those are Fragments." Sola answered and flew back to my sister's side. "That's what they look like before they possess or mimic another being's appearance. Their true forms: blank, palette-swapped dolls."

That's what Fragments really look like? They aren't corrupted cute girls, but THIS?! In the holy names of the three Egyptian Gods, I'm thankful that I learned this before I tried anything. No manipulation or any other bullshit, these things need to be burned with fire!

"This world is our domain, executors aren't welcome here!" one of the Fragments shouted at us.

"Your domain, huh?" I looked around. A destroyed dystopian city with undead and corrupted monsters roaming around was what they called a domain? "I must say, you surely got the aesthetics on point with this one."

"Shut up, invaders!" One of the Fragments cried out and threw their left arm forward, creating a Duel Disk with a blade in the form of a claw. "Since you were foolish enough to come here, we will use this change to get the multiverse rid of you, monsters!"

"Come on, now. Like we would ever want your 'domain'." I shot down their threats, not really carrying about them. I wasn't some kind of a colonist invading this death world anyway. "We got pulled here against our will, so just show us the exit and I promise you that we are going to leave peacefully."

"We will duel to death!" The Fragment shouted at me. Yep, they were too angry to listen to me.

"For the record, we tried to be civilize, but it didn't work." Avice patted me on the shoulder. "Now we got to destroy their faces as self-defense."

"So it seems." I wasn't liking this, but there was little that could be done now. "Phantomus, Wolfy!" I recalled back my two monsters and shuffled them into the deck.

"A two on two Tag Duel." The second Fragment activated its own Duel Disk as well.

"Oni, let's step back." Eli pulled Oni on a range where our monsters won't be able to cause them any harm.

"DUEL!" all four of us shouted at the same time.

 **『** **Evan Hand: 5 & Avice Hand: 5 [LP: 4000] (VS) Fragment #1 Hand: 5 & Fragment #2 Hand: 5 [LP: 4000]** **』**

"I take the first move!" I declared and immediately swiped a card over my Duel Disk. "I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Unknollow (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_ and activate its effect! When Unknollow is Summoned I get to Special Summon a DARK monster from my hand. Come out, _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_!" My golem jumped onto the field and Unknollow's shadowy body transformed into the same shape as the Rock-Type. "Then Unknollow's effect changes its own Level to match Protector Golem's."

 **ChronoDevil Unknollow, Lv. 1** → **3**

Next, I overlay my Level Three Protector Golem and Unknollow!" A cosmic portal opened on the ground before me and the two monsters turned into purple energies before falling inside. "Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! _ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)_!" My black knight-like monster appeared out of the portal and swung its lance/shotgun hybrid.

" _About time you called me out, boss!"_ Void Lancer called out at me. _"I'm going to make sure that none of their puny monsters manages to get past me!"_

"Next, I set a card and activate the Continuous Spell, _**Future Draw**_!" I played a card that showed a Duelist draw a card while behind him was the background from Future Fusion with cards falling from the sky.

* * *

 **Future Draw (Spell) Continuous**

 **Once per turn: You can banish 1 card from your deck face-down. If this card leaves the field, you can add a number of currently banished face-down cards to your hand, up to the number of your turns during which this card was face-up on the field.**

* * *

"With this spell's effect, I can banish a card from my deck face-down once per turn." I explained and looked through my deck before choosing a good card. "With this I'm ending my turn."

It wasn't one of my best first turns, but we were fighting in enemy territory, so I wanted to be careful until I learn what type of deck my opponents are playing. I looked at Avice and she nodded in understanding.

"My move, invaders!" The Fragment declared and a crystalized version of a card appeared in their hand.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Fragment #1] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Behold invaders, a power that made its way here from another timeline!" The Fragment shouted taking three cards from its arms before showing them to us. "I activate the Spell Card, Polymerization! Using it, I'm going to fuse the _ **Modern HERO Lady Gear**_ and _**HERO Boy**_ that are in my hand!"

A vortex in the form of the Fusion Portal opened behind the Fragment as two monsters flew into it. The first was a woman in a heavy grey suit with huge chunks of metal armor covering her arms, legs and… practically her whole body. An iron mask covered her face while her orange hair has tied into a ponytail at the back. Her weapon of choice seemed to be a square-shaped shield attached to her left arm.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Lady Gear**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 2300**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal or Special Summoned, change this card to Defense Position. During each of your opponent's Standby Phases: Draw 1 card.**

* * *

The second monster that was used for the Fusion Summon was a small boy in a blue 'Superman' style costume with a silver H in the center. His eyes were covered by a black mask and a red cape floated behind his back.

* * *

 **HERO Boy**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 300/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: (This card is always treated as a "Modern HERO" card.) If this card is on your side of the field or in your Graveyard: You can Fusion Summon 1 "Modern HERO" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, by banishing Fusion Materials listed on it from your field or Graveyard, including this card.**

* * *

"Hero from below, protecting the heart, rise from the ground and get rid of the poison over it! Fusion Summon! I call over you! _**Modern Hero Blast Driller**_!" The Fragment chanted and his Fusion Portal burst. A woman in a heavy black robotic suit stepped heavily in front of us. Her armor had orange jewels on the chest, shoulders, hands and the helmet. Two big drills were coming from her back as turrets.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Blast Driller**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Warrior/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 2600**

 **1 "Modern HERO" monster + 1 EARTH monster**

 **Effect: You can discard 1 "HERO" monster, then inflict damage to your opponent, equal to half the ATK of that monster. While this card is in Defense Position, "HERO" monsters you control can't be destroyed by card effects.**

* * *

Modern HERO!? I have never heard about such a thing before and trust me, I should know since HEROes were a pretty popular deck back home. In fact, my sister, Avice used to play Masked HEROes and Omni HEROes as her main decks until before we got transported into the Arc-V timeline, so I had to study those decks to make sure our decks worked out well together in Tag-Duels.

"Modern HERO, huh?" My sister looked down at the screen of her Duel Disk for something. "They seem to work as the normal Omni HERO deck… Where did you even find these cards?"

"An alternative timeline." The Fragment replied. "You stupid mortals might think the reality we exist into is the only one, but that's naïve! There are many timelines where the same events play out drastically different from what you know! A timeline where there are five dimensions, a timeline where the 'demon' reawakens and destroys all four dimensions. Timelines filled with otherworldly duelists like you, but driven by much more different, nobler causes that the ones driving your actions!"

"These worlds they always appear and disappear." The second Fragment spoke up as well. "They get erased, rejected. And those little rejected pieces become us! These decks we use, once belonged to human twins, far too similar to you. Their timeline fell apart and they became us!"

"So, is that what you two are meant to represent?" Oh, it was so hard to keep a straight face and not laugh these fools. "Not invaders, you two are rejected pieces seeking for an asylum." It was so close to the mind, yet I was never able to realize it before! "I-I always thought that we were fighting all powerful monsters that wanted to destroy reality, but for Fragments to turn out being just a group of homeless dogs? Hahaha, that's-! Haha… That's just… Hahahaha! Pathetic! You… 'things' are nothing but pathetic!"

"You might be disappointed to find out, but your insults don't bother us a bit." The second Fragment looked at me. "We don't have the souls, or hearts required for such feelings, although you clearly don't have such attributes either."

I grin only grew after hearing these words. Was that supposed to be an insult? Yes, I have a heart of the size of a nut, so what? What we do here is dueling and in a way, we are waging a war toward our opponents using our monsters as the armies. The main goal in battles is to defeat your opponent, feeling any sort of emotional connection or sympathy toward them and their goals is a weakness. I don't know about other fools and how they do things in their timelines, but I won't let something as stupid as humaneness be the reason for my defeat.

"Anyway, I will continue with my turn!" the first Fragment spoke up. "I activate Blast Driller's effect! Once per turn, I can discard a HERO monster to inflict half of its attack power to you as damage! I discard _**Modern HERO Burst Lady**_ to inflict six hundred damage!" The ghost of a woman in a red and black outfit, with golden accessories, and long orange hair in the form of fire, with some red in the end, appeared behind the Fusion and shot toward me, bursting into flames that fell around me.

 **『** **Evan & Avice LP: 4000 – 600 **→ **3400** **』**

I gripped onto my chest, the hotness of these flames was real, but that wasn't the main issue that I was facing. It was more the fact that I felt a part of my own life leaving my body. It was a chilling feeling that didn't match well with the hot flames that surrounded me.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Burst Lady**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 1600**

 **Effect: During each of your Standby Phases: Inflict 600 damage to your opponent.**

* * *

"My turn is far from over." The Fragment slammed its arm into the ground and a black vortex appeared under its feet. "I now activate the effect of HERO Boy to Fusion Summon a Modern HERO monster by banishing the needed materials from my Graveyard, including itself! Using this effect, I'm going to fuse the _Modern HERO Lady Gear_ and _HERO Boy_ that are in my Graveyard!"

The same two monsters that were used for a Fusion Summon the last time appeared before the vortex again.

"Great mother of everything good, hear the call of your child and grant the heroes power that can cut through darkness! Fusion Summon! Lend me your power, _**Modern HERO Shining Sun**_!"

A bright beam of light burst over the field. It then transformed into a woman in a white bodysuit with yellow lines moving over it. Her eyes were hidden by a golden mask with a red gem in the middle. She had long golden hair that was made into a ponytail and a white arc with seven yellow blades attached to her back. She really just looked like a female version of The Shining, so I would give her four out of ten for that reason alone.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Shining Sun**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Warrior/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 2000**

 **1 "Modern HERO" monster + 1 LIGHT monster**

 **Effect: "Modern HERO" monsters you control gain 100 ATK for each "HERO" monster in the Graveyards, also all monsters your opponent controls lose 200 ATK for each of your banished "HERO" monsters. If this Fusion Summoned card leaves the field: You can target 1 of your banished "Modern HERO" monsters; Special Summon that target.**

* * *

"Shining Sun's effect activates!" The Fragment's monster began to shine brighter and my own monster fell down onto its knees. "All Modern HERO monsters I control gain 100 ATK points for each HERO in the Graveyard, and all monsters my opponent controls lost 200 ATK points for each banished HERO monster!"

" _Damn it!"_ Void Lancer cursed and leaned against its spear. _"That light. I feel my strength leaving the body because of it!"_

 **Modern HERO Shining Sun, ATK: 2500 + 100** → **2600**

 **Modern Hero Blast Driller, ATK: 2400 + 100** → **2500**

 **ChronoDevil Void Lancer, ATK: 1800 – 400** → **1400**

"This will be enough to end it in one turn!" I gritted my teeth. If both of the Fragment's attacks went through, I and Avice would take a total of 3700 damage. Our Life Points are just 3400, so that might really be the end of us – if I allow it of course. "Modern HERO Blast Driller attack ChronoDevil Void Lancer!"

"Since you declared an attack against a ChronoDevil I can activate my Trap, _Time Shift_! This negates your attack and switches all of your monsters with attack that's equal to or lower that your Blast Driller to Defense Mode!" My trap flipped face-up and the surrounding began to become blurry as Blast Driller paused in her tracks and kneeled down.

" _Great work boss!"_ Void Lancer praised me and raised its spear in front of its body. _"This way you won't take damage when Shining Sun destroys me!"_

I bit my lip. What the monster said was true, but things would have been much better for us if the Fragment used Shining Sun to attack instead. That way Void Lancer would have been save for at least one more turn.

"Tch, then I will use Modern HERO Shining Sun to destroy your monster!" The blades flew around Shining's body and created a beam of light that flew toward me, blasting a hole through my monster's chest. The Xyz leaned back and looked at me. That last glance that it gave be before shattering, it was just… Void Lancer seemed happy when it was destroyed, I could read it into the Xyz's eyes. Just making sure that I didn't take any further damage this turn was enough for the ChronoDevils to feel like they succeeded.

"With this, I end my turn." The Fragment finished. Standing on their side were two powerful Fusions that both protected and boosted each other while also weakening our monsters.

"You know what your main priority should be, right?" I looked at Avice.

Currently, Blast Driller's effect defended the monsters from effect destruction, which meant that it should usually be put as a main priority, however, the bigger issue that we had to face was Modern HERO Shining Sun. Due to her de-buffs we would need a monster with at least 3100 base ATK in order to destroy the 2600 DEF Blast Driller. If Shining Sun was removed from the field, then destroying the other hero using sheer attack power would be a piece of cake.

"I've been analyzing the field as well, you know?" Avice looked at me and smirked. "I can get rid of both monsters within one turn. And it's going to be this turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 3400, Hand: 6** **』**

I smiled at my sister's determination. She wasn't just spewing words, I'm sure that everyone knew that by now. These two Fusion monsters were as good as gone.

"I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Einplus (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_!" An upside down white triangle appeared on my sister's field for just a moment before she activated a Spell that caused the monster to disappear. "I activate _Transmodify_ and release Einplus to Special Summon a monster with the same type and attribute as it from my deck, but one level higher! Come, _Astral Angel Digital (Lv.2, ATK: 200)_!" The triangle fell apart and reformed into a white disk rotating around a yellow orb. "When Digital is Special Summoned, its effect lets me Special Summon any number of copies straight from my deck!"

And just like that, Avice's field got three copies of the same monster out and ready to assist her in any way they can. She also had Einplus in the Graveyard which was a Tuner, I was able to see the strategy that she was going for and it might actually just work out!

"Next I activate Einplus' effect from my Graveyard! I increase my most left Digital's level by one to Special Summon Einplus from my Graveyard, but I must banish it when it leaves the field." A black vortex formed under my sister and the triangle raised again.

 **Astral Angel Digital, Lv.2** → **3**

"Now, Einplus' effect lets me add a Level four or lower Astra Angel from my deck to the hand! I add _Astral Angel Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer_!" That was an interesting move on her part. If she choose a monster that could Special Summon itself this might have been a One Turn Kill, but it seemed like she didn't want to end the duel on her first turn. "Now, I tune my Level Three Astral Angel Digital to my Level One Astral Angel Einplus! And I overlay my two Level Two Astral Angel Digital! _**Synchro Xyz Summon**_!"

In an instant both the Xyz portal opened and Einplus turned into a green ring. All three Astral Angel Digital flew toward their respective target and two beams of light fell from the sky behind my sister. The one at the left was bluish in color, suitable for Synchro while the right one was yellowish, like a star beam.

" _When complete serenity reigns over the world a punker would descend from beyond the doors of heaven to deliver some fun to the world! With your malicious mind turn the borders of space into a playground and tell us about your next prank! Synchro Summon! Level 4! Astral Angel Telepordude (Lv. 4, ATK: 1600)!_ "

" _The heavenly dragon, break through the fabrics of space and annihilate the unholy that stands in your sight! Xyz Summon! Rank Two! Astral Angel Dragolight (RANK 2, ATK: 1000)!_ "

First appeared the Psychic monster with a huge grin onto its face. It bowed down to all of us while a loud roar was heard from the beam of yellow light and the Wyrm monster flew over its Extra Deck partner.

"Due to Shining Sun's effect all of your monsters lose four hundred attack!" The Fragment shouted and both of Avice's monsters flew onto their knees, or in the case of Dragolight just fell onto the ground. Damn, the light wasn't affecting only the monsters either, I could feel my body getting heavier the longer Shining Sun's light touched my skin. Was that how a duel outside the Standard Dimension felt like, sharing the same sensation that our monsters did?

 **Astral Angel Telepordude, ATK: 1600 - 400** → **1200**

 **Astral Angel Dragolight, ATK: 1000 - 400** → **600**

"Pointless tricks! I activate Telepordude's effect! Once per turn, I can equip any LIGHT monster to it as an Equip Spell and increase its attack by five hundred! Take control of Modern HERO Shining Sun! _Ray Crossroad_!" My sister's monster smirked and clicked its fingers opening a portal under the hero's feet. Before she could react, Modern HERO Shining Sun fell down and the gem in the center of Telepordude's chest began to glow.

 **Astral Angel Telepordude, ATK: 1200 + 500** → **1700**

"And since Shining Sun is on longer on the field as a monster, its effect ends as well!" I explained. Both of my sister's monsters stood back up and Dragolight roared… angry.

 **Astral Angel Telepordude, ATK: 1700 + 400** → **2100**

 **Astral Angel Dragolight, ATK: 600 + 400** → **1000**

"Let's battle!" My sister cried out. "Astral Angel Dragolight attack Modern HERO Blast Driller and before you say anything about this move, I'm going to activate Dragolight's effect! I detach an Overlay Unit to negate battle destruction and reflect all of the damage back toward you! _Illusion Barrier Stone_!"

My sister's dragon absorbed one of its Overlay units and spread its wings, the gems on the tips of them glowing as a multi-colored barrier formed around it, allowing it to slam straight into the opponent's monster without problem.

 **『** **Fragment #1 & Fragment #2 LP: 4000 – 1600 **→ **2400** **』**

"Next, Dragolight's other effect returns the monster it battled into the deck!" I glanced at Avice's dragon while the hero faded away from the field. Redirecting battle damage followed by a quick non-destructive monster removal, that Xyz Monster would be a dangerous card to play against.

"Damn it…" The Fragment cursed and pulled its Fusion Monster off the Duel Disk, returning it back into the Extra Deck.

"And now, Telepordude is going to attack you directly!" My monster jumped high into the air and fired a blast of electricity at the Fragments, knocking both of them.

 **『** **Fragment #1 & Fragment #2 LP: 2400 – 2100 **→ **300** **』**

"And for the final, I activate a Quick-Play Spell: _Selig Transform_ to transform my Telepordude into a new being!" The Synchro burst into pieces and reformed into a new form.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. So that was why she didn't waste time searching for useful monsters, she already had everything prepared.

" _The entertainer of light bringing smiles to the world! Transform into a blazing storm of light beyond the limits of this reality! Transformation Summon! Level 6! Sacrosanct guardian of hope! Astral Angel Mercury Shield (Lv.6, ATK: 1700)!_ "

"Now battle! I attack you directly with Astral Angel Mercury Shield!" The Fusion monster pushed its shields together and charged at our enemies.

"The effect of Shining Sun activates!" The Fragment shouted and a black vortex appeared between then and our monster. Wait, the card hard another effect?!

"When the Fusion Summoned Shining Sun leaves the field, I can Special Summon my banished _Modern HERO Lady Gear (Lv.3, DEF: 2300)_!" The damn hero reappeared onto the field in Defense and blocked our path to victory.

"Damn it, I completely ignored the fact that their card had such an effect!" My sister kicked the ground. "Then I'm going to activate Future Draw's effect to banish a card from my deck face-down! This one is for you, bro!"

"Yeah…" I nodded. We couldn't view cards that were banished face-down, but I didn't need to. The little detail that Avice addressed for whom the banished card was, meant that the card she could have banished was only one…

"I set a card and end my turn." Avice looked at me and I nodded. She got their Life Points in the red, which was enough for one turn.

"My turn!" The second Fragment said.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Fragment #2] LP: 300, Hand: 6** **』**

"By discarding a monster in my hand, I can Special Summon _**N.G Big Hat**_ from my hand!" I raised an eyebrow hearing that name. Not without a reason either, as on the field appeared a chibi in a light blue dress with stars over it, big dark-blue eyes and long blonde hair. She wielded a small pink staff with a star on it and a giant blue hat with a yellow star in the center.

* * *

 **N.G. Big Hat**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Effect**

 **ATK: 300/DEF: 100**

 **Effect: You can send 1 monster from your hand to the Graveyard to Special Summon this card from your hand. If summoned this way this card's level becomes equal to the level of the monster you sent to the Graveyard.**

* * *

The thought I had after seeing this monster might not be relevant, but after first seeing these Modern HERO monster and then this thing I started to wonder if the timeline these cards came from had any dignity.

"Are these seriously the best cards you were able to get your hands onto?" I asked. "'Cause this looks more like something which came out of a bad fanfiction than a really competitive deck."

"You won't be laughing for long, invader." I chuckled. Oh, really? "Since I discarded a Level Three monster to summon Big Hat, her Level raises by three!" The huge star on the center of the monster's hat break into four smaller ones.

 **N.G Big Hat, Lv. 1 + 3** → **4**

"Next, I Normal Summon _**N.G. Chain Puller**_ and activate its effect! When it's Normal Summoned, I can revive a Level Four or lower N.G. monster from my Graveyard with its effects negated. Come back, _**N.G. Supporter**_." As the Fragment played its cards, both monsters appeared at almost time same time.

First, was a man covered in bandages, without hands and legs, showed up, wearing a black long tattered cloak with chains coming from under it, serving as limbs.

* * *

 **N.G.** **Chain Puller**

 **Level: 4/** **Attribute: DARK/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 1500**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned you can Special Summon one level four or below 'N.G.' monster from your Graveyard with its effects negated.**

* * *

Second, was a white robot with one big blue eye, one hand coming from its chest and three wheels serving as legs. Wow, these designs were even more uninspired than Avice's monsters and that said a lot.

* * *

 **N.G. Supporter**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: DARK/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000**

 **Effect: If there is another 'N.G.' monster face-up on the field you can Special Summon this card from the hand. During your opponent's turn: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; negate the next attack this turn from a monster your opponent controls (this is a Quick Effect).**

* * *

"With this, all of the preparations are complete." The Fragment stated. "The power of space will now become one with my cards! I overlay the Level Three Modern HERO Lady Gear and N.G. Supporter, and the Level Four N.G Big Hat and N.G. Chain Puller! _**Double Xyz Summon**_!"

All four of the monsters on the Fragments' field turned into beams of light that flew into the cosmic portals that opened at the sides. Blue and purple lightning flew through the field as two monsters formed inside the portal of cosmic energy.

" _O, guardian of the space dragon, hear this chant! Materialize from the pitch black darkness and cut everyone who opposes you with the power of thousand stars! Xyz Summon! Come,_ _ **Beta Knight**_ _!_ "

First, a cloud of darkness formed on the field in front of the Fragments and the two purple eyes appeared within it. Two arms in black armor come out of the dark, followed by two legs in the same armor and a long purple cloak. A giant glowing purple sword blew the darkness away, revealing a knight in black armor. The monster was surrounded by two purple lights that orbited around it.

* * *

 **Beta Knight**

 **Rank: 3/Attribute: DARK/Type: Warrior/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2000/DEF: 2000**

 **2 Level 3 monsters**

 **Effect: You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; this turn, this card can attack your opponent directly. If this card is in you Graveyard: you can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 2 "N.G." monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon them and increase their Levels by 1.**

* * *

" _O, dragon guardian of the space, hear my call! Let the foolish challengers know the wrath of thousand stars! Xyz Summon! Come,_ _ **Beta Spike – Space Dragon**_ _!_ "

A second cloud of darkness appeared on the field right after the first and streaks of purple lightning descended from it. Two purple eyes appeared within the darkness, and two armored hands come out of it, followed by two black legs and a long purple tail with multiple black spikes on its backside, with a blade at the tip. Two big metallic wings blew the cloud away in a halo-like shape, revealing a black dragon with purple torso armor, and a helm that appeared like a long black horn. Like its lesser counterpart, the monster was surrounded by two purple lights that orbited around it.

* * *

 **Beta Spike - Space Dragon**

 **Rank: 4/Attribute: DARK/Type: Dragon/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 2000**

 **2 Level 4 Monsters**

 **Effect: This card can't be destroyed by battle. During either player's Battle Phase, when this card battles an opponent's monster with higher ATK: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; your opponent takes double the battle damage that you would have taken from that battle.**

* * *

I felt a chill go down my spine and my right hand instinctively reached toward the Extra Deck slot on my Duel Disk. Something inside me just woke up at the sight of this black dragon. My senses were sending different reactions to my brain, a part of me felt a danger coming from that monster while another one saw it as an ally. Like a fragment – pun intended – of my being was missing and I just found it out in the form of this beast. It might sound greedy and even evil for me to say such a thing, but I needed to have this dragon!

" _Those crimson eyes are so familiar."_ I jumped back a bit after hearing a deep voice speaking inside my head. Could it be… Beta Spike?! _"But I can sense the purple sea of lost souls that lies behind!"_

"I see that you already got to know Beta Spike." I turned my eyes toward the Fragment. "In the universe that this beast came from, it was meant to be the opposition to one of the four heavenly dragons. You might be able to defeat it easily, but bear no mistake, this monster's purpose is to test your heart! If the answer your heart gives doesn't satisfy it, Beta is going to devour you even if you defeat us!"

"So, even if we win… we still lose?" Avice stepped toward and pointed at our opponents. "That's not fair!"

" _Silence!"_ Beta Spike raised its head and roared.

"Now I activate the Equip Spell - Future Karma! This spell can only equip itself to a monster I control and makes its attack points zero, in return for that, during each of your End Phase, we are going to regain Life Points equal to the equipped monster's original attack!" the card flashed in front of the Fragment. "Of course, the one that I'm going to choose is Beta Spike itself!"

What!? I could heart Beta Spike roaring as its attack was sealed into the spell card. Why would they take away such a powerful monster's attack power?

 **Beta Spike - Space Dragon, ATK: 2500** → **0**

"Next, I'm going to activate Beta Knight's effect! I use all of its Overlay Units to give it the ability of a direct attack! Go, _**Star Sword Slash**_!" The knight's eyes sparked purple and he jumped toward my sister.

"I activate Astral Angel Mercury Shield's effect!" Avice's monster jumped in front of her and raised its shields, blocking the attack. "Once a turn, I can choose a monster on both sides of the field and change them to Defense Position! I choose your Beta Knight and my Astral Angel Mercury Shield for this effect!"

After stopping the attack, Astral Angel Mercury Shield jumped onto the black knight and pushed it against the ground, holding it in place as both monsters began to glow with a blue aura.

"Then this is going to be a piece of cake." The first Fragment insisted.

"Right." The second Fragment nodded and raised its arm. "Beta Spike – Space Dragon attack Astral Angel Mercury Shield! _**Nova Spear**_!"

The black dragon roared and lifted itself in the air; wings glowing purple. Beta Spike charged horn first toward my sister's monster.

"I activate Beta Spike's effect!" The Fragment declared. "Once per turn, when this monster battles, I can detach one Xyz material from it, so I take no damage from that battle, and my opponent takes twice the damage I would have received! _**Power Punishment**_!"

"Astral Angel Mercury Shield's defense is twenty-five hundred!" Elizabeth shouted from the sideline. "Twice that much would be…"

"I activate my trap!" Avice jumped forward and her card flipped face-up. " _Damage Diet_ halves the damage we take for the turn!"

Beta Spike roared and swung its head, bringing the spear down to Astral Angel Mercury Shield's chest. The Fusion monster roared and let go of Beta Knight, after which Beta Spike turned around and slapped it with its tail, knocking my sister's monster back. The black dragon's wings began to glow brighter as well and... Oh no!

"Avice, look out!" I turned toward my sister, but it was too late. Beta Spike unleashed a charge of electricity toward both of us.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed as the charge of electricity went through my body.

 **『** **Evan & Avice LP: 3400 – 2500 **→ **900** **』**

"I can't feel my body." My sister muttered and I agreed with her. I couldn't sense my limbs after this hit. To think that they would be able to drop our life into the red zone as well… Unbelievable.

"I set two cards and finish my turn." The Fragment finally said.

"Such power…" Avice stood back up and looked at me. "Even our monsters don't seem to cause as much damage as this dragon did. It truly is a powerful being."

" _I have never heard of it before."_ Foxy jumped out of my deck and looked at Beta Spike as well. _"Master, Void Lancer couldn't talk to you from the Graveyard, but it wants you to evolve it! That way you are definitely going to win!"_

"Evolve it?" Avice looked at me. "It's a Xyz Monster that we are talking about, so don't tell me that you got a spell to…"

"That's right." I looked down at my deck. "My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Evan] LP: 900, Hand: 2** **』**

"First, I use the effect of Future Draw to banish another card from my Deck." I opened a holographic screen and searched for the Spell that would allow me to evolve Void Lancer. "Next, I activate the effect of Astral Angel Digital in our Graveyard! I banish two copies of it to draw two more cards from my deck!"

Yes! Now all of the pieces I needed have gathered!

"Bro!" Avice called out for me. "Use my Fusion's effect!"

"Right." I nodded and looked at her monster's effect. "I activate Astral Angel Mercury Shield's effect! At the cost of turning the banished Astral Angel Digital and Astral Angel Einplus face-down, it can return one of your monsters back into the deck!"

The Fusion pushed its shields together and they formed a bright light that blinded Beta Spike. The dragon roared and swung its tail around until its body began to fade away.

"I activate _Interdimensional Matter Transporter_!" a trap turned face-up onto the Fragment's side of the field. "With this, I'm going to banish Beta Spike – Space Dragon until the end of the turn!"

As the black dragon had begun to fade away, a void appeared over its head and the damn beast flew through it, disappearing. However, since Astral Angel Mercury Shield's effect didn't target, the light reflected into its shield went to Beta Knight and erased the warrior, leaving their field wide open. I could just take a shot and end it all at once, but...

"I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!" The familiar fiend appeared on Evan's field. "Next, I use its effect! By reducing Stream Supporter's attack to zero, I can Special Summon this monster directly from my deck by negating its attack! Come out, _**ChronoDevil Jolly Jester**_!"

A tall jester with long legs, in a purple costume with horizontal yellow stripes, appeared on the field and chuckled. The monster looked robotic with clock gears for knee caps, and a completely metal chest. Its head was completely robotic as well, yellow in color, a black screen for a face, with a large green digital grin, while a large top hat covered the rest of the monster's head. The jester's didn't have arms, instead, its shoulders ended with clock gears, while two large white gloves floated next to the body without anything to connect them.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Jolly Jester**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: Dark/Type: Psychic/Effect/Tuner/Pendulum**

 **Pendulum Scale: 5**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 800**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, if the ATK of a monster(s) on the field would be changed by a card effect: You can either increase or decrease its ATK by 1000.**

 **Effect: Once per turn: If a monster's ATK and/or DEF would change, you can double that amount.**

* * *

"I tune my Level Four Stream Supporter to the Level Two Jolly Jester!" My monster flew into the sky and a beam of light flew past me.

"Malefic soul trapped in the cursed prison of metallic demise! Unleash your nightmarish aggressiveness! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Six! _ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast (Lv.6, ATK: 2000)_!"

My monster jumped out of the light and leaned forward, staring at the Fragments, growling at them.

"I activate Paradox-Claw Beast's effect! Once per turn I can target a number of cards on my field I return them to my hand to reduce your monsters attack by five hundred for each. You might not have any monsters, but the effect of my Future Draw activates when it leaves the field! Reversed Paradox!"

My monster slammed its legs against the ground and stuck its large claws into it. Paradox-Claw's body opened up, releasing a steam of white smoke. Its jaw split up and it howled loudly. The entire ground began to shake from the force unleashed and the Future Draw card on my field popped out of the Duel Disk.

"Since Future Draw was face-up for three turns, I get to add all three of our banished cards back into my hand. Then I'm going to activate the Spell Card, Chrono Reborn to revive _ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)_!"

" _Time for a promotion, boss!"_ My monster shouted as it raised from the Graveyard.

I looked down at the card that my monster was referring to. The spell's artwork had a dark purple background with the red silhouettes of clocks overlaying and fusion with one another near the corners while a center focus was a more… demonic silhouette. I couldn't make out its exact appearance as the black color was mixing with the purple background, but I felt a tremendous power coming from this one spell. Did I really need to play this card? But… My monsters asked me to do it, they were the only ones aside from my sisters that I had beside me, and so I can't betray them.

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _**Rank-Up-Magic Time Terror Force**_!" I injected the card into my Duel Disk and purple electricity instantly shot out of the energy blade, hitting Void Lancer. "With this spell, I can Rank-Up Void Lancer into a DARK monster that is one rank higher!"

* * *

 **Rank-Up-Magic Time Terror Force (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **During the Main Phase: Target 1 DARK Xyz Monster you control; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 DARK Xyz Monster that is 1 Rank higher than that monster you control, by using it as the Xyz Material, and if you do, attach this card to it as additional Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as a Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to it also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.) During your Main Phase, if you control no monsters: You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 2 DARK Xyz Monsters in either player's Graveyard(s); Special Summon the first target, and if you do, attach the second target to it as an Xyz Material.**

* * *

"I can feel the essence of darkness flowing through my body!" Void Lancer shouted and transformed into a purple comet that flew inside a crimson pentagram that opened before me on the field.

" _The warrior sealed within the endless void of time, find the path of true wickedness and drown the timelines with your lust for carnage! Arise, the legend that that crushed the light with its evil soul!_ _ **Rank-Up Xyz Change**_ _! Rank Four!_ _ **ChronoDevil Void Horror**_ _!_ "

Out of the cosmic spiral burst purple lightnings which then transformed into a lean black humanoid body. The new monster didn't have legs, instead, three black metal bones hanged down from its waist, curved to resemble an incomplete sphere. Then the main body. It was made from black spikes put together to resemble a skeleton with eight curved blades forming a ribcage, which contained a dark purple sphere of unstable energy. Its shoulders were huge and bend like spheres, holding the monster's skeleton arms made from black metal. They were long, the wrists reaching below the three bended bones that represented its lower body. At the point of the elbow, the skeleton hands split into two more pairs with each of them containing two scythe-like blades at the backside of the hand and three large metal claws for fingers.

Oh, almost forgot the head. My monster's head was large, like somebody put an extra skull on top of the first one. The top was open with six curved blades forming another ribcage that contained a smaller red sphere. Eight, small, crimson blades stick out from either side of the monster's skull. Like a spider, it had eight red eyes. For a mouth, it had large, sharp insect mandibles, the insides of which was filled with black steel teeth. Lastly, there was a purple mist that outlined the monster's body, making out the 'flesh' that surrounded its skeleton-like structure.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Void Horror**

 **Rank: 4/Attribute: DARK/Type: Thunder/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 2000**

 **3 Level 4 DARK monsters**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summoned: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; attach it to this card as a Xyz Material. If this card is destroyed while it has Xyz Material: Special Summon this card from your Graveyard, then gain 2400 Life Points. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy 1 card on the field, and if you do, if the destroyed card was a monster, inflict damage to your opponent equal to its original ATK.**

* * *

"Finally, I change Astral Angel Mercury Shield to attack position." With this, all four of our monsters stood up and ready to put an end of this match.

"You are going to use all of these monsters to attack an opponent with only three hundred life point left?" The second Fragment asked me. "That's true evil boy."

"I don't care!" I heard enough of these bastards' babbling for one day! "Just disappear from my sight! ChronoDevil Void Horror attack them directly! _**Dark Ray Terror**_!" My monster held outs its arms, creating two purple spheres of space-time energy, one with each pair of hands that it had. Then, when it completed them, my monster then both spheres and they exploded, breaking the fabric of reality like a glass hit by a sledgehammer.

"I activate my trap, Mirror Force!" What? The set card flipped face-up and a bright light shot out, blinding me. I closed my eyes and turned my head away, but that didn't silence the screams of my monsters as they were all torn to pieces.

"Hmm, you didn't expect that, did you?" The first Fragment asked. "You were absolutely sure that you would win, so you choose to ignore our set card. That ego only lead you into failing for an obvious trap."

"Shut up." I wasn't done yet. "When Void Horror is destroyed while it was Xyz Materials, I get to revive it! _**Return of Horror**_!" A tear in the space-time continuum appeared and my monster walked through it. "Then, I regain twenty-four hundred life points."

 **『** **Evan & Avice LP: 900 + 2400 **→ **3300** **』**

"Now, ChronoDevil Void Horror gets to attack you directly!" My monster nodded and launched another attack toward the Fragments.

"I banish N.G Supporter from my Graveyard to negate the attack!" The damn drone jumped out of the Graveyard and took my Void Horror's attack instead, exploding after that.

"Damn it, so close!" my sister shouted.

"My turn is not over yet." I pointed out. "During the second Main Phase, I'm going to use the Scale Seven, _ChronoDevil Timescale Champion [DARK/Level 5/P.S: 7/ATK: 1900/DEF: 1300]_ and the Scale One, _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph [LIGHT/Level 6/P.S: 1/ATK: 2500/DEF: 1800]_ , to set the Pendulum Scale!" Two columns of light, one red and one green, raised behind me with mine and my sister's ace floating inside of them. Thanks to Future Draw's effect, Avice was able to give me her own ace. "Next, since a monster was activated in the Pendulum Scale while Timescale Champion is there, I get to draw a card."

Perfect, he came as well!

"Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, DEF: 800)_! And from my hand, the Supreme Devil King, _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_!"

" _Aww, I'm going to miss all of the action, that's no fun!"_ I heard Sola whine.

"Now, since all of my monsters are DARK, I get to revive _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_ from my Graveyard!" The ground broke and my golem raised rose for the second time. "Now I'm going to tune the Level Three Protector Golem to the Level Two Jolly Jester!"

" _Within the timeless abyss, I call the android with unmoving gears. Open your metal heart and set forth its blazing black flames! Synchro Summon! Level 5, ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android (Lv.5, DEF: 1900)!_ "

Jolly Jester turned into two green rings as Protector Golem transformed into three glowing orbs that flew through the rings. In a brilliant flash of light, my android flew onto the field and put both of her hands over her chest in a praying stance.

"ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android has the ability to copy the effects of any spell or trap that was used earlier during this duel." I explained my monster's effect. "Let's see how you are going to get past this! My turn is finished."

"During the End Phase, Beta Spike – Space Dragon returns." The black dragon flew through the vortex and roared at me once more.

"Although we destroyed your entire field, you were still able to rebuild it just a moment later." I narrowed my eyes. Of course we were able to do that, Mirror Force, Dark Hole, Raigeki, those were all cards that we had to face in the past, so rebuilding our field after they slap us across the face has become like a second nature for me and my sister.

"It's my turn now." The first fragment stepped forward. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Fragment #1] LP: 300, Hand: 2** **』**

"First, I activate _Legacy of a HERO_ to return _Modern HERO Shining Sun_ and _Modern Hero Blast Driller_ into my Extra Deck and draw three cards." I narrowed my eyes a little. That was interesting, until now all of the spells and traps that they played were generic, did their deck not have any back-row support?

"Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, even Pendulum. You were able to show us every single summoning method, including, so allow us to show you the true strength of these decks!" I narrowed my eyes. No, they couldn't mean… "Using the Scale Two, _**Modern HERO Blue Avenger**_ , and the Scale Seven, _**Modern HERO Crimson Slime**_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

No, no way. Two blue columns raised behind the Fragment as its monsters appeared inside of them. First, on the far left was Modern HERO Blue Avenger: A bulky humanoid made from multiple, differently shaded, blue crystals floating close to one another.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Blue Avenger**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Rock/Pendulum/Effect**

 **P.S: 2**

 **ATK: 1100/DEF: 1900**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, if you Fusion Summon a monster: You can draw 1 card. If that card is a Spell Card you can reveal it, and if you, draw 1 more card.**

 **Effect: Once per turn, during your End Phase: You can add 1 "Polymerization" or "Fusion" Spell Card from your Deck to your hand, except "Diffusion Wave-Motion".**

* * *

Second was Modern HERO Crimson Slime: A woman made completely from red slime without any visible legs and four tentacles on her back. Yep, she was exactly the monsters that you would face in an R rated game, not that I have any of those to know for a fact or anything like that…

* * *

 **Modern HERO Crimson Slime**

 **Level: 3/ Attribute: WATER/Type: Aqua/Pendulum/Effect**

 **P.S: 7**

 **ATK: 900/DEF: 1100**

 **Pendulum Effect: When a 'Modern HERO' Fusion Monster is destroyed by a card effect: If at least 1 of the Fusion Materials used for the summoning of that Monster is face-up in your Extra deck; Special Summon it.**

 **Effect: Once per turn: You can target 1 "HERO" monster on the field or in either player's Graveyard; this card's Attribute, ATK, and DEF each become the same as the targeted monster, until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"Now behold, with this I can Pendulum Summon monsters with level from three to six!" The Fragment raised its arm and two blasts of light fell onto the field. "Pendulum Summon! _**Modern HERO Sparkwoman**_ and _**Modern HERO Sina la Corriente**_!"

Modern HERO Sparkwoman was wearing a white bodysuit with yellow markings, a golden chest plate as well as armored gloves and boots. She was wearing a helmet with a white visor that hid her identity. A blue aura surrounded the monster to show that it was summoned in Defense Position.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Sparkwoman**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: Light/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 1400/DEF: 1600**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower "HERO" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target, but its effects are negated.**

* * *

Modern HERO Sina la Corriente had long bluish-green hair that fell down her back and dark green eyes. Her outfit was very revealing, with a short black vest with a silver 'M' on the back of it and a light blue and green skirt. She wore black latex gloves that reach her elbows and was barefoot with a golden ring around her left ankle.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Sina la Corriente**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: Water/Type Aqua/Pendulum/Effect**

 **P.S: 3**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700**

 **Pendulum Effect: Each turn, the first Fusion Monster(s) you control that would be destroyed by an opponent's card effect, is not destroyed.**

 **Effect: During your Main Phase or Battle Phase: You can Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters you control as Fusion Materials, including this card.**

* * *

"Sina…" I heard Eli muttered from behind us and I turned to look back at her.

She seemed just as surprised to see this monster, as me. Sina, it was the name of her own ace monster, so how did these bastards get their hands on a similar card? These Modern HERO and N.G. cards, what the heck were they?

"How do you have this card!?" Eli shouted.

"Didn't we already explain that there existed multiple timelines?" the Fragment asked us. "There is always a difference between timelines, but sometimes there are similarities as well. Do you really think that the three of you are unique, new additions to this multiverse that didn't exist before? That's naïve!"

"Your existence was foreseen much before you appeared into your current timeline!" The second Fragment added.

"Our existence was foreseen…?" Avice looked at me. The confusion in her big green eyes was easily to notice, like she was begging me to prove these 'things' wrong.

But I couldn't do it. Their words didn't make complete sense to me, but if alternative timelines existed, then there is a chance that somewhere out there used to be a timeline where our lives in Arc-V went down a completely different path.

"I'm sure that at least one of you know this name, but the previous master of this Sina was a duelist called Hema!" the first Fragment pointed at us.

"That's… Hemas?" Eli seemed to be the most shocked one of us.

"Neechan!" Oni grabbed onto her and tried to shake her back to reality, but to no avail. Her pupils were empty, did she fall into a trace or… Is she talking with her other personalities?

"Anyway, back to the duel, I activate the effect of Sparkwoman!" The Fragment shouted. "When she is summoned, I can Special Summon _Modern HERO Burst Lady (Lv.4, DEF: 1600)_ from my Graveyard with her effects negated! Next, I use Sina's effect to fuse itself and Burst Lady!" The Fusion portal appeared behind them and the heroes ran into it, becoming one.

" _The warrior wielding the flames of justice and the queen of heroes join forces together to form the symbol of justice! Wise as a river, strong as a storm and gentle as a single water drop! Unleash the power of chaotic justice_ _ **, Modern HERO Sina the North**_ _!_ "

Out of the portal came a monster very similar to Modern HERO Sina la Corriente in appearance but with light green skin, a small crown onto her head, and a blue mask over her eyes. The latex gloves have changed color to swamp green.

* * *

 **Modern HERO Sina the North**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: WATER/Type: Aqua/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700**

 **"Modern HERO Sina la Corriente" + 1 "Modern HERO" monster**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summoned, if your LP is less than 1000, your LP become 1000. Any effect that would inflict damage to you makes you gain that much LP, instead.**

* * *

"The effect of Sina the North activates, when she is summoned, if your Life Points are less than a thousand, they become a thousand!" The monster turned around and reached toward the Fragments with her glowing palm and their Life Points restored themselves.

 **『** **Fragment #1 & Fragment #2 LP: 300 **→ **1000** **』**

"Next, Blue Avenger's Pendulum Effect activates!" The Fragment continued. "When I Fusion Summon a monster I get to draw a card, then, if the card I draw was a Spell, I can draw another one! Here goes, the card is _Battle Fusion_ so I get another card!"

"A Fusion Summon followed by effects to restore both their hand and Life Points…" I whispered to myself. They were finally getting serious.

"To battle! I attack ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android with Modern HERO Sina the North! Zero Substance!" The hero monster threw a blue spark towards mine. As if I was going to let that happen!

"I activate Retro-Fractured Android's effect!" I interfered. "I can tribute this card to activate the effect of a spell or trap inside our Graveyards! I choose to activate the effect of your Mirror Force!"

My monster disappeared from the field and a barrier of light formed around the other two, reflecting the spark back at Sina the North, destroying both the Fusion Monster and Beta Spike – Space Dragon.

"Then the effect of Crimson Slime activates!" The other Pendulum card glowed as well and the remains of Sina the North flew back, reconstructing themselves. "Since a Fusion Monster was destroyed, I can Special Summon at least one of its materials as long as its face-up in the Extra Deck. Come back, _Modern HERO Sina la Corriente (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!"

"And now Sina's effect activates again and I Fusion Summon during the Battle Phase! Go, Sina, Sparkwoman!" The two monsters grabbed each other's hand and their bodies merged together into a blinding glow of emerald light.

" _Great mother of everything good, hear the call of your child and grant the heroes power that can cut through darkness! Fusion Summon! Lend me your power, Modern HERO Shining Sun (Lv.8, ATK: 2500)!_ "

"This one again…" Avice bit her lower lip. "After we destroyed it once, she managed to summon it again."

"Shining Sun's effect activates! It gains a hundred attack for every hero resting in my graveyard and your lose two hundred for each that's currently banished!" Phantomus and Void Horror fell down on their knees and groaned in pain.

 **Modern HERO Shining Sun, ATK: 2500 + 400** → **2900**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 - 200** → **2300**

 **ChronoDevil Void Horror, ATK: 2400 – 200** → **2200**

"Modern HERO Shining Sun, shatter ChronoDevil Void Horror! At this time I activate Battle Fusion to increase Shining Sun's attack by Void Horror's until the end of the battle!" The hero jumped and threw her blades around my monster, before bringing her arms together causing the weapons all to fire beams of light that cut through Void Horror.

 **『** **Evan & Avice LP: 3300 - 2900 **→ **400** **』**

"Argh!" I gripped my chest, feeling the shockwave of the attack.

"I set a card and end my turn!" The Fragment finished.

"They really managed to turn things around again." Avice chuckled a little bit. "This back and forth action… Do you feel it as well?"

"Yes." I nodded. None of my previous duels felt this way. Trading blow after blow, it excited me. My blood was burning and even though I and my sister might die in this duel, it was too exciting for me not to smile.

"That's a true duel. The first real challenge that we faced in this reality" Avice smiled at me. "It's so good! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Avice] LP: 400, Hand: 3** **』**

"I Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Skala Beschwörer**_!" On the field appeared a white rectangle made of metal with a golden cross engraved on the front of the large figure. Its blue core was glowing dimly in the center of the engraving while seven golden blades floated above the monster in the form of an arc. Lastly, the monster's head was a tiny sphere placed on the top of the rectangle with a glowing blue cross as its face.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Skala Beschwörer**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 600**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned, you can target 1 card in your Pendulum Zone: Special Summon it, then place 1 "Astral Angel" with the same scale as the target, from your Deck into the Pendulum Zone. If a Pendulum Monster you control would be destroyed by battle or effect, you can banish this card from your Graveyard instead.**

* * *

"I activate Astral Angel Skala Beschwörer's effect! When it's summoned, I can Special Summon _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_ and then I set a monster with the same Pendulum Scale directly from my deck!" A card popped out of Avice's deck and she slapped it onto the blade of her Duel Disk. "I set the Scale One, _**Astral Angel Engerlich**_ into my Pendulum Zone!"

Two snow white angel wings made from metal appeared in the Pendulum Zone with a yellow energy core between them. Slowly, a body began to form around the core, transforming into a white triangular shield whose edges infused with the wings. Several golden plates covered the delicate surface, forming two spikes on the top, and one of the bottom of the body, while a golden mask covered the energy core and its three eyes began to glow.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Engerlich**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Pendulum/Effect**

 **P.S: 1**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 2100**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, before damage calculation, if your LIGHT monster battles an opponent's monster with higher ATK than it: You can make that monster unable to be destroyed by that battle, also, after that damage calculation, destroy the battled opponent's monster.**

 **Effect: Once per turn, you can Tribute 1 other monster you control, to target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls: Take control of that target until the end of your opponent's next turn.**

* * *

"As a card was activated in a Pendulum Zone, the effect of ChronoDevil Timescale Champion lets me draw a card." My sister declared. "And since I control a Tuner, I get to revive _ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android (Lv.5, ATK: 1900)_! Now Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph attack Modern HERO Shining Sun! Linear Ray Artillery!"

"Counterattack, Modern HERO Shining Sun!" The Fragment shouted and pushed its fist forward.

Sola raised into the air and fired two beams toward Shining Sun, but the hero jumped back, avoiding the attack and threw her blades at the fairy, catching my sister's ace into an explosion.

"So uncivilized way to attack back." Avice sighed and brushed her shoulder. At that time, the smoke from Shining Sun's attack cleared as well. Flying above the rest of us, Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph did the same gesture as my sister.

"That's not possible!" The Fragment that used Modern HEROes shouted at us. "Your monster and life points should have been gone for after this attack!"

"That's right." My sister nodded and raised a finger. "However, the effect of Astral Angel Engerlich activated! My monster isn't destroyed and all damage is negated. Then, your hero is put to rest! Go, Sola!"

My sister's ace opened her palms and blue energy shot out of them, transforming into two daggers, which the fairy grabbed and leaped at Shining Sun. The two monsters began to trade blow after blow, until Sola flew above the hero and swung her daggers downward, cutting the fusion in half before it exploded.

"I activate both the effect of Modern HERO Shining Sun and the Pendulum Effect of Modern HERO Crimson Slime!" The Fragment quickly countered. "First, since Shining Sun was destroyed, I can revive _HERO Boy (Lv.2, DEF: 200)_. Next, since a Pendulum Monster was used as material for the summoning of Modern HERO Shining Sun, I can Special Summon _Modern HERO Sina la Corriente (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!"

Both HERO monsters appeared onto the field through different portals. Ah yes, just what we needed at this moment, two brick walls to stand up in our way.

"Since Shining Sun is gone, our monsters' attack returns back to normal." My sister said and all of our monsters raised back up.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2300 + 200** → **2500**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2300 + 200** → **2500**

 **ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android, ATK: 1700 + 200** → **1900**

 **Astral Angel Skala Beschwörer, ATK: 0 + 200** → **200**

"Chrono Phantomus, attack Sina la Corriente!" Avice declared and my monster leaped into the air, activating the blades inside its gauntlets. " _Double Void Slash_!"

"I activate the Continuous Trap, _**Pendulum Burst**_! While this card is on the field, Pendulum Monsters and cards in my Pendulum Zones can't be destroyed once per turn, each." The moment the Fragment said that several giant pendulums of different colors appeared between our two monsters and swung toward Phantomus, pushing my ace away. "Of course, we take the one hundred damage from this attack."

 **『** **Fragment #1 & Fragment #2 LP: 1000 - 100 **→ **900** **』**

* * *

 **Pendulum Burst (Trap) Continuous**

 **The first time each Pendulum Monster and/or card in the Pendulum Zone(s) you control would be destroyed each turn, by battle or card effect, it is not destroyed. You can send this card to the Graveyard: Target 1 face-up Pendulum Monster you control; destroy all monsters on the field, expect for that target. If you control a face-up Pendulum Monster, except the turn this card was sent to the GY: You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 Pendulum Monster you control; it cannot be targeted nor destroyed by battle or card effects until the end of this turn.**

* * *

Damn it! Why were our dueling skills so evenly matched? I haven't felt so much pressure being put on me even during my duel with Nightshroud. No matter how much I and Avice tried to push, they were always able to push back with equal strength.

"Retro-Factured Android destroys HERO Boy." My sister lowered her head while our monster charged and slammed its metal fist against the hero's face, destroying it. "I set two cards and end my turn…"

"In the end, you failed to cause any major damage for the second time." The Fragment that played the N.G. deck sighed. "You disappoint me."

I clenched my fist in anger. We are disappointing him?! I will show him disappointing on my next turn!

"My turn!" the Fragment declared, drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Fragment #2] LP: 900, Hand: 1** **』**

I looked my opponent over once again. His hand was empty so the card he got might be everything or nothing.

"Heh, perfect." SHIT! "I activate _Wavering Eye_ s! With this spell, I destroy as many cards in the Pendulum Zones as possible and then for each card destroyed a different effect is applied!"

"Also, due to Pendulum Burst, none of our cards is going to get destroyed!" The HERO Fragment explained and two lightnings fell from the sky, hitting the cards inside our scales, destroying them. "And since a single card was destroyed, you take five hundred damage!"

After destroying our Pendulum Scales, the lightnings fell down onto us to finish the job.

"I banish Damage Diet from my Graveyard to halve the effect damage that I take!" Avice shouted and a crystal barrier formed above us, reflecting the lightnings elsewhere.

 **『** **Evan & Avice LP: 400 – 250 **→ **150** **』**

"It's pointless to be persistent!" the HERO Fragment told us.

"Due to Wavering Eyes destroying two cards, I also get to add a Pendulum Monster from my deck to the hand!" A card popped from the N.G Fragment's Deck and it played it. "Now prepare to face another similar face! Using the already set Pendulum Scale, I Pendulum Summon _**N.G. Phantom, the Chain Master**_!"

No… No way! I looked up at the sky, as the beam collided with the ground, creating an explosion of dark energy. A monster with the appearance of a human with ghostly pale skin and magenta eyes stepped onto the field. Most of its face was hidden by a red scarf. A black eye-patch hid his right eye and a matching hood covered most of his hair with only a few snow white bags showing from underneath, with a dark-red horn on the right side of his hood.

The monster wore a black leather long-coat with red tiger stripes patterned on the sides and two eyes in the middle. It had a silver shoulder plate on its left shoulder and a long black claw-like glove on his right hand that reached below the elbow. Multiple silver chains were wrapped around his waist and chest; the ends of the chains floated behind the monster with long black blades connected to them.

It was just too similar to Phantomus to be a mere coincidence.

* * *

 **N.G. Phantom, the Chain Master**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: DARK/Type: Fiend/Pendulum/Effect**

 **P.S: 6**

 **ATK: 2500/ DEF: 1800**

 **Pendulum Effect: You can target 1 face-up monster you control: Destroy all cards in your Pendulum Zones (min.1), and if you do, destroy all monsters your opponent controls whose DEF is lower that the targeted monster's ATK.**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summoned all face-up monsters your opponent controls lose 500 ATK and DEF until the End Phase of this turn. If this card is Tribute Summoned destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls with DEF less or equal to this card's ATK.**

* * *

"Chain Master's effect activates!" The Fragment wasted no time and its monster swung the silver chains toward my and Avice's monsters. "When Chain Master is special summoned, all monsters on the opposing side of the field lose five hundred attack and defense until the end of the turn! _**Sharp Chaser**_!"

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2500 - 500** → **2000**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 - 500** → **2000**

 **ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android, ATK: 1900 - 500** → **1400**

 **Astral Angel Skala Beschwörer, ATK: 200 - 500** → **0**

"Due to the effect of Pendulum Burst, my monsters can't be destroyed by card effects!" the N.G Fragment pointed out. With that, if we tried to use Retro-Fractured Android's effect to copy Mirror Force nothing would happen. "Let's finish this! Phantom, the Chain Master, attack Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer! _**Infinity Chains Blast**_!"

The Fragment's monster moved its right hand forward and clicked its fingers, sending all of the chains wrapped around its body to stab Phantomus into the chest.

"I activate the trap, _Iron Resolve_!" A metal shield formed in front of Phantomus and blocked the attack while Avice stood behind with her arm stretched out. "This trap, at the cost of half my Life Points, ends the Battle Phase!"

 **『** **Evan & Avice LP: 150/2 **→ **75** **』**

"With this, you can no longer touch any of our monsters!" vice declared and looked at me, smiling.

"Avice…" I smiled back at her. "I'm sure to win on my next turn for you!"

"Naïve!" the N.G. Fragment cried out. "I activate Pendulum Burst's second effect! I send it to the Graveyard and destroy all monsters on the field, expect for Phantom, the Chain Master!"

I opened my mouth to tell Avice to use Retro-Fractured Android's effect and copy the effect of Interdimensional Matter Transporter, but before I could do so, all of Phantom's chains pierced through our monsters' bodies and blew them up. My body tensed and I felt a chill, every cell within my body was yelling 'Danger!'. That inside voice wasn't wrong, the explosion didn't just destroy our monsters, it unleashed a powerful wave of energy that him me. I braced myself and tried to hold my ground, but it was pointless as the force knocked me off my feet and sent me flying back.

I could hear Oni and Elizabeth shouting mine and Avice's names, my body was in a lot of pain as well, despite the fact that this effect shouldn't have caused any damage to us. Why did we felt such a powerful blast? I looked down at my hand, it was shaking. Was I afraid of losing this duel? No, it was something else, the pain that I felt wasn't just from the impact. I didn't feel just physical pain, my chest was burning as well.

" _Is that as far as you can go? Pitiful."_

Tch, that dragon again. Why is my body reacting so powerfully to Beta Spike – Space Dragon's existence? My insides feel like they were set on fire because of that card and the thought that I needed that card just wouldn't leave my head for some reason.

That's it!

The strange feeling in my chest, the test that the Fragments talked about earlier, these two things were connected, I was sure of it! To begin with, the context behind this duel was rather non-existent, they just attacked us, saying that we were invaders, and while I never expected a complex line thought from a Fragment, the way they acted during the duel itself was anything but aggressive. This entire duel was a puzzle and I just found out the last piece to solve it!

"It's time to finish this." I raised back up and put a hand on top of my deck. The cards that I had in my hand were Future Draw, Synchro Strike and Synchro Cracker. Avice's set card was Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri, which was useless as well… I needed a good card! "My turn, DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 9 [Evan] LP: 75, Hand: 4** **』**

I looked at the card that I drew - _Timeline Overlap_. It would be enough to do the job.

"I activate the other effect of Rank-Up-Magic Time Terror Force from my Graveyard!" I shouted. "I banish it to target two Xyz monsters in the Graveyard, one of them will be revived and the other will become its Overlay Unit."

"Then I will banish Pendulum Burst to target Phantom, the Chain Master! Until the end of this turn, my monster can't be destroyed and you can't target it with card effects!" The Fragment exclaimed.

"Heh, smart move." I praised them. "This way Void Horror won't be able to absorb it as an Overlay Unit or destroy it using its effect. However, it isn't Void Horror that I'm going to revive…"

"WHAT?!" Heh, the confusion in their voices was priceless.

"Accept your destiny and raise to sever your new master, _Beta Spike – Space Dragon (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)_!" Sparks of electricity began to fly everywhere as the dragon raised from the Graveyard. Its tail swung around and it roared loudly. So it didn't like the idea of serving me, huh?

I'm going to fix that quickly.

"Shut up!" I yelled at the dragon and unsurprisingly the beast stopped firing electricity and turned around to glare at me.

" _Don't push your luck, kid!"_ The dragon roared at me. _"The only reason you aren't death yet is because I'm curious about your heart, but I'm starting to see that darkness has taken root inside your soul."_

"That's enough!" I declared and pushed my fist forward, then pressed it against my chest. "Compared to me, you are nothing! If it's answers that you seek, then first you must provide me with an answer! What is it that you seek?"

" _What is… that I seek?"_ The dragon repeated after me. _"What tricks are you trying to play on me, human?"_

" _There are no tricks!"_ I declared firmly. _"Answer my question, or are you too cowardly to reveal your true intentions?"_

" _Fine then."_ The dragon closed its wings and leaned its head forward, so that we were looking each other in the eyes. _"Although the world I came from no longer exist, I was created to ensure that life could prosper. To protect those who need protection, and judge those who do evil, those were the noble goals that I born to strive for. Now it's your turn, human."_

"My personal goal is to protect my sisters, prove our superiority." I admitted. Humans, they were all fools, sheep that would blindly follow the path of their own destruction and then in the history books they will put all of the blame on shepherd. They deserved no protection, no second chance and I wasn't going to waste my time with given them that. However… "But putting myself aside, the goals that I follow are those that drive my monsters forward. After all, every card that's in my deck is also a part of me, a piece of my soul!"

" _A piece of your soul, huh?"_ Beta Spike raised its head and then hissed. _"How can I know that you aren't lying to me?"_

"You can look inside my soul. It makes no difference for me." It made no difference for me. "If it's to protect and judge that you desire, then become a part of my soul. Give me the enlightenment that would allow me to walk down your path!"

"I can't detect a lie in your words, human." Beta Spike turned its body around and put its tail down in front of me. "Very well, if this is the prize that you are willing to pay in order to wield my strength, I'm going to accept it as well."

"Brother…" Avice whispered and stepped toward me.

"Don't worry." I smiled at her and then stepped onto Beta's tail. "Let's go, Beta!"

" _Right…"_ The dragon swung its tail upward, sending me flying as well. Moment later, I fell, but instead of hitting the ground, I landed on top of Beta's back. _"If you believes yourself to be strong, then lead me on the path to victory!"_

"Victory is already in my gasp." I told my monster. "Since the only monster on my field is DARK, I get to revive _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_ from my Graveyard. Then I activate _Timeline Overlap_ to release it and give half of its attack power to Beta Spike!" My golem broke into pieces and flew at Beta, covering its arms, legs and chest with a rocky armor.

 **Beta Spike - Space Dragon, ATK: 2500 + 600** → **3100**

" _This is a little uncomfortable, but it's going to work."_ Beta mumbled.

"With this, you will be able to deal six hundred damage to us." The N.G Fragment pointed out. "But that's not enough to defeat us!"

"You are wrong! Due to Timeline Overlap, the monster that got a boost through its effect can attack twice during this Battle Phase!" No set cards, no cards to activate their effects in the graveyard, this was checkmate! "Beta Spike – Space Dragon, end this duel with _**Twin Nova Spear**_!"

Electricity gathered at my monster's wings until it all burst and flew into the spear that was on top of its head. Beta threw its head upward and roared the parts of the blade began to move, those that reached its neck turned sideways to make space for the other plates that returned back. The top of the spear opened turning into two blades with an electric current in-between them. Beta Spike threw its head forward and shot toward Phantom, stabbing the monster in the chest. The ground underneath us began to shake and electricity shot all over the place, the Fragments screamed as my dragon's attack pierced through their monster and flew toward them next, knocking their feet off the ground.

 **『** **Fragment #1 & Fragment #2 LP: 900 - 600 **→ **300 - 600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan & Avice** **』**

After my dragon finished its attack, it landed back down and leaned its head forward, so I could jump back down. I looked back at Beta and it nodded at me before disappearing from the field.

"Just so you know, that last attack almost shock us as well." Avice pushed me on the shoulder.

"Sorry, a new monster." I didn't have much of a control over Beta's attack.

"You won again, Niichan!" Oni cried out and jumped to give me a big embrace. In other words, she had her arms wrapped around my legs while she rubbed her face against my stomach.

"They didn't disappear." Elizabeth joined us as well, but unlike the others, her attention was onto the Fragments that were lying at the other end of the street.

"Since this is their domain, they must have a stronger connection to this reality." I muttered. It would take more than a duel to erase them.

"So you managed to win after all." The Modern HERO Fragment sat back up.

"This means that you managed to past the test." The N.G. Fragment added.

"This entire duel was a test?" I groaned. Come on Eliz, how could you not have figured that out already?

"Indeed, the creator of this domain wanted us to see if you are the real ones and not some duplicates." The N.G. Fragment explained.

"So, what happens next?" Avice asked. "We passed the test and proved ourselves to be real, so what is our reward?"

"The truth why you three went transported to this reality." The Modern HERO Fragment told us.

Something cracked. I looked up and the golden castle had begun to move. No just that, the rings that connected with it separated and a blue laser fell from the castle. The tiny string of light fell in-between our groups. Was that supposed to be a portal? 'Cause I don't think that anything bigger than an ant would be able to go through it.

"Go on, touch it." The N.G. Fragment gestured toward the laser.

I looked back at my sisters, this didn't seem to be a trap, Beta would have known if it was, and that would mean that my ChronoDevils would have been able to learn about it through the dragon's mind. So, I stepped forward and put my hand under the light. It wasn't warm, in fact, I didn't feel anything at all, despite how intense it was in appearance. Maybe it was because of the gloves that I wore, who knows. But something happened. In a moment, so short that I wasn't even able to realize it, the ruins of the city around me were replaced by huge golden walls with eight feet tall statues of men and woman, that I never seen, lined next to the walls. A path made from a transparent blue material leant toward three thrones.

"What's this place?" El, who just appeared next to me out of thin air asked. A moment later, Avice and Oni were with us as well. They all must have followed after me by touching the light…

"A golden throne room." I said the first thing that came to mind. "It's pretty flashy though."

"Yeah, I didn't like the idea of a golden castle either."

Wait… It was a male voice that said that.

I jumped to the left and bumped into Eli as the voice suddenly alerted me of the new figure that was standing next to us. He was a tall man with spiky blue hair and a metal mask without any features expect for two eye holes. His hair was blue and spiky with glowing yellow eyes. He was wearing a black and red robe with chains starting from his arms, passing each other in front of his chest like an 'X' before wrapping themselves around the man's neck.

"But couldn't you have wasted a bit more time on the duel? I got two more piles of paperwork to write." the masked man told us.

* * *

 **Previews:**

 **Chapter 31: Legion of Corrupt Souls – Coregirum**

 **Summary:** As Graild, one of the three guardians of the Pendulum of Destiny explained the siblings the fate of the "Original Dimension" Berberus, one of the sapient Fragments created after its destruction invades the Sanctuary demanding the destruction of the newcomers. In order to save his sisters' lives, Evan takes on a duel against the strange creature, however he soon find himself overwhelmed by Berberus' Coregirum deck.

 **Chapter 32: Ashed Land of Kings and Queens**

 **Summary:** With his vicious strategies and combos Berberus manages to quickly overwhelm Evan's ChronoDevils and drives him into a corner. Seeing the boy pushed to his limits, Graild tells the siblings about the one who gave the beginning of the Original Dimension's destruction. Remember a moment from his own past, Evan allows his darkness to consume him and unleashes a fierce comeback.

* * *

 **A/N: So, if this chapters seems like me trying to milk a long dead fanfic, it's because that's exactly what I did there... And all of that was done so Evan could get Beta Spike, which... wasn't even there for most of the chapter. So, yeah. I'm not sure if anyone recognized the city in which they are, but it did appear in Arc-V, so could you guess where they currently are?**

 **On a more serious note, fanfiction seems to have messed up again, as earlier this week there was a bug that caused new stories and updates to not show in the index for a day and something... I also want to apologize to anyone who followed/favorited this story and I didn't give them a shotout, but I'm not getting any messages, so it's kind of hard to know if someone followed/favorited this story.**

 **That aside, I also began to look for a job and in case I'm able to find one, the updates of all of my stories will probably be non-existent for the next month or two since I'm looking for jobs in a difference city and I don't have a computer there to write on.**

 **Anyways, thanks to** SmokedSalmonSushi **for following this story and thanks to** SakushiRyu **for BOTH following and favoriting.**

 **Now onto the reviews.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Thanks for pointing out the mistake. There is one specific thing that I want to address though, and that was about me getting salty when responding to people's opinions on Evan x Rio. Truth is, I wasn't trying to be salty, I guess it's because I usually have a salty tone (?), but I really had fun reading and responding to people's opinions. Even when it's critism. So what I try to say is that, when you give me your opinion or** **critism on my stories, I'm taking all of them into consideration, and if I respond to them with an annoyed or angry tone, it's not because I'm angry, but my way of expressing myself is just like that.**

Darwin-18 **: I stated in previous A/Ns that I don't like giving real archetypes OC cards (ignore Red-Eyes), not just because I want to try and use the actual deck without any plot convinient bullshit cards, but also, because I'm worried that I might ruin the decks... In fact, I wanted to give Lightsworn an archetypal Fusion card and a Fusion Monster, but I just can't come up with that sort of effects would make it feel like a needed addition to the deck.**

 **Well, that's everything I got to say. Thanks for reading all of this and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	31. Chapter 31

**So many reasons we believe,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth",**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it wii lead us .**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon were mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Legion of Corrupt Souls – Coregirum

 **Evan's POV**

"The hell are you?" I slumped back before pointing at the masked man that appeared out of nowhere next to me.

"The full question should have been either who, or what, the hell am I, correct?" I narrowed my eyes as the strange man crossed his arms behind his back and the walked past us.

"You look like a creepy masked guy that likes to sneak up on little children, so the question is, where can I find a phone to call the cops?" Avice retorted back.

"Need a hand?" Eli walked over to me and reached out to help me stand up, but I slapped her hand away. I just fell down, I had no need of help from anyone to stand back up, less of all from my little sister. She seemed to make a small grimace when I rejected her help and turned her back to me. Are you serious? Do I need to act like a little baby that can't do anything by itself and cries every time it falls down to pump some self-esteem into her? Given the difference between or abilities she might need this kind of help to feel useful. Pathetic.

"I guess our conversation isn't going to get much smarter than this, so let's get this over with fast." The masked man sighed and teleported in front of the three thrones, sitting down on the left one. "Welcome to the Original Dimension! My name is Graild, I'm an interdimensional God-like being whose purpose is to look over reality and the Pendulum of Fate as well as write long-ass paperwork every time something unnatural happens to the time-space continuum. I had always told my partner, Uriel that we should but a computer to make this hassle a bit easier, but he always gives the 'Humans are going to create the perfect computer in a few more decades and we are going to but it when it gets cheaper' like, who will sell the best version of a product cheaper than its predecessors?"

"I think we might have walked onto something personal." Avice whispered to me and I nodded in agreement with her.

"Listen, if you are busy at the moment, you can just show us where the exit is and we will leave you, ok?" I suggested to the weird masked man. I already had no desire to stay in the same room with this man any longer anyway…

"Oh, nonononononono!" Graild waved his arms hastily. "Talking with you is the only break from work that I'm allowed outside of my day offs, but since I'm allowed only one of these every five million years, it won't be soon that I get the chance to sit down and relax. Talking about days off, last time I accidentally teleported inside a black hole and by the time I managed to escape not only has my break ended, but I also had eight hundred years' worth of paperwork waiting on my desk. It was a nightmare to write all of that and… I changed the topic again, didn't I?"

"I don't think we have picked a topic in the first place." I replied. Oni and my sisters were already starting to get used to the castle. Avice and Oni were sitting on the ground looking over their deck while Eli was watching the huge statues lined next to one another in the ends of the room. At least they found something to do while we were there.

"Yes, then I better explain things fast." Graild shook his head and disappear from the throne, appearing in front of me.

"Stop that!" I shouted at him. I swear if he teleported in front of my face one more time I would… Actually I was planning to hit him in the face, but there's a mask protecting it, so that might be a bad idea.

"Sorry, it's just so fun to see you get scared. It's funny when your change from being a Gary Sue to 'I'm scared shitless' in a matter of moments." Graild seemed to be smirked under his face as he said that.

Wait, what did he mean by me being a Gary Sue?

"I just wonder where I should start with the explanation…" Graild rubbed his chin. The only suggestion I could give him was to keep the explanation shorter than his bitching. This place might not have a day circle, but I would much rather spent my time down in the ruined city running for my life from corrupted monsters than to listen to this bastard running his mouth for ten more minutes.

"Why don't you start with where we are?" Eli asked, turning her back to the statues.

"Ah, how nice of the creator to make you ask the exact question that would allow me to explain all of this in a chronological way and make things easier for everyone to understand." Did I look stupid standing there, having no idea what this man was talking about?

"This is the afterimage of the Original World, the singular dimension that existed in place of the four Dimensions!" Graild threw his arms in the air as he said that. "Or that was the case until some bitch appeared with her shining bracelets and fucked up the space-time continuum so hard that it began to open portals and consume from other timelines, creating the, as you like to call them, Fragments."

"I thought that Tracers were the ones that got pulled from other timelines." Avice pointed out.

Graild paused and put a hand on his chin in thought again. Please don't tell me that he messed up the backstories. From a certain point of view, it did make sense since some of the Fragments we met had the appearance of characters from previous YuGiOh animes, but if they were also humans pulled out of their own reality by an outside force, what made us, Tracers, different from the enemies that we were hunting. After a minute Graild shook his head and continued.

"A Fragment is born as a result of material from other worlds getting thrown in the space between dimensions, gaining sapience on its own. After getting created, a Fragment usually floats through the space-time until it crashes into a timeline with a constant rules for physics. It then either possess a host there or, if the corruption has reached a higher level, it transforms into a doppelganger of a human from one of the timelines that it passed through and gains the memories of that human as its own."

"So they are corrupted matter…" Ha, I could get behind the idea of destroying an evil pile of dirt.

"They are a new sapient species that you three were murdering all around the Standard Dimension in cold blood!" Graild yelled at me. "I was the one who pulled you into this reality to be Tracers and do the job that I'm unable to do, not murder your allies!"

"Wait, allies?" Eli stepped toward and crossed her arms. "We were thought by the other Tracers in Standard that purging the dimensions from Fragments was the reason we were pulled into this mess to begin with."

"The information you were given was wrong because me and Uriel were the ones who transported the three of your to this reality." Graild said, rather calmly this time. "I actually met with you right in the bridge between your reality and the Standard Dimension and told you everything, but the three of you don't remember any of that, do you?"

"I do remember something." I closed my eyes and tried to focus onto remembering the day when everything started. "There was a voice that said: Thou shall be…"

"Thou shall be my emissary. Between Heaven and Hell, the Pendulum of Fate keeps swinging." My eyes widened. Graild actually quoted the words from back then. "Unlike the dimension travel devices that the Duel Disks use, my powers are unable to protect humans from the corruption of Spacetime, so that must have affected your memories and caused amnesia."

' _You don't say.'_ Was what I wanted to yell at that man, but that was just too much for me to take in. There was actually a reason why we got send to the Standard Dimension and we were told about it from the start. That just sounds like the most,

"I know that this sound like the most convenient amnesia, but you are here to entertain people with sub-part IQ so there's no place to complain about it." Wait, what?

"Oni's head hurts from thinking about this." Oni whined and pressed her head against Eli's hand, prompting my sister to pat her.

"So, if fighting the Fragments isn't the reason why we were sent here, what is it then?" Avice asked the question that was troubling me.

"The Pendulum of Fate itself." Graild's tone changed again. This time he sounded like someone trying to make a non-scary ghost story sound scary. I don't know how my mind came to make this comparison, but that's what I felt. "The three thrones you see behind me belong to the three guardians of the Pendulum – a powerful artifact that had the ability to change fate every time it swung. Punishing the evil, bringing dead to life, even restoring a dimension that was separated into four piece. With the Pendulum of Fate doing any one of these things was as easy as to cause the artifact to swing once."

"I sense that there is a 'But' somewhere in there." I sighed. Obviously if Graild had the power to restore the original dimension, he would have done it by now and the three of us wouldn't have been needed.

"Indeed there is. A very big 'but' as well. To ensure that this absolute power won't be given in the hands of a single being, we separated the Pendulum of Fate into three pieces that each one of us was supposed to hold onto." Saying that, Graild reached out with his left hand and a crystal formed inside of it. After several moments, the crystal turned into a long golden thread that ended with a crescent that held a shadowy dark green light locked between the ends of its blades.

"My pendulum is the one of fantasy, its powers are similar to the corruptive abilities of Spacetime exposure." Graild explained. "My friend Uriel's pendulum controls reality and is able to grand a miracle. The third and strongest pieces was the Pendulum of Faith. With the power to bring hope to people, its holder was Aron, a mortal human with abilities that could rival those of the very gods themselves. We recognized the kind of powers that he had and that his heart was in the right place, so me and Uriel turned him into a semi-god and let him become one of us."

After saying that, Graild disappeared again and reappeared in front of the very last statue that was at the right side of the corridor. I looked at the man that it was built to represent. It didn't have colors, but I could make out that he was wearing some sort of long red jacket with a large collar and had a top hat on his head. The man was also holding a staff in his left hand and unlike most of the other statues that had a neutral expression on their faces, he looked sad… So that was what Aron looked like?

"Unfortunately, Aron had gained a lot of enemies in his life, including the demi-gods from Grelyson and several other groups of interdimensional beings. He fought all of life against them, but eventually someone managed to defeat him. A sword pierced his heart, killing him, but in his last moment, he did something unthinkable. In order to avoid his killer from obtaining the power of the pendulum, he broke it to pieces which fell into the Original Dimension. We tried to collect them, but before we could get our hands on any of them, the world got split into four and the pieces disappeared somewhere into the newborn worlds."

That actually sounded... sad? I couldn't explain why I felt such a strong connection to this story, I'm not even sure if those emotions were mine or someone else's but I was equally amazed as I was sad for the man. Even with death at the doorstep, Aron still put his duty as a guardian first and made sure that no evil would be able to obtain the power of his pendulum by destroying it. Usually I would laugh at people for carrying so much for an object, but I just didn't feel like mocking this man's decision for some unknown reason. Was it respect? I had no idea!

Suddenly, the ground shook violently, like an earthquake just happened. I heard my sisters screaming, but there was also something else. The sound of metal hitting against metal echoed through the entire room, and probably the entire castle as well, with another shook following the sound, knocking all of us on the ground. Even Graild himself seemed shocked, and I use the word 'seemed' instead of 'looked' because his fucking mask hid the expression that he was making underneath it.

"N-neechan, w-was that an e-earthquake?" Oni's voice was trembling.

"I doubt there are any earthquakes in the sky." Avice muttered right before a third shook occurred.

"Just great." I glanced at Graild, hearing him whisper something out. "I expected him to show up, but not like this…"

"Who's attacking us?" I asked. Graild just confirmed that these shockwaves were a result of someone's actions and judging how 'gentle' they are handling the castle, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they didn't came here for cookies.

"Berberus, a sort of half Duel Monster, half God that the Spacetime Fragmentized and threw into the wasteland below us. Before coming here, he lived Grelyson, which was destroyed by, and I quote: 'A demon with half a soul'. He probably senses the four of you and came here to get his revenge."

"Wait? What do we have to do with that half soul demon-thingy?!" Avice questioned. She had a point, why did it attack after 'sensing' the four of us?

"That's a different origin story that I'm going to tell you if Berberus doesn't tear you to pieces first." Graild replied.

"Oh good, I-! Wait! IF?" Our survival isn't certain!?

"This castle doesn't get invaded a lot so the only defense we got are the walls around us. There's little that I can do if Berberus tears them down." Graild shrugged. "But don't worry, I can say for certain that instead of outright killing all of you, he is going to challenge you to a pointless duel because we need to have a justification to call this a part of the YuGiOh universe."

"Surprisingly, I didn't thought that, whatever Berberus is, might try to kill me with a card game." And now I feel like an idiot for expecting anything else.

"So, following the trait of how your story is going and that our official name is Tracers, I suppose that the reason you brought us to the Standard Dimension was to trace the fragments from the broken pendulum, isn't that right?" Avice asked our masked companion.

"You are just as sharp minded as I expected!" Graild chuckled and teleported next to my sister, surprising her. "Yes, tracing down the fragments was exactly why we created the Tracers. Although, we weren't able to make our intentions obvious from the start. Aron was a smart man, he wouldn't have broken the pendulum unless he was sure that the one who murdered him knew about its existence and how to use it. We were afraid that he might follow the tracers and murder them when the fragments are found, so instead we went for a more round-around way of doing this."

"What did you do then?" I asked him. I couldn't exactly grasp how exactly they would be able to conceal the tracers' actions. Was it what lead to our kind becoming enemies with the Fragments? Wait, where did _'our kind'_ came from? What am I thinking?

"When the original world was torn to pieces, most of its survivors were transported to one of the new dimensions and suffered amnesia, but there were also some who fell into the vortex that caused the remains of the original world to appear here. Many of them quickly faded from existence, but we were able to save some of them and turned them into the first wave of Tracers. The plan was to give them artificial memories and send them to the four dimensions where they would functionate as sleeping agents until we are able to form a second, stronger wave of Tracers and send them for support. Actually you two might already be familiar with one first wave Tracer, her name is Koharu."

"You mean the Yuma knockoff?" Why wasn't I surprised to hear that I wonder? She's so generic when I talked with her that she might as well be a blank cardboard disguised as a human.

"Yes, we gave some of them 'familiar' decks to make it easier for the second wave to identify them." That's pretty forward thinking actually… It's much harder to miss someone who has a Utopia or Stardust card than someone who runs, I don't know, Great Moth?

"But that was where the problems first raised." As Graild continued I almost rolled my eyes. "One of the Tracers, a Xyz Duelist called Hikaru was somehow able to overcome his fake memories and allied himself with Academia and the shadowy organization that manipulated the Professor into attacking the dimensions. That's when these Fake Tracers began to appear all over the place."

"Fake Tracers?" Great, so we got knockoffs as well?

"I'm not sure how, but somehow Hikaru and the group he began to work with, were able to take people from other realities and then use them as their personal army through lies, sometimes even brainwashing. They created the idea that Tracers' purpose was to destroy Fragments and then let their puppets indoctrinate themselves every time a new 'Tracer' pops into one of the dimensions, effectively creating a system that would absorb new members without Hikaru or his bosses needing to show themselves."

"So, since you were the one who called us here, does that mean that we are the actual second wave Tracers?" Eli asked while she held Oni close to herself.

"Yes, you are." Graild nodded. "That's why I didn't brought your 'Tracer' friends from the Standard Dimension here. Evan Greyson, Elizabeth Greyson and Avice Greyson, you three are the only second wave Tracers that were called to this breaking world from me. The pendulums that you are holding are a proof for that."

Ah yes, the pendulum that appeared within my hand when Oni dueled that Fragment. I pulled it out of my pocket and took a good look at it. With everything that happened in the last few days, I wasn't able to slow down for a bit and wonder what it was. My pendulum consisted of a red crystal (its color was similar to that of blood) with black demonic wings spread from the side of it and a halo covered in spikes held the crystal and the thread connected. I wonder, why everything that I get my hand onto must have such a demonic look to it.

"But Neechan doesn't have a pendulum!" Oni exclaimed and then she pulled a yellow pendulum from her own pocket. "Was that supposed to be for neechan?"

"No, this one linked with yourself so it belongs to you." Graild replied before looking over to Eli. "I'm not sure why none of the pendulum fragments in Standard didn't synchronize with you, but the fact that all of the pieces which were located in Standard felt your presence and came to you speaks volumes about your possibilities as Tracers. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what exactly caused the fragments to react this way, but I'm sure that the pieces hidden in the other dimensions won't do the same."

"What about Yuya's pendulum?" Avice put her own pendulum around her neck and turned toward Graild. "He has a pendulum as well and from what I heard it has powers."

"His Pendulum of Ruin is part of the Pendulum of Faith as well, but its powers are nowhere as important as you might think. We would be able to rebuild Aron's pendulum even without that one piece."

As soon as Graild said that, another shockwave knocked all of us on the ground. Damn it! It also came from much closer that it did last time, so that Berberus was getting near! I looked at my sisters, they didn't seem much worried about it, the expression on their faces said that they were more annoyed with getting knocked down every ten minutes. That feeling was definitely mutual between all three of us.

"So, since you mentioned something about the Pendulum of Fate being able to combine the four dimensions into one, is that what you plan to do once we collect the pieces?" Eli questioned while the sound of walls getting smashed became louder.

"Yep." At least Graild seemed to be honest about his intentions. "Once we managed to rebuild the Pendulum of Faith, I and Uriel will combine it with the Pendulum of Lies and the Pendulum of Truth to return everything in the order in which it was supposed to be."

"But if the dimensions fuse, what's going to happen with the people who are already living inside of them?" Damn you Elizabeth! Why must you always look at the morality behind every single action that someone wants to take?

"Well, they are all going to die probably, but their lives were a result of the splitting anyways, they aren't as real as they look." I facepalmed once Graild began to explain himself. Idiot! Just lie to her that everything is going to end up fine and that's enough to buy Eli on your side!

"So you are going to murder millions of people to bring back a piece of land!?"

"It's not as simple as this!" Graild shouted at my sister. "Because of the way the dimension was split, the four new ones didn't start to exist within their own space! They are all extending the space meant for the original one, making the barrier between realities become thin, which in turn allows materials and living beings to move freely between timelines, creating Fragments and other phenomenons that I don't even want to start explaining to you. There is also the strange connection that these other worlds share with this one!"

"They share a connection with this one? Didn't you say that this reality is just an after image? Like a ghost of the original dimension?" I had no idea how this entire space stuff works, so I was just going to let Graild explain things to me.

"One of the many headaches that I got while trying to explain the incident in my paperwork." Graild sighed and his head dropped. "When that woman divided the world, she didn't split it apart, but simply threw the old dimension into some sort of void that kept this world in a state between existence and non-existence, while creating four new ones to take its place. This caused the new worlds to overlay with the old one. Or, to explain it simpler, just imagine that this dimension is a horizontal line and all four dimensions are vertical lines that go through it."

"The reason that people don't realize such an overlay has happened is because of the state in which this dimension currently is…" Now I understood what Graild meant. "Since this world isn't solid, or in a permanent state of existence, it doesn't have effect on the other dimensions…"

"Exactly!" Graild shouted. "But this dimension is unstable, its current state isn't a permanent one and if somebody make just a single wrong move, it might appear within the other dimensions themselves. The amount of mass that's going to concentrate in a single area will be so big, that a crash between the worlds with cause the creation of black holes that will destroy everything. And with the barrier between realities being as thin as it is, those black holes might completely break it and then 'POP!', everyone is dead before they know it."

"If this is such a big problem, shouldn't other timelines where the Original Dimension has split suffer from it as well?" Eli raised an eyebrow.

"Timelines are different, most of the currently existing ones didn't have to deal with Grelyson's dimensional technology, which is putting pressure on the Spacetime continuum as well. A crisis is never a result of a single large-scale action, but of many small ones. A lot happened to this timeline and the split of the Original Dimension was just the last nail in the coffin." Graild rubbed the back of his head and his voice sounded… insecure?

"Is… destroying the four dimensions really the only way to restore the balance?" Eli looked up to Graild, I knew her well enough to realize that she was hoping for another way to do this.

"Fusing them together is the only way to avoid bigger consequences, but I'm trying to figure out a way to merge them without killing the inhabitants." Graild admitted. "I'm going to try my best, but we need the third pendulum in order to-"

Just then, something slammed hard against the front doors, leaving it bent inward. A second slam followed and this time the metal doors were thrown in the air like they were made from paper, before stopping midair. Graild stepped in front of us, holding out his right hand and then made a gesture with it, causing the doors to levitate down and land gently on the ground.

"I know that you are angry, but if I find a single scratch on my statues, I'm going to banish you from time and space, Berberus!" Graild was now pissed.

I looked down to the entrance where the large doors used to be and I could swear, my eyes probably went as big as dinner plates when I saw what Berberus looked like. Did anyone of you remember what Graild said about this creature being a part Duel Monster? Yeah, it wasn't among the human-looking ones.

The beast was a twenty feet tall werewolf with dark blue fur. Its head had a lion's mane with silver blades popping out of it, glowing blue eyes with circuit lines coming out of them and huge jaws. Its body wasn't just huge either, it was also covered in the same circuit patterns with blades coming out of its forearms and the back of its wrists.

"Overseer!" Berberus roared and pointed at Graild. "You know why I came here! I'm going to avenge my fallen comrades and you can't stop me!"

"I don't think you need to shout so much. As a side character who's going to lose his relevance after this two part duel, nobody really cares about your sad backstory." Could anyone explain to me why Graild used tropes there?

"But don't worry, I'm not here to stop you from getting revenge." Graild suddenly disappeared again and reappeared sitting on one of the thrones. "Just say on whom you want to get revenge first."

"Is it me, or did Graild just betrayed us?" Eli whispered to me. Well, he did warn us about this, so I couldn't say that his current actions were betrayal. Also, since we were his only Tracers, he wouldn't be really ok with letting us get torn apart by this beast.

"The boy!" Berberus roared and pointed at us. "His eyes, they are the same as the demon's! They are hiding the black flames burning inside of his heart!"

Berberus roared again and slammed its palms against the ground, creating two small craters while the blades on his left wrist came together to form a Duel Disk. Okay, let's just check something for a moment, ok? Elizabeth was a girl, Avice was a girl, and Oni was a girl… Oh geez, I'm the only boy after all.

"Ok, I don't mind dueling for my life, but I feel like this is a misunderstanding." I told the huge dog and put my Duel Disk onto my wrist. This would be the first time I get to have two duels right after one another! "It's really a stretch to murder anyone whose eyes remind you of someone you dislike. Unless, you are saying that I'm the demon, in which case you probably need professional help. Ever tried going to a psychotherapist?"

"Stop mocking him! It will only make him angrier!" Eli shouted at me from the side.

"But it's been fifteen minutes since I last mocked something! If I don't ridicule humans, or in this case angry two legged dogs, for a prolonged period of time my skills will start to fade."

"Ridiculing your own demise?" Berberus clenched its arms and blue flames burst behind his back before flying into his Duel Disk, transforming into cards. "You truly are a being beyond salvation!"

I rolled my eyes. Salvation my ass! I was never the type to believe that deliverance from one's wrongdoings was possible by having faith in something or someone else. Only through their own actions humans could save themselves. I was going to teach this beast a few things about the power of determination!

"Are you saying that you are going to kill me?" I chuckled activating my Duel Disk. "I'd like to see you try, doggy."

"Duel!" both me and Berberus shouted as holograms appeared above us, showing our Life Points.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Berberus LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I set a monster and two cards." Berberus didn't even bother to ask who should go first before playing his cards. "With this, I'm going to end my turn."

This formation, for him to just set a monster would mean that it's a weak card and he doesn't expect it to survive for long and is going to use it as a shield. Therefore, the traps that he set must be meant to either protect him in case I take out his monster before the Battle Phase, or to protect his monster for a turn. I won't have to hold back from using firepower, but neutralizing the threat of his set cards should be a priority. Best way to do so would be…

"My turn!" I shouted, drawing my sixth card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"You wasted your first turn setting up a defense and that's going to be the reason you lose." I told Berberus before starting with my move. Unfortunately, I had only two monsters in my hand, with one of them being a Level 5, but I had a way to solve that problem. "I activate the Spell Card, _Gear Repair_! You see, using this spell, I can discard a DARK monster from my hand to Special Summon a ChronoDevil of the same level from my deck! I'm going to discard the Level Three, _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ to Special Summon _ChronoDevil Summit Hornet (Lv. 3, ATK: 1000)_!"

My insect monster appeared on the field. Although since it wasn't Normal Summoned, I was unable to use its first effect. Oh well, I didn't have monsters to summon with it anyways.

"I activate ChronoDevil Protector Golem's effect, as all monster I control are DARK I can revive him from the graveyard!" The golem raised from the ground and kneeled in front of me with its 2000 defense points. "I overlay my Level Three ChronoDevil Protector Golem and ChronoDevil Summit Hornet!"

The cosmic portal opened above me this time and my monsters turned into dark purple energy before flying inside of it.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)!"_

I chanted as my Xyz Monster flew through the portal and landed in front of me, swinging its weapon a few times before turning around to look at me.

" _Heh, I'm going to be the starting move again, boss?"_ Void Lancer asked me. It seemed that he liked getting called out so early in the game.

"I activate Void Lancer's effect to detach both of its Overlay Units! In return for doing that, my monster is going to preventing you from activating those set cards on your field! Void Lancer, do _Voided Zone_!" My monster nodded and raised its arms, creating two spears of dark energy which then slammed into Berberus' set cards, preventing them from activating while Void Lancer was in play.

Berberus didn't seem to react to my move. He was calm, probably realized that I won't be able to launch a direct attack after I destroyed his set monster. But that didn't matter because I already got his cards to protect me!

"Let's go Void Lancer! Attack his set monster with Ray Explosive Lance!" My monster charged forward and pushed its spear forward.

Berberus' set card flipped face-up and his monster got revealed. It was a tiny humanoid without arms or legs. Its head was a skull with blue drawings across its eye sockets, which were filled with a black mist. The monster was also wearing a thick layer of fur that reminded me of the clothes worn by Celts barbarians. Does that comparison seem random to you? 'Cause I loved studying military history when I was young, I could someday even tell you about the military references that are present in my own ChronoDevil deck, but I'm fighting a talking dog right now.

Wait, wasn't dueling a talking dog also in an episode of Zexal?

"I activate the effect of my monster!" Berberus raised his right claw. "When _**Coregirum Recruiter**_ is destroyed and send to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon two _Coregirum Tokens (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ to my field!"

Recruit's skull reappeared on the field and burst with the dark mist inside of it transforming into two ghosts with a single blue eyes in the center of their bodies.

* * *

 **Coregirum Recruiter**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: If this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 2 "Coregirum Tokens" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position. These Tokens cannot be Tributed for a Tribute Summon, expect for the Tribute Summon of a "Coregirum" monster.**

* * *

" _Damn it! We just destroyed one and two more appeared to take its place!"_ Void Lancer cursed returning to my side of the field.

"Coregirum is the fallen battalion of Grelyson's forces!" Berberus gestured toward his two tokens. "But even in death, these units won't know peace until their objective is complete. You can destroy their bodies as many times as you wish, but their souls will always return to haunt you."

"We will see about that." I took a card from my hand and put it in my Duel Disk. "I play a facedown card and end my turn there."

"Then it's back to me!" Berberus roared, almost literally and drew a card.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Berberus] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate the effect of _ **Coregirum Ayyar**_ from my hand! I can Special Summon it on my field by releasing one Coregirum Token!" The token on the left side began to glow and transformed into a gigantic monster.

The creature had grey skin that was decaying with its veins and muscles covering its entire body. The monster's body had a large metal nail stuck in its left knee, making it unable to completely unfold and also caused its body to lean more toward the left side. Its right arm was also torn with its bones literally hanging down while the flesh was moved by the black mist filling the zombie's body. The undead warrior wore a broken rusty armor that covered parts of its upper chest and ankles along with a metal collar around its neck and a helmet on its head that had an arrow stuck in the left eye hole while the right side was broken showcasing a part of the decaying head with an empty eye socket.

First he played a monster that resembled warriors from the antiquity, then a medieval warrior? That's like history class all over again!

* * *

 **Coregirum Ayyar**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 2300/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: If this card is in your hard or Graveyard: You can Tribute 1 "Coregirum Token" on your side of the field to Special Summon this card. Once per turn, you can target 1 "Coregirum" monster in your Graveyard: Destroy 1 card you control, and if you do, Special Summon that target, but its effects are negated, also it cannot attack.**

* * *

"I'm now going to activate Ayyar's effect and destroy one of the facedown cards that you sealed to revive _Coregirum Recruiter (Lv.2, DEF: 0)_ with its effects negated!" the giant zombie roared and pushed the grown, pulling the corps of the smaller undead from the ground. "Next, I tune my Level Seven _Coregirum Ayyar_ to my Level Two _Coregirum Recruiter_!"

The small zombie threw the fur over its head and transformed into two rings that flew around the bigger one, after which a beam of light consumed the zombie and Berberus howled.

" _The warrior protector of light will climb over the corpses of their fallen bodies and saturate the ground with the wicked blood of darkness! Synchro Summon! Souls screaming in the fading shadows!_ _ **Coregirum Bane Centurion**_ _!_ "

A high pitched scream came out of the light and was followed by six ten feet long arms made of bones which were held by broken chains. Four if the hands held a damaged and rusty Gladius each – which is a roman sword if you wonder; one hand held a Javelin – the roman spear; and the last one carried a Scutum, which was the rectangular shield that you see in films about ancient Roma.

After the arms appeared, they were followed by the monster's head, which was a skull with black mist inside the eye sockets and a roman helmet with a transversely mounted black crest. Its body was long and reptile-like with sharp bones sticking out of the front, protecting the body like a ridiculously long ribcage. The strange skeleton also had torn pieces of armor mounted to its shoulders, waist and ankles, with black shackles on its left leg.

* * *

 **Coregirum Bane Centurion**

 **Level: 9/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2800/DEF: 2300**

 **1 "Coregirum" Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner Zombie-Type monsters**

 **Effect: If this card is sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 2 "Coregirum Tokens" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can Tribute 1 "Coregirum" monster you control to target 1 face-up "Coregirum" monster on your field. The targeted monster gains 500 ATK and is unaffected by your opponent's Spell and Trap Cards until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"Now behold the power of Coregirum!" Berberus threw its claws in the air and several ghosts flew above its head, crying and hissing. "I release my second Coregirum Token to Special Summon _Coregirum Ayyar (Lv.7, ATK: 2300)_ from my Graveyard!"

'He is coming hard at me!' I gritted my teeth and prepared for the upcoming attacks while Void Lancer moved in front of me to protect me.

"Coregirum Ayyar attack Void Lancer!" Berberus barked out and his monster jumped over the field, slamming its fists on top of Void Lancer's head.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" The impact from the first attack launched my body backward and knocked me on my back. Not only that, but for some reason I also felt coldness in my chest, it was like someone was slowly freezing my insides.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 - 500** → **3500** **』**

"Evan!" "Niichan!" My sisters and Oni cried out toward me, but I had to focus on the duel instead of them.

"Void Lancer's effect activates! I destroy the card that it targeted for its effect to save it!" I was able to still talk and my monster used its spear to hit Coregirum Ayyar in the head and then threw it to Berberus' last set card, destroying it.

"The effect of my Spell that you just destroyed - _**Coregirum Double-Dealing**_!" The card that I just erased reappeared on the field, its artwork depicting a human in knight armor preparing for a glorious battle while behind it, its shadow took on the appearance of its deceased future self. "When I got a Coregirum Token on my field, this card lets me search one Level Fire or higher Coregirum monster, but when it's destroyed from the field, it lets me search a Level Three or lower Coregirum from my deck! I expected you to start with something meant to seal my set cards, so that's why I played it instead of waiting for the tokens."

* * *

 **Coregirum Double-Dealing (Spell) Normal**

 **While you control a "Coregirum Token", you can add 1 Level 5 or higher "Coregirum" monster from your Deck to your hand. When this Set card is sent to the Graveyard by an opponent's card effect, you can add 1 Level 4 or lower "Coregirum" monster from your Deck to your hand.**

* * *

His set cards were meant to bait me into attacking? That would mean that his simple first turn was all just a preparation for an ambush! I see now, it wasn't just the way his cards looked, the playstyle of his deck resolves around military units and strategies. Maybe this would make defeating this talking wolf a bit more entertaining.

"I add **Coregirum** **Pathfinder**." Berberus muttered showing me the card before putting it with the other ones that were in his hand.

* * *

 **Coregirum** **Pathfinder**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 600/DEF: 400**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 "Coregirum Token" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0). Once per turn: You can Fusion Summon 1 "Coregirum" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck by using this card and any number of "Coregirum Tokens" on the field as Fusion Materials.**

* * *

"Now let's finish your monster! Coregirum Bane Centurion, destroy Void Lancer! _ **Vengeance of the Legion**_!" the giant zombie roared and swung its blades down on my Void Lancer, who blocked the attacks with its spears and pushed back, only for Bane to slam its shield into his face and then impale him with the Javelin.

 **『** **Evan LP: 3500 - 1000** → **2500** **』**

I felt the same icy touch go up my throat, making it harder for me to breathe before something suddenly hit me in the guts. I fell on my knees and began to cough violently. Half of my body was already feeling like my insides were made from ice and my chest was hurting so much that I start to believe that my lungs might be surrounded by ice.

"Evan!" Eli cried out toward me and, from the corner of my eyes, I saw her reaching out with one of her hands towards me.

"I'm fine!" I coughed one last time and wiped my mouth with the back of my jacket's sleeve. There was blood on the sleeve…

"You look pale!" Avice shouted next. Yeah, I was feeling like my insides were freezing, so that might have something to do with it.

"What tricks are you playing on me?" I asked the big two-legged doggy.

"Death has a cold touch, mortal." Berberus replied and closed his eyes. "This is a duel of Darkness, every time you lose life points, your body will grew colder until your blood finally freezes and your heart stops beating. You will feel the agonizing pain of dying all through this duel and it's only going to get worse for you the longer we keep going."

"That should be against the rules!" Avice turned toward Graild, but the masked bastard just shrugged.

"Berberus did say that he wanted to kill the three of you, but he never stated if it's going to happen after, or during the duel. Even if I don't like it, there's no rule about slowly torturing your opponent during a duel. Actually, I would be more worried if there were any rules about torturing someone you are playing a trading card game with."

"During the End Phase of my turn, the effect of my trap activates from the Graveyard!" Berberus reached out and a ring formed under the shadow of his claw. "By banishing a monster in my Graveyard, I'm able to set _**Testudo Formation of Coregirum**_! And with that, I'm going to end my turn."

* * *

 **Testudo Formation of Coregirum (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 "Coregirum" monster on the field; this turn, the first time that monster would be destroyed by battle or card effects, it won't be destroyed. During the End Phase: If this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish 1 "Coregirum" monster from your Graveyard; Set this card, but banish it when it leaves the field.**

* * *

"Then it's my turn again!" I sighed and put my fingers on the top card of my deck. My hand was trembling from how cold my body was feeling and I still had 2500 Life Points. I didn't want to imagine what it would feel like if they dropped further. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 2500, Hand: 4** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my field, I can Special Summon _ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2300)_ from my hand!" The large dragon appeared on my field and swung the two lances that it carried. "Then I activate _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ 's effect to revive it from my Graveyard! And activate _Timeline Overlap_ to release it, giving Clocklord Dragon half of my golem's attack along with the ability to attack twice per turn!"

 **ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon, ATK: 2300 + 600** → **2900**

"Next, I activate Clocklord's effect to reduce Coregirum Bane Centurion attack power by twenty-nine hundred!" My dragon roared and swung its spears, throwing them at the skeleton, piercing it body. Heh, the Synchro's effect was only able to negate spell and trap effects that would target it, but not monster effects.

 **Coregirum Bane Centurion, ATK; 2800 - 2900** → **0**

"Destroy them now, Clocklord Dragon!" My monster hissed and flew up, throwing its spears at the defenseless skeleton.

"I activate Bane Centurion's effect!" Suddenly, the monster turned its blades and used them to pierce its own skull, releasing the souls trapped inside of it. "I release Bane Centurion to increase Ayyar's attack by five hundred and Special Summon two _Coregirum Tokens (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ to my field!"

 **Coregirum Ayyar, ATK: 2300 + 500** → **2800**

"Then I'm going to attack Ayyar with Clocklord Dragon!" My monster just had to change direction before bringing its spears down onto the zombie's head.

"I activate my trap _Testudo Formation of Coregirum_ , to negate Ayyar's destruction once this turn!" A ghostly shield appeared before Berberus' monster and protected it from the spear. "Of course, I'm still going to take the damage."

 **『** **Berberus LP: 4000 - 100** → **3900** **』**

"Tch, then with the effect of _Timeline Overlap_ I'm going to give my Clocklord Dragon a second attack!" My monster jumped away from the ghostly shields and then threw its spear from below, piercing the zombie's stomach before blowing it up.

 **『** **Berberus LP: 3900 - 100** → **3800** **』**

I breathed slowly and wiped the sweat that began to form on my forehead. After all of this, I was only able to deal 200 damage to my opponent and he also got two tokens to replace his destroyed monsters. Seeing how so many of his cards were focused around these tokens, I was starting to worry more about them than the huge boss monsters they create.

"I end my turn there. The attack power of my ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon returns back to normal during this End Phase." There wasn't anything else I could do with the cards inside my hand.

 **ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon, ATK: 2900 - 600** → **2300**

"Niichan looks tired!"

"It's probably because of the wolf's tricks." The dog's tricks, Eli. This thing isn't vicious enough to be called a wolf.

"Then I draw!" Berberus said. Ha, it seemed that seeing me freezing made his anger die down a little, sick bastard.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Berberus] LP: 3800, Hand: 4** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Coregirum Pathfinder (Lv.3, ATK: 600)_!" Berberus' new monster crawled out of the ground to join the two tokens already on the field.

The creature was wearing torn grey robes and hood with a blue scarf that weren't able to cover very well its greyish skin and the fact that its upper jaw was torn open so that its empty eye socket faced the sides instead. The monster was also hunched, a part of its spine sticking out of its back with a hand stuck on top of it, holding a rusty knife. At least these undead monsters were giving big doggy over there a fair competition for the ugliest creature in the room.

"I activate the effect of my Pathfinder!" Berberus crossed its claws in front of its body and the three undead on his field began to glow in different colors. "Once per turn, I can Fusion Summon using it and any number of Coregirum Tokens on my field!"

"Now we got Fusion Summoning as well." I groaned while Berberus' three monsters flew into the colorful vortex that merged them together into whatever horror the dog was going to unless next.

"Seeker of the true path, become one with the souls of fallen warriors and bring the beginning of a new champion! Fusion Summon! The undead warrior crawling with hundred blades! _**Coregirum Plague Immortal**_!"

So, first this time came the monster's head, it was covered by a golden mask that hide its face with black mist coming out of the eyeholes. After that, the monster's fifteen feet long body crawled out of the vortex using the blades sticking out of its bleeding skin as legs, just like like a centipede. The armor on its arms was torn showcasing that only the bones remained to grip onto the additional swords. Instead of legs at the end of the body, the zombie had large metal nails that were forcefully put in place of its amputated limbs. The monster's black armor also had been damaged, large infected wounds, filled with small blades inside of them, were covering the creature's back and its belly.

* * *

 **Coregirum Plague Immortal**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 2000**

 **1 "Coregirum" Effect monster + 1 or more "Coregirum Token"**

 **Effect: If this card is sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 2 "Coregirum Tokens" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position. When this card is Fusion Summoned: You can target cards on the field, up to the number of monsters used for the Fusion Summon of this card; destroy those targets. Then this card gains 300 ATK for each card destroyed by this effect.**

* * *

"Plague Immortal's effect activates! When it's Fusion Summoned, I can destroy a number of cards on the field up to the number of materials I used to summon it!" the insect-like zombie cried out and fired the blades attached to its body, cutting through Clocklord Dragon and my set card.

"Then Plague Immortal gains three hundred attack for every card that it destroyed!" The blades that destroyed my cards glowed and flew back to the insect getting absorbed into its belly.

 **Coregirum Plague Immortal, ATK; 2400 + 300*2** → **3000**

"This is the end, mortal!" Berberus howled at me.

"Niichan!"

"Evan!"

"Brother!"

"Such an obvious cliffhanger!"

"Graild, shut up!" I yelled at the last one.

* * *

 **Avice: Hey there guys! It's time for Avice's review section again! And we got TWO new reviews! Wow!**

 **Chapter 32: Ashed Land of Kings and Queens**

 **Summary:** With his vicious strategies and combos Berberus manages to quickly overwhelm Evan's ChronoDevils and drives him into a corner. Seeing the boy pushed to his limits, Graild tells the siblings about the one who gave the beginning of the Original Dimension's destruction. Remember a moment from the past, Evan allows his darkness to consume him and unleashes a fierce comeback.

 **Chapter** **33:** **Back the Old Route**

 **Summary:** After returning back to the Standard Dimension, the Greysons are called for a special meeting with the Lancers to talk about Sora's escape and their future actions in the incoming Dimensional War.

 **Avice: Albeit the new reviews are a bit shorter, we hope that the actual chapters will be satisfying.**

 **Chapter** **34:** **Second Round Begin!**

 **Summary:** The second round of the Miami Championship begins with a surprising duel where Oni and Tatsuya have to face against each other despite being from the same school! During the same time a masked duelists appears in front of Evan and Avice respectively…

 **Avice: Uh... Shouldn't there be a system to ensure that duelists from the same school won't have to face each other? 'Cause this looks like the perfect way to ruin frindships to me.**

* * *

 **A/N: And done! Wow, despite how much time it was since the last update, this entire thing took me only two days to write.**

 **So, I have to say, I got the most fun writing Graild. Some of you might, or might not, have noticed it, but I enjoy to make fun of my stories and writing in general and I used Graild to do the same thing here as well. I know that for many of you this story isn't much different from most of the other Arc-VOC knockoffs that you can find in the index and I admit that Arc-VOC inspired me, or more precisely, gave me the courage to try and post my story on this site without fearing that it might get hate.**

 **Sadly, I was never able to find the first story that I read on this site, which was also the one that gave me the inspiration to write Arc-Twins and all of my YGO stories after that, including this one. I don't even remember what it's name was, just that its first chapter was about the main character gettig teleported inside YGOPro with their friend and dueled some sort of monster. I'm not even sure if the story is still here, nor if the writer is active, but if they are and by some very** **minimal chance they are actually reading this, thanks for giving me the inspiration to write.**

 **Also, if we take that the Greysons are breaking the 4th wall because they know that they are inside the YGO Universe and** **Graild breaks the 4th wall because he knows that this is a fanfiction set in the YGO Universe, does that mean that** **Graild is actually breaking the 8th wall?**

 **Back to the serious notes. It turned out that it wasn't fanfiction that messed up by now showing who followed/favorited my story. After a short investigation on my own, I found that it was because I had disabled my** **Plus+ Alert. Also, is it called the Plus Alert, or the Plus Plus Alert?**

 **Ok, enough with the stupid questions. Thanks to** TachyonDragonKing **,** Nonexistent Existence **and** Starman 003 **for BOTH following and favoriting this story!**

 **Also, I got SIX reviews since last time? I know that most of them are from the same users, but wow!**

Ethan Kironus **: We are just scratching the surface of his problems...**

ScalchopWarrior **: The Arc-Twins universe we saw in last chapter isn't the same as the one from my story. The difference between them is that Evan and Elizabeth never fell into the other universe because if they did, that would have caused more continuity problems than it would solve. Another thing about this, I changed Chronealities to ChronoDevils because the former was outright broken and WAY too overpowered. Also, I never created Twins!Avice's deck, so LOL.**

Starman 003 **: Ok, you actually caught me by surprising praising the decks because... Some of them are actual trash and others aren't creative at all. If you don't mind, I will use the response to your review in order to go to a mini rant about my decks. First, I can't for the love of me write a proper Oracle Sister deck. That's also why Elizabeth has so few duels compared to Avice and Evan. I just can't make her effects in a way that would allow the cards to be equally useful both when her Life Points are lower than the opponent and when they are higher.**

 **Compared to that, ChronoDevil and Astral Angel are like my favorite children when it comes to selfmade decks. They both have an unique playstyle in their own way and their effects were built with the meta in mind, but the main inspiration for both of them was Yusei's deck and its ability to combinate different cards to create new and innovative tactics.**

 **Also, thanks on your response to my romantic idea for Evan.**

ThePLOThand **: I heard the story that you suggested to me and it's actually very good. My only problem would be that it's set in DM because, honestly, for me DM's dueling was pretty boring. Yes, that's how the game was back then, but it's just meh for me. Even then, I have to say that the fanfiction** Dueling Trigger Finger **by** draconichero21 **was able to make the duels more interesting that it was in the anime.**

Guest **: Thanks for the review!**

 **So, that should be all for today and the end of this chapter, but there's a question that I would like to ask you guys! You can take this as a Question of the Chapter, although I'm not going to make that a thing because other stories already did, I don't want to copy, and you don't seem interested in my questions...**

 **Nevertheless, here is my question for you guys: Do you think that Evan is a Mary/Gary Sue?**

 **I made a joke about it somewhere at the start of the chapter, but I'm actually amazed that no one complained to me about Evan's character.** **It might be author bias, but I personally didn't see him as a Mary Sue and studied the term a lot to make sure that he won't come out as a** **Mary Sue. Heck, I even did several online tests to ensure it.**

 **Anyway, what is your take on this question? I would enjoy hearing what you think about Evan and, well, the Greysons in general and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	32. Chapter 32

**So many reasons we believe,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth",**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it will lead us .**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Ashed Land of Kings and Queens

 **Evan's POV**

"It's over, mortal." Berberus stated. "Can't say I expected much, but you were still able to disappoint me."

I had to admit, things were pretty bad for me. Berberus was controlling a monster with 3000 ATK while I had only 2500 Life Points with nothing to protect me from a direct attack. No monsters, no set cards, I had only one card in my hand and it wasn't a hand trap. Is that really it? Am I going to actually lose the duel against this two legged dog? No, it can't be! I don't want to lose this match! Heart of the cards, please guide me!

Just kidding!

"I activate Critical Overload's effect from my Graveyard!" I said, activating the effect of the card that my opponent just destroyed. "When this trap is send to the Graveyard, I can destroy one card you control and then draw a card from my deck!"

"You what!?" Berberus couldn't do anything but grit his teeth in anger as a portal from the Graveyard opened on my field and fired a lightning that stuck his Coregirum Plague Immortal, dropping the monster into pieces of flesh and bones that disappeared.

"Did you really think that I would let my guard down?" I asked. "You should have figured out that my set card was a bait when I didn't activate it on my previous turn! We could twist the facts and call you a Duel Monster all that you want, but the truth is, you are nothing more than a dog! And dogs are better at following orders than acting on their own!"

"It seems that yours insolence knows no bounds." I curiously tilted my head. What insolence? I was just telling it the facts and why it would stand no chance of defeating me. "But, my turn is not over yet!" Blue flames burned into the creature's eyes as it raised its palm forward. "I activate Coregirum Plague Immortal's effect! Since it was sent to the Graveyard, two _Coregirum Tokens (Lv. 1, DEF: 0)_ appear on my field!"

Back to those tokens again. I was seriously starting to get tired of seeing them getting summoned every turn. But these tokens were mentioned in the text of almost every card that Berberus played so far, so I was already one hundred percent sure that they were the playmakers of his deck. If I'm to inflict any serious damage and break his formations, I should focus on getting more monsters on my field in order to destroy those tokens before he could get the chance to use them. I guess it wouldn't have been bad if I added at least one Token Thanksgiving or Token Feastevil into my deck beforehand.

"I activate Coregirum Ayyar's effect from my Graveyard!" Berberus declared. "I release one Coregirum Token in order to Special Summon Ayyar!" The ground in front of Berberus broke and the huge undead raised from it, absorbing one of the tokens into its rotting flesh, giving it a soul. "Next, I use Ayyar's second effect to destroy my second token and revive _Coregirum Bane Centurion (Lv.9, ATK: 2800)_ with its effects negated!"

Unbelievable! That dog momentarily replaced all of its low level tokens with powerful monsters like it was nothing. So that was the purpose of the tokens, not only to act as a last line of defense, but also as a way for the dog to infinitely revive its monsters. I hate to admit it, but that was actually a remarkable strategy that could only backfire if I had a large number of cards that inflict piercing damage.

Which I don't. Therefore, this was going to get a lot more painful for me.

"If he attacks niichan with both monsters, niichan is going to lose!" Oni exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, a monster revived by Ayyar's effect is also unable to declare an attack." Berberus admitted. "But even if this isn't going to be a fatal strike, it's still going to hurt a lot! Coregirum Ayyar attack the opponent directly!"

The huge zombie roared and charged at me, pulling its fist back, preparing to strike. I grit my teeth and put my hands in front of my face preparing for the attack. Its attack points were 2300, which meant that I would have only 200 Life Points left after this!

Just as I was thinking about this, Ayyar roared again and pumped its fist forward, slamming it into my guts. The only things I was able to feel was the air getting squeezed out of my body, like I was a rubber duck or something with my blood and internal pushing against my spine and ribcage. Sound, smell all of my senses seemed to completely fade away and even my vision became blurry to the point where I was unable to make out what was right in front of me. My entire body was dead and the only thing that remained behind was the pain.

I couldn't tell very clear what happened after I took the direct hit, but my body seemed to have been flung back by the extreme force and I was thrown several feet back before slamming into the ground. Not that I was able to feel any of that with my nerves already being so overwhelmed from the pain of the initial collision. It took me several moments to even realize that I was lying on the ground.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2500 - 2300** → **200** **』**

I tried to get back up once my senses returned back to me, I could hear my sisters screaming out my name and felt an icy chill growing into my chest. Despite the fact that I was seeing triple at the moment, I still tried to look down at my hand. It was trembling. My entire body was trembling and I couldn't tell if it was because of how cold my body felt or a lasting effect of the damage I just suffered. The entire world was spinning and I… I…

My thoughts were cut short once someone pushing against my throat from the inside. I felt my stomach curling up and feel on my knees, puking everything. More and more, I couldn't stop throwing up. Even the thing I was throwing out of my system didn't look like food, it was red and I felt a lasting taste of metal inside my mouth. No… I'm vomiting blood!

"He won't last much longer in there!" Avice yelled at Graild or something. "Let me get there, he is going to die before the duel ends at this point!"

"I decline your request." I should have thanked Graild for not allowing my sister to get involved, but I barely had the strength to move my lips, let alone talk. "Your brother will be fine. I noticed his relatively fast recovery after the duel with Nightshroud, so as long as the wound isn't fatal his body will be able to recover by itself in several days."

"This duel isn't going to last several days!" I had to give my sister a point there. I couldn't wait until the pain subdued, I had to stand up and face Berberus right now!

"I'm going to set a card and end my turn." Berberus stated. "If the boy doesn't get back up in five minutes, we take this as a victory for me, correct?"

"No!" Eli and Avice shouted.

"We do." Graild, you interdimensional bastard. Won't even give me a moment to catch up my breath, will you?

Even if it hurt like hell, I was able to raise on one leg while my other one remained limp. I wiped off the blood around my mouth and raised my head to look at the bipedal dog before me. Even if my body couldn't move any further, I wasn't going to let it get past me. As an unmovable wall, I will stand between this monster and the only two things that make my life worth living. That's right! If my body gives up and I don't have the strength to stand up, I would only have to use my resolution and will to protect my sisters to push myself beyond my limits!

"It's… My… My turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 200, Hand: 3** **』**

' _Please be a good card. Please be a good card. Please be a good card._ ' I turned my eyes to look at the card that I drew…

"That won't be completely useless." Yes, it was a good card! "I activate the Spell: _Magical Pendulum Box_! This spell lets me draw two cards and if they are Pendulum monsters, I get to keep them, but if I draw anything else, it gets send to the Graveyard!"

I took a deep breath and put my fingers on the top two cards of my deck, ready to pull them. Unlike Yuya, my deck wasn't filled with Pendulum monsters, so my chance to draw those was as average as drawing any of my other cards, but hey, it always works out well in the anime after all.

"I draw!" Come Pendulum cards, come Pendulum cards, come Pendulum cards. "I drew the Pendulum Monsters ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, so I add them to my hand."

" _Now it's the time to launch a massive counterattack, master!"_ Foxy appeared in spirit form, clenching her fists in front of herself. _"Set me and Timefrozer Ghost in the Pendulum Scale!"_

' _I already know that!_ ' I mentally shouted at her and grabbed two cards. "Using the Scale One, _ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy_ , and the Scale Five, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_ , I set the Pendulum Scale! With this, I'm now able to Pendulum Summon level three and four monsters!"

That wasn't much, but most of my monsters were low in level to begin with, so I could work with narrow scales just fine. Foxy was right, there was no better time to launch a counter attack than now.

"Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! _ChronoDevil Time Psycher (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_ and _ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, DEF: 800)_!" Two beams fell from the sky turning into my loyal monsters. "I activate Time Psycher's effect to draw a card for each of my ChronoDevil monsters and also increase Jolly Jester's level by one!"

 **ChronoDevil Jolly Jester, Lv.2** → **3**

I looked at the cards that I drew. They were good enough.

"Now, I tune my Level three Time Psycher to my Level three, Jolly Jester!" the jester monster chuckled darkly and clapped with its enormous hands, transforming into three rings that Time Psycher flew through.

" _Malefic soul trapped in the cursed prison of metallic demise! Unleash your nightmarish aggressiveness! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Six! ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast (Lv.6, ATK: 2000)_!"

The robotic beast leaped through the rings and landed in front of me, raising its head to roar at Berberus and its army of undead. Don't worry, you will be able to tear as many of those as you desire soon enough!

"Now I activate Paradox-Claw's effect! I return my Pendulum Cards back to the hand and reduce the attack points of your monsters by five hundred for each card I returned." Berberus' monsters became greyed out and froze in time, an effect that showed my Paradox-Claw got both of them.

 **Coregirum Ayyar, ATK; 2300 - 500*2** → **1300**

 **Coregirum Bane Centurion, ATK: 2800 - 500*2** → **1800**

"Then, I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv.3, ATK: 1300)_ and activate ChronoDevil Protector Golem's effect to revive itself!" My rock monster tore open the ground and climbed back onto the field, kneeling in front of me with it's, not so massive, 1200 attack points. "Let's battle! I attack Bane Centurion with Paradox-Claw! King's Cry!"

Paradox-Claw Beast leaned forward and opened its mouth. The gears that covered its body began to spin and the orb on its chest beat loudly as some sort of green energy began to form inside its mouth. Then, the beast fired an ultrasonic cry toward the zombie, aiming to burst its body to pieces.

To admit, I expected Berberus to activate his set card or an effect. That was why I left Timefrozer Ghost on my field instead of using it as material for another summon – to negate the card that this talking dog tried to activate. But nothing happened. My monster's attack connected and Bane Centurion's body burst into pieces. Was he trying to lure me in?

 **『** **Berberus LP: 3800 - 200** → **3600** **』**

"I activate Bane Centurion's effect!" Two ghosts appeared to take the Synchro's place on Berberus' field. "When Bane Centurion is destroyed, I get to Special Summon two _Coregirum Tokens (Lv.1, DEF: 0)_ to my field!"

"Then, I'm going to destroy them using Timefrozer Ghost and Protector Golem!" My smaller monsters turned back at me and nodded before leaping into the action, cutting, crushing and burning the tokens.

Despite that, Berberus still didn't activate its set card. Did it figure out that I was trying to bait him into activating it? Tch, it was too late to think about that. If I didn't destroy Ayyar this turn it would regain back its attack power and take me out in one strike next one.

"I activate the Quick-Play: _Timeline Fusion_! With this spell, I can Fusion Summon a DARK monster from my Extra Deck during the Battle Phase! I use Timefrozer Ghost and Protector Golem as materials!"

 _"Ancient guarding made of stone! Cross your future with the long passed memory of an unmoving time to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight, ChronoDevil Grey Reaper (Lv. 8, ATK: 1700)!"_

"Synchro and Fusion, he is going to break Berberus' circle of repeatedly reviving his monsters through tokens!" Avice cheered for me from the side.

"While Grey Reaper is on my field and my Life Points are at a thousand or lower, it gains attack equal to my Life Points!" offering my fading life, I'm giving death the power to finish this battle for me.

 **ChronoDevil Grey Reaper, ATK: 1700 + 200** → **1900**

"Go, Grey Reaper! Send the last of these cursed warriors to a place of eternal sleep!" My monster raised its scythe and threw it toward the zombie like a razor sharp blade.

"I activate my Continuous Trap, _**Defensive Reforms of Coregirum**_!" The card showed several decomposing corpses getting supplied with a shiny new armor. "When this card is activated, my Zombies won't be destroyed by battle for the rest of the turn and all damage I take while a Coregirum is on my field becomes zero!"

* * *

 **Defensive Reforms of Coregirum (Trap) Continuous**

 **Zombie-Type monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle during the turn this card is activated. While you control a "Coregirum" monster, you take no battle damage.**

* * *

The zombie raised its arm and pushed Grey Reaper's scythe away, leaving it unscratched. Damn it! I looked at the last two cards in my hand. I had just Foxy and Time Shift, if I played for of these cards at the time I might be able to fend off Berberus' zombies for the next turn…

"I activate Grey Reaper's effect!" I shouted and my monster threw its scythe into the air before fading. "I equip Grey Reaper to Paradox-Claw in order to increase my monster's attack points by seventeen hundred!" My Synchro bite the scythe and held onto it, gaining to bonus points.

 **ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast, ATK: 2000 + 1700** → **3700**

"I set a card and end my turn." All of my hope's now in you, Paradox-Claw Beast. "Now your monster's attack returns to normal."

 **Coregirum Ayyar, ATK; 1300** → **2300**

"I should applaud you." Berberus clapped with its palms two times. "A normal human wouldn't usually be able to withstand the coldness that their body reaches when their Life Points fall below one thousand."

"Heh." That actually made he smile a bit. "It might be because I'm already dead from the inside that the embrace of death doesn't bother me as much. Or maybe you just haven't met anyone with enough of a reason to keep fighting till the last Life Point!"

"A reason that you would fight against death itself to preserve?" Berberus asked me. "And what would that reason be?"

"My family!" Even if it was a cliché answer that was the reason I fought until now. "My two precious sisters, they are the only reason why I haven't completely given up on life and I will do everything I can as their brother, no, I will give up on everything I have, including my soul itself to protect them!"

"What are you talking about, idiot!" Eli yelled at me out of nowhere. I turned toward her and despite the distance between us, I could see tears being reflected by the light. "Do you even think what would happen to me or Avice if we ever lose you? Even if I don't like how you treat people, even if we get into an argument every single day, I can't live without you!"

"Eli…" I clenched my fist, trying to hold back tears. "I'm sorry, but ever if my actions keep hurting you like this, protecting you and Avice is everything I can do. To make the two of you happy is something that I will never be able to accomplish. I can't do anything more than to break your heart."

Heh. I was such a huge idiot. I knew myself better than anyone else ever will. I knew my sisters as well. Avice was almost a copy of me, even if it tears her heart, she wouldn't show it and accept my sacrifice without saying anything against my choice. Elizabeth on the other hand loved life, she always wanted to prove herself as a strong person and would never accept to watch someone get hurt if there was something she could do to prevent it. I was a fool to expect any other response from this idiot of a twin sister.

"To protect your family, huh?" I turned back to Berberus. "The reason why I'm here, why I was punished to carry this corruption through my body and walk on this dead world is because I failed to protect mine."

"Didn't I already say that we don't have enough space on the chapter for your backstory?" Graild spoke up.

"Shut up. Let's hear him out." I glared at the God.

"Fine, fine." Graild waved his hands and leaned back into his throne with a pout. "No one listens to what I tell them anyway, so why should any of you do so?"

I already started to feel the pain of every creature cursed to exist inside the same world as this guy. "So tell me, what happened to you?"

"I believe that Graild must have already told you about a place named Grelyson. He probably told you lies about it, such as that we were fanatics or destroyers of worlds, but the truth is,"

"He didn't." I corrected.

"What?"

"He didn't tell us anything like this. Just said that your world was destroyed by a demon with a half soul." I explained.

"Oh…" Why is that dog's story starting to fall apart from the start? "As I was saying then, Grelyson was a mostly peaceful civilization who looked after the universe's biggest gift toward any living civilization. The Light. We were protectors of the Light that fought against the corruption of the Darkness since the start of our civilization's existence. At least that was until one of us choose to follow a different path. A powerful duelist whose name Graild probably already mentioned, Aron, choose to not only abandon our duty as protectors of the light, but also in his lust for power let Darkness corrupt his soul!"

"Doesn't that sound like the exact opposite of the Aron that Graild mentioned?" Eli asked. We all looked at the so called 'God' for an explanation on the matter.

"It all depends on your perspective." Graild shrugged. "From our point of view, what he did was for the greater good."

"He destroyed our world, our civilization!" Berberus roared back. "Is that what you call 'greater' good? Slaughtering innocent children and women? He destroyed everything in his path without the slightest sense about the wrongness of his actions. I and my comrades tried to stop him, put an end of his rampage, but in the end, all of our efforts to put this monster down were useless and I ended up watching him slaughter my men as well!"

"So, Aron was a psychotic mass murder, who knew?" I shrugged. "But this still doesn't explain why you came after me and my family."

"Because for all of his sins against my world, there's one that can't be forgiven!" Berberus shouted at point at me. "He corrupted our angel guardian! The Phantomus card that you carry around contains the other half of Aron's soul, so I must destroy it!"

"Is it possible for a monster card to contain a human's soul inside of it?" Avice asked.

"It several ways, yes. There has been dark magic used by ancient Egyptians that had the ability to seal people's souls into stone tables or other objects." Graild stated. "However, what Berberus is referring to is a rare phenomenon when a human and a Duel Monster share a single soul. It's so rare that look at the statues I have created. Those are all the half souls that existed since the dawn of humanity."

So that was what these huge statues were about. There weren't more than thirty of these inside the room, so to think that only that many would happen to exist throughout the entire existence of humanity.

I looked down on my deck. Phantomus was my ace, my strongest card and yet, it also contained the soul of a man who slaughtered an entire civilization. I already knew what Berberus was going to ask of me, but I just didn't care.

"I don't care what your tragic story is." I raised my Duel Disk back up. "But if you ask me to give up on my family or a piece of my deck, I won't show mercy."

"So you will continue this duel despite knowing how hopeless it is to do so?" Berberus asked me.

"I still got the advantage, so it's not hopeless." Any real Duelist knew that the only Life Point that mattered in a duel was the last one. So, no matter how low my Life falls, as long as I got cards to play, I can still win!

"Advantage you say?" Berberus raised an eyebrow. "Then allow me to show you that advantage is much more than your pathetic board. My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Berberus] LP: 3600, Hand: 3** **』**

"First off, I activate the Spell Card, _**Coregirum Revision**_!" A new card appeared on Berberus' field. This time it depicted a group of hooded individuals walking through a Graveyard, taking tones. "With this Spell, I revive a Zombie from my Graveyard, but then you get to draw a card if the total number of monster I control is more than yours. I choose to revive _Coregirum Plague Immortal (Lv.8, DEF: 2000)_."

* * *

 **Coregirum Revision (Spell) Normal**

 **Special Summon 1 Zombie-Type monster from your Graveyard in face-up Defense Position. After this card resolves, if you control more monsters that your opponent, they draw cards equal to the difference.**

* * *

Weird. Plague Immortal doesn't have an effect that would benefit Berberus if he summon it this way, but if he usedAyyar I wouldn't have gotten to draw a card. Did the dog do this on purpose or is it part of his strategy?

"Next, I activate Ayyar's effect to destroyDefensive Reforms of Coregirum and Special Summon _Coregirum Bane Centurion (Lv.9, ATK: 2800)_ from my Graveyard with its effects negated." The ground began to tremble as the large zombie raised from the death once again. So he wanted to get all three of his monsters on the field at the same time. "Finally, I activate the Spell Card: _**Strength Revision of**_ _ **Coregirum**_!"

* * *

 **Strength Revision of** **Coregirum (Spell) Normal**

 **Target the 1 face-up Zombie-type monster you control with the highest Level; the Levels of all other face-up monsters you currently control become the current Level of that monster. During your Main Phase, expect the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card; Special Summon 1** **"Coregirum Token" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0).**

* * *

"With this card, I target one monster on my field and make the Level of all my other monsters equal to it. I choose my Level Eight, Coregirum Plague Immortal!" The largest of all three zombies raised its body and a blue flame surrounded its body before moving over to the other two, changing their Levels.

 **Coregirum Bane Centurion, Lv.9** → **8**

 **Coregirum Ayyar, Lv.7** → **8**

"The bad mister got three Level Eights on his field!" Oni warned me.

"Now taste the true strength of the Coregirum legion!" Berberus roared and raised its claws upward, opening a portal. "I use the Level Eight, Coregirum Bane Centurion, Coregirum Plague Immortal and Coregirum Ayyar to build the Overlay network!"

"The absolute champion whose names is feared from the deeps of hell to the empyrean of heaven! Reveal your golden form in front of us and give rest to the voices of your restless followers! Xyz Summon! The Legend fallen from grace! **Superior** **Coregirum the Berberus!** "

The monster that appeared this time was completely different from the horror freaks that Berberus summoned before. It was huge, covered in blue and black armor that probably weighted a ton all by itself. The monster had two legs with the foot of his boots being in the same of a wolf's head. Its chest was covered in heavy armor plates shaped like a lion's face with a fur lining across the neck and shoulders. Two golden rings were attached to the upper back of the armor and held two red flags with a weird coat of arms that looked like a star surrounded by triangles…? Anyway these weird flag fell behind the monster like two capes.

The monster's arms were bulky as well and the gauntlets that covered its wrist were in the shape of a wolf's head as well, even going as far as to have two red gems act as 'eyes' of the gauntlet. Lastly was the monster's head. It was covered by a helmet whose front was shaped like a cage, covering the monster's face by shadows that gave way only to its piercing blue eyes. A long grey mane hanged from the back of the helmet and two horns stuck out from the sides.

* * *

 **Superior** **Coregirum the Berberus**

 **Rank: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Zombie/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 3800/DEF: 3500**

 **3 Level 8 LIGHT Zombie-Type monsters**

 **Effect:** **This card's Xyz Summon cannot be negated. When Xyz Summoned, cards and effects cannot be activated. If this card attacks or activates its effect, your opponent cannot activate card or effects in response until the end of your 3** **rd** **turn after Xyz Summoning this card. Once per turn: If this card destroyed an opponent monster by battle, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; destroy as many cards your opponent controls as possible.** **If this card is sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon as many "Coregirum Tokens" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) on your side of the field, as possible.**

* * *

"This monster…" It looked just like Berberus itself, but without the corruption.

"Superior Coregirum the Berberus' Xyz Summon cannot be negated and you can't activate effects in response to its summoning." Berberus pointed out. "Along with that, you can't activate cards or effects when it attacks or activates its effect either and this will last until my third turn from here on."

"So in other words, I can't block this monster's moves in any way!" I glanced at my set card. Great, it was useless now.

"Let's battle!" Berberus shouted. "Superior Coregirum the Berberus will destroy yourChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast." The large Xyz monster reached forward with its palms and fired a stream of electricity that blew up my monster and knocked me back.

 **『** **Evan LP: 200 - 100** → **100** **』**

"Then, Berberus' effect activates! Since it destroyed a monster, I can detach an Overlay Unit to destroy all of your remaining cards." The Xyz ate one of its Xyz Materials and roared, shattering my set Time Shift. "I set a card and with this, I'm going to end my turn!"

I took several deep breaths and get ready to take my next turn. My hand was shaking, I really wasn't sure what would happen, but I needed a good card to turn this around. Thanks to Berberus' effect letting me draw a card, I now had ChronoDevil Timescale Champion and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy to build a Pendulum Scale of 1 to 7 with. If I drew something that could allow me to deal with his boss outside of the Battle Phase that would be great.

"D-draw!" I pulled the top card and took a look at it.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Evan] LP: 100, Hand: 3** **』**

Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer – to draw this card at a time like this… Was destiny trying to tell me something, or was it just simple luck that united us in this fight? No, what stupid thoughts. It couldn't have been luck. I can feel my entire deck's desire to keep on fighting alongside me.

"I, use the Scale seven, ChronoDevil Timescale Champion and the Scale one, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, to set the Pendulum Scale!" I shouted as two red columns raised around me with the monsters hovering inside of them. "Then ChronoDevil Timescale Champion's pendulum effect lets me draw a card since a card was activated in the other Pendulum Zone!"

"So you plan to keep drawing cards until you get something useful?" Berberus' hissed at me.

"It never hurts to have something in the hand." I stated and raised my hand upward. "Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv.3, ATK: 1300)_ and _ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, ATK: 1200)_! From my hand, the dark soul of time itself, _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_!"

The purple lightnings along with one large crimson pendulum fell from the sky on my field, transforming into the two tuners and Phantomus.

"First, Chrono Phantomus' effect reduces the attack and defense of all your monsters by 500! And then Jolly Jester's effect doubles a change in attack and defense points! _**Chain of Degrading Souls EXTRA**_!" Chains made from black mist formed in Phantomus' arms and he threw them at Berberus' monster with Jolly Jester creating several magical rings around them to enhance the effect.

 **Superior** **Coregirum the Berberus, ATK: 3800 – 500*2** → **2800, DEF: 3500 – 500*2** → **2500**

"So you found a weakness in my monster's defense capabilities." Berberus gritted its teeth. "But my Xyz is still stronger than your monsters!"

"Not for long! I activate ChronoDevil Protector Golem's effect to revive it once again." I shouted and raised my hand, my monster appeared behind me in Defense Position. "Now I'm going to tune the Level Three Protector Golem to the Level Two Jolly Jester!"

Jolly Jester turned into two green rings as Protector Golem transformed into three glowing orbs that flew through the rings.

" _Within the timeless abyss, I call the android with unmoving gears. Open your metal heart and set forth its blazing black flames! Synchro Summon! Level Five, ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android (Lv.5, DEF: 1900)!_ " In a brilliant flash of light, my android flew onto the field and put both of her hands over her chest in a praying stance.

"Niichan summoned almost all of his ChronoDevil Extra Decks monsters already." Oni pointed out.

"He's really giving his all in this duel." Avice gave me a nod of approval.

"I activate Retro-Fractured Android's effect!" The gears inside my monster began to move again and her body burst into pieces. "I release Retro-Fractured Android to activate the effect of _Timeline Overlap_ in my Graveyard! I releaseChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost to give half of its attack points to Phantomus!"

Everything around is became grey and time itself began to slowly move backwards. The cards we played until now were all on the field, but I could also see all of our previous moves play backward. Every monster that we summoned, every effect that we activated, it all went back to the point where I activated Timeline Overlap from my hand before everything returned back to normal. Well, almost everything. The Timeline Overlap spell was now on my field and glowing to show that it was activated. Timefrozer Ghost turned back to look at me and nodded before its body faded away and the spirit flew to Phantomus' giving the devil its strength.

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 + 650** → **3150**

"At this moment I activate my trap!" What?! Suddenly, several heavy white chains tied around Phantomus and my monster fell down on its knees, turning from attack to defense position.

"What did you do?!" I glared at Berberus.

"I activate the Continuous Trap, **Coregirum's Chains of Downfall**." Berberus said with a calm voice. "This trap activates by targeting an attack position monster that you control. It negates its effects and turns it into defense position."

* * *

 **Coregirum's Chains of Downfall (Trap) Continuous**

 **Activate this card by targeting 1 Attack Position on your opponent's side of the field; negate the effects of that face-up monster while it is on the field, also change it to Defense Position and it can't change its battle position. During each of your Standby Phases: Inflict 600 damage to your opponent. If the targeted monster leaves the field, destroy this card. If this card leaves the field, destroy that monster, and if you do, halve your opponent's LP.**

* * *

"While my Chains of Downfall are on the field, not only is this devil unable to move, but you are also going to take six hundred points of damage during each of my Standby Phases." Berberus informed me.

My Life Points were just at 100, I wouldn't be able to withstand taking that damage even once. No, there was still hope!

"I activate the Spell: _Foolish Burial_." This was the only thing that could give me a chance to turn this duel around. "By the effect of Foolish Burial I must send a monster from my deck to the Graveyard. I send ChronoDevil Steam Maiden and end my turn. The attack of our monsters now returns to normal."

 **Superior** **Coregirum the Berberus, ATK: 2800** → **3800, DEF: 2500** → **3500**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 3150** → **2500**

"You intend to fight till the bitter end." Berberus closed its eyes. "In any other situation, your stubbornness would have been praiseworthy, but I must destroy you now. As for you Phantomus." Berberus opened his eyes to look at my monster. "You and your light counterpart, Sola, brought shame upon the name of our home world. Now because of you these children will suffer the same fate as my comrades did. Are you satisfied with the result of your betrayal?"

"…" Phantomus didn't respond, but his silence meant more to me than words. I could sense that his soul wasn't wavering, he believed in this fight just as much as I did. Even if it looked impossible, together with him, I'm going to win this duel!

"Still the silent type, huh?" Berberus tilted its head to the side. "Very well. I'm going to end this. My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 9 [Berberus] LP: 3600, Hand: 1** **』**

"During the Standby Phase, the effect ofCoregirum's Chains of Downfall activates and you take six hundred points of damage!" Berberus cried out and the chains began to send charges of electricity. "Disappear from my sight, both of you!"

"I activate ChronoDevil Steam Maiden's effect from my Graveyard!" My Maiden's spirit appeared in front of Phantomus and held out her hand, creating a blue aura around the chains. "By banishing Steam Maiden from my Graveyard, I turn all damaging effects into Life Point gaining effects for the rest of the turn!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 100 + 600** → **700** **』**

"Then I activate Foxy's Pendulum effect!" I gestured toward my other monster.

" _Here it comes!"_ Foxy shouted and pointed her hammer at Phantomus, casting a spell that caused a purple gear symbol to appear on his chest.

"Foxy's effect allows me to target a monster once per turn and make it indestructible as well as halfe all damage I take while it's on my field." Phantomus was the only monster on my field and with this immunity toward destruction it meant that Berberus' monster wouldn't be able to use its area wiping effect.

"So you will be able to survive through this turn?" Berberus gritted his teeth. "It doesn't matter! I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Coregirum - Prolonged Negotiations**_." The card showed a sweating king trying to push a peace treaty between his falling country and an army of undead. "With this Spell, by paying five hundred points each Standby Phase, we won't take any battle damage and twoCoregirum Tokens are going to be summoned on our fields during each of our End Phases."

* * *

 **Coregirum - Prolonged Negotiations (Spell) Continuous**

 **Neither player takes any Battle Damage while this card is face-up on the field. Once per turn: During the End Phase Special Summon 2 "Coregirum Tokens" (Zombie-Type/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position on the current player's side of the field.** **Once per turn, during the Standby Phase: The current player takes 500 damage.**

* * *

' _With this spell in play, I would be defeated in two turns._ ' I bit my lower lip. That was very bad. ' _Not only will I take damage every Standby Phase, but I will also get two tokens on my field, which Berberus could then destroy with his monster and clear my entire field in a single strike._ '

"I'm going to end my turn there." Berberus stated. "During the End Phase, two _Coregirum Tokens (Lv.1, DEF: 0)_ will appear on my field."

"My turn then. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 10 [Evan] LP: 700, Hand: 1** **』**

"At this moment, the effect of Prolonged Negotiations is going to inflict five hundred points of damage to you!" Berberus pointed at me.

I gritted my teeth and grabbed the left side of my chest. A sharp pain went through my chest and I could feel my legs becoming too weak to remain standing. Everything became blurry again and suddenly, I fell into darkness…

 **『** **Evan LP: 700 – 500** → **200** **』**

* * *

 **{?}**

"Dad. Dad!" I opened my eyes, hearing a familiar voice in the distance.

I looked around the green field of grass that I was lying on. It felt like it was real and not just another hologram created with Real Solid Vision. My young boy was running toward me, waving with that same happy smile on his face.

"What are you doing here, dad?" #### asked me.

"I was just enjoying the view." I told him and looked back toward the city. It was so beautiful, yet something was missing, a soul. Real Solid Vision was so dominant that it was hard to tell the difference between the real and a replica.

"One day the city will be filled with huge holograms of me!" #### declared. "I will become a King of Games just like how you did, dad! I will bring smiles with my duels!"

I chuckled at the idea. I have never been a King of Games or any other titles like this, taking part in such tournaments just wasn't my style. As long as I remain the greatest Duelist in the world in ####'s eyes, there was nothing more than I could ask for.

"Now that you mentioned it, I have something for you." I touched my pockets in search for the card that I brought specially for ####. "Here it is!"

"Whoa!" ####'s eyes widened after looking at the card. He looked back at me, his golden eyes shining brightly while his small hands held the card. "Is this card really for me?"

"Of course!" I put a hand on his head and patted him. "It won't work well in my deck and I know that you love dragons, so I'm sure that you will give this card the love that it deserves."

"I will!" #### nodded and looked at the card. "Let's go back now, dad! I want to show the card to mom and my other three friends!"

"Ok, ok. Don't run so fast, I can't catch up with you!" I laughed and followed after ####.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"W-what's going on?" Elizabeth asked.

"Evan is," Avice stopped, unable to understand what was happening either.

Oni remained silent and Graild smiled. "About time this happened."

Berberus gritted his teeth and took a step back, hissing at his opponent like a scared animal cornered by a predator. Evan slowly pushed himself off the ground and clenched his right hand into a fist. A familiar black aura surrounded his body and then it burst from his back, creating two giant wings of black flames behind him while his crimson eyes' turned into a dark shade of purple. Worse than just this transformation was that the exact same thing happened to Phantomus and the dark aura emitted from both Duelist and Duel Monster linked into a singularity.

"Those memories," Evan put a hand over his chest and looked over to Phantomus. "Are they _his_ memories?"

"…" Phantomus' eye turned to look back at Evan. There was no need for him to answer a question that the Duelist already knew the answer to.

"This aura." Berberus muttered. "You are an envoy of darkness as well?!"

"Yes. I'm an envoy of darkness." Evan nodded and looked at the card that he drew. "Berberus, I might not know what you went through, nor about the monstrosities done by Aron, but I did saw warmness. This darkness you fear so much, it's not the reason why any of this happened. This turn, I will show you the united strength of my dark deck. Let's go, Phantomus!"

The fiend's eye widened and it pushed against the chains that held it. At first, the restrains held on, but soon, they began to crack.

"H-how?!" Berberus yelled.

"I activate the effect of ChronoDevil Summit Hornet from my Graveyard! By banishing Summit Hornet, I can return two of your spell and trap cards back to the hand. Therefore, your Coregirum - Prolonged NegotiationsandCoregirum's Chains of Downfall go back to the hand!" The spirit of Evan's monster appeared on the field and stuck its hornet in the ground, creating a landslide on Berberus' side of the field.

"The effect of Chains of Downfall activates! Since it left the field, your monster is destroyed and your Life Points are halved." Electricity zapped Phantomus and he blew up, leaving Evan's field wide open.

 **『** **Evan LP: 200/2** → **100** **』**

"Now his Life Points are back at a hundred." Oni muttered.

"But Berberus' lock is all gone now." Avice pointed out. "For this turn only, my brother can make a comeback."

"I still have almost all of my Life Points are you used all of your best cards." Berberus looked down at his opponent. "Do you really have hope of winning this match anymore?"

"I already have all of the hope that I need on my field!" Evan shouted and gestured toward the monsters in his Pendulum Zones. "With the already set Pendulum Scale, I Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv.3, ATK: 1300)_ , _ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, ATK: 1200)_ and,the dark soul of time itself, _Supreme Devil King - Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_! From my hand, _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

Four lightnings fell from Evan's Pendulum Portal and stuck the ground, transforming into monsters. Timefrozer Ghost let out a hollow laugh, Jolly Jester waved with its cartoony hands, Stream Supporter hissed and Chrono Phantomus stood in the middle with its arms crossed.

"I activate the combined effect of Chrono Phantomus and Jolly Jester to reduce Superior Coregirum the Berberus' attack and defense by a thousand points! _Chain of Degrading Souls EXTRA_!" Evan's monsters flew up and raised their arms, casting a dark lightning that hit the Xyz, knocking it back.

 **Superior** **Coregirum the Berberus, ATK: 3800 – 500*2** → **2800, DEF: 3500 – 500*2** → **2500**

"Next, Stream Supporter's effect reduces its own attack points to zero in order to Special Summon a Level three or lower DARK monster from my deck with its effects negated!"

 **ChronoDevil Stream Supporter, ATK: 1800** → **0**

"Come out, _Dark Resonator (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_!" the familiar Tuner flew out of Stream Supporter's cape and landed next to my other monsters. "Now I tune my level four Stream Supporter to my Level three Dark Resonator!"

The little fiend laughed and hit its resonators together, transforming into three rings that Stream Supporter flew through and its body faded away, leaving only four white starts behind itself.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_!"

"That's Evan's strongest ChronoDevil." Avice pointed out. "To summon both it and Phantomus at the same time, he must be planning to go all out!"

"Next, I activate the effect of _Timeline Fusion_ from my Graveyard! I banish the Fusion Monster, ChronoDevil Grey Reaper in order to add Timeline Fusion back to my hand and then I activate it. Phantomus! Mystic-Flare! Become a single entity!"

Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragonwere engulfed by the darkness and their bodies overlaid in the shadows, creating a single purple pendulum armed with the power of both a demon and a dragon.

" _Hollow soul of the demon king, take the sacrificed dragon destroyed of time and unveil your true power! The demon king with unrivaled hatred, shatter the chains and raise through calamity! Fusion Summon! Embodiment of my burning soul! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer (Lv.9, ATK: 2900)!_ "

The purple Pendulum broke into pieces and Evan's most powerful beast flew through it, landing behind its master with a roar.

"Phantomus evolved?!" Berberus' stared in shock at the new entity that stood in front of the corrupted spirit.

"Now the effects of ChronoDevil Protector Golem andChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android activate, reviving from the Graveyard." The portals appeared at each end of Evan's field and the aforementioned monsters flew through, landing beside their comrades.

"Oni, sis. Look." Avice told the others.

"Niichan gathered five monsters on his field." Oni pointed out.

"More than just monsters." Elizabeth shook her head. "These cards were beside him in all of his duels so far. Despite not being strong, each one of these cards plays an enormous role in Evan's dueling. If you look at them from the side they don't look like a Duelist and his monsters, but like comrades."

"Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer's effect activates!" reached out and clenches his hand into a fist. "By banishing the dragon-type ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon Berserk Phantomus inherits its effects! _**Dark Soul Absorb**_!" Phantomus roared and threw its chains into the ground, pulling a burning black spirit in the form of a dragon, then absorbed it through his armor. "Let's battle now! Berserk Phantomus attackSuperior Coregirum the Berberus! _Calamity Void Slash_!"

Berserk Phantomus stretched outs his arms and the blades connected to his waist flew into his hands, transforming into two giant axes that he then threw at Superior Coregirum the Berberus. The Xyz monster roared and pushed the axes away, just for Phantomus to catch them with his chains and threw them again, stabbing Berberus in the back.

"The effect of ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare then activates through Berserk Phantomus. When my monster battles a monster with lower attack, that monster gets destroyed and you take its attack points as damage!" Berserk Phantomus pulled the axes out of Superior Coregirum the Berberus's back and crossed them in front of himself, firing a stream of purple flames that engulfed both the monster and Berberus' himself, causing the latter to scream.

 **『** **Berberus LP: 3600 - 2800** → **800** **』**

"Because my monster was destroyed, I can Special Summon as many Coregirum Tokens as my field could hold!" Berberus roared and three new souls appeared before him and joined the first two in protecting the corrupted spirit from Evan's army of monsters.

"I attack your Coregirum Tokens with my ChronoDevils!"ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost, ChronoDevil Jolly Jester, ChronoDevil Protector Golem andChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android all attacked at the same time, destroying four of the five tokens.

"It's over boy!" Berberus declared. "During my next turn, I'm going to release my last token to revive Coregirum Ayyar from my Graveyard and finish you off!"

"I activate Retro-Fractured Android's effect!" The gears inside my monster began to move again and her body burst into pieces. "I release Retro-Fractured Android to activate the effect of _Timeline Overlap_ in my Graveyard! I releaseChronoDevil Protector Golem to give half of its attack points to Phantomus along with the ability to attack you again!"

 **Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer, ATK: 2900 + 600** → **3500**

" _Calamity Void Slash_!" Evan pushed his fist forward as his ace cut through the last token.

Berberus simply chuckled. "So you finally broke through my formation, have you? But it's too late to make a difference now!"

"That light of revenge you are spewing about doesn't intimidate my heart." Evan put a hand over his chest. "As long as I have my family behind my back, as long as they are here to give me a reason to keep moving forward, this wasteland of Kings and Queens won't be able to consume me like it did to you. And in this duel, there is still hope remaining on my side of the field!"

"W-what?!" Berberus gasped.

"Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer's last effect now activates!" the large fiend roared and multiple gears formed around its body. "On the turn that Phantomus destroyed a monster by battle, I can release it to revive Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer from my Extra Deck! _Rage Reload_!"

The gears began to spin around at a high speed and Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer roared as his body was engulfed by a light through which Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer flew and charged at Berberus.

"This is your end! Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, attack Berberus directly! _Double Void Slash_!" the Pendulum Monster slashed with both of its blades at the spirit who let out a scream and fell on the ground.

 **『** **Nightshroud LP: 800 - 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

As the dust settled down, Berberus' body began to slowly fade away. With its last remaining strength, the spirit raised its head to look at Evan and the monsters that stood behind his back. That stance reminded Berberus too much of the man in white clothes that destroyed Grelyson so many years ago. The beast wanted to reach out, grab Evan and yell at his face for the choice that he made, but his arms had already faded away.

"You will regret this boy." Berberus warned him. "Family might be what drives you forward, but it's going to be you to destroy it! That's how it always happens. To choose darkness… means… to choose… sorrow…"

Berberus's head dropped back down and faded a bit after, leaving no traces of the beast behind. Silence took over the room as Oni and the Greyson siblings all looked at the spot where the monster was standing a moment ago. To say that Berberus' words sent a chill down Evan's spine would be an understatement. He wanted to believe that it was just a bluff, to know that he would never do something like this. But he didn't. Evan looked down at the ground. He couldn't even promise to himself that his sister would remain safe.

Several loud claps broke the silence in the room and everyone turned back to Graild who was sitting in his throne, clapping at the performance. "Great. Just great. That's why I choose the three of you to be my envoys and not someone else. Until you three showed up, Berberus used to be the strongest Duelist in this broken world, but now his title is no more. With your victory, he has no choice but to stand down for the time being."

"Does that mean that we are done here?" Evan asked.

"Yes. I told you everything, you proved your strength, and there is nothing more to do anymore." Graild nodded and stood up, opening a portal behind Evan. "But this isn't the last time we see each other. You will be summoned to this castle again soon enough. That's what the big bosses order me to do anyway."

"I don't care." Evan replied and wiped a bit of blood from the side of his mouth.

"Are you sure that you will be able to walk?" Elizabeth asked.

"Don't treat him like a baby." Avice complained. "That much damage is nothing for someone of his level, right bro?"

"Yes. That's why I'm trying to bleed only internally." Evan deadpanned.

"Oh, one last warning before you leave, Evan." Graild called out, stopping the siblings before they went through the portal. "If you even come across a woman called Solar in the Synchro Dimension, do everything you can to avoid dueling her. Because if you end up in a duel against her, you are going to die."

"Hmm, that's not a very likely outcome." Evan crossed his arms and walked through the portal. Elizabeth lowered her head after hearing the name of Solar and passed through the portal next with Avice following after them.

"I froze the time of the portal, so they won't realize that you are still here." Graild said and turned back to Oni.

The little girl stood next to the masked man with her hands crossed in front of her stomach. Graild kneeled down so that they were at a more similar height and looked her in the eyes.

"You remember what the plan was, right?" Graild asked.

"Yes."

"And you are going to go through with it as well. Correct."

"I will." Oni replied. She felt regret starting to take root inside her heart, but she tried her best to ignore that feeling and added. "I will do as you said. After all, that's what Oni was created for."

"Very well." Graild nodded in satisfaction and stood back up, gesturing toward the portal. "Now go. Stay with them, form as much of a deep connection to them as you can while there's still time remaining."

Nodding one last time, Oni passed through the portal. Her heart still hurt her. What she was going to do would betray the siblings, the people that took her in and threat her as a part of her family. So many people would get hurt just because of her and the only reassurance she had was that she wouldn't be alive to see the outcome of her actions.

She wouldn't be there when Evan fell completely into darkness.

She wouldn't be there when Avice becomes the envoy of destructive light.

And she wouldn't be there to see Elizabeth's lifeless body lying in the center of all the destruction.

* * *

 **Avice: What the heck just happened o_O ?!**

 **Chapter** **33:** **Back the Old Route**

 **Summary:** After returning back to the Standard Dimension, the Greysons are called for a special meeting with the Lancers to talk about Sora's escape and their future actions in the incoming Dimensional War.

 **Chapter** **34:** **Second Round Begin!**

 **Summary:** The second round of the Miami Championship begins with a surprising duel where Oni and Tatsuya have to face against each other despite being from the same school! During the same time a masked duelists appears in front of Evan and Avice respectively…

* * *

 **A/N: Aaaaaaaannnnddddddd Chapter 32 is here! I don't have much to say about this one, expect: This was one heck of an ending wasn't it?**

 **So, something I forgot to say last chapter was that I'm going to skip Evan, Avice and Elizabeth's second round duels. Who needs to see the Greysons destroying more people's dreams anyways, right?**

 **Avice : I would love to watch myself kicking some more ass.**

 **Now I'm going to respond to the reviews, but before that I want to thank to those who answered my question about Evan being a Gary Sue. Your output means a lot for me.**

ScalchopWarrior **: The** **"dimensional guardians" thing was in my old Arc-Twins as well, but I don't think that Graild fits into that category after we got to learn a bit more about him in this chapter. I mean, he wants to destroy the four dimensions to restore the original one, gave a man who slaughtered an entire civilization/dimension god-like power, and the ending of the chapter.**

 **Berberus being boring was kind-of the inside joke of the chapter. Graild literally told him: "As a side character who's going to lose his relevance after this two part duel, nobody really cares about your sad backstory."**

 **Avice : Wait, your disappointment with the decks is that mine's combo based? You play cards to create a combo! Combos are part of every YGO decks!**

 **Diabolic Tracer : She probably wanted to use another term there, so calm down. But that aside, I would love to discuss this with you. I mean Scal, not with Avice. Because Avice bites when I disagree with her.**

TachyonDragonKing **:** **Nightshroud in this story is a very weakened version that is hunting the Tracers not only as a revenge for stealing his powers, but also as a way to protect himself. He is acting like a wounded wolf trying to save its life. If he faces a powerful foe, he will run, if he faces a weak one, he will bite.**

 **Avice : The reason why he didn't sense Evan's strenght before their duel was because, as it was shown in the duel itself, Evan wasn't strong until his dark side took over and ****absorbed** **the rest of Nighthshroud's strenght, creating Berserk Phantomus.**

 **That's everything I got to say. Thanks for reading this chapter and see ya next time.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	33. Chapter 33

**So many reasons we believe,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth",**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it will lead us .**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Back the Old Route

A sudden gut-wrenching scream was emitted from Evan. The boy was lying on the sofa in the living room of the apartment with a bag of ice on his stomach and a sweat-covered face. To say that he was living through a hundred deaths would be an understatement. Although Graild was correct that Berberus' monsters were strong enough to kill with a single strike, the hit in the guts that he took from Ayyar left lasting damage to his body. Not only was he suffering from internal stomach bleeding but he also didn't have any money for the hospital, so all his sisters could do was trying and find a solution online.

In fact, Avice was with him at the very moment, holding his head on her lap, she ran her fingers through the boy's long hair while Oni watched them from behind the sofa. Although his sister's soft touch didn't cure the excruciating pain, it did help Evan relax a bit. He felt secure under the watchful eye of his little angel and closed his eyes to try and take a nap. Something he was unable to obtain the entire past night.

"Neechan, are you sure that putting a bag of ice on niichan's belly will help?" Oni asked, looking up at the slightly older girl.

Avice shrugged in response. "I dunno, people seem to use ice when they had headache, so it should probably help with stomach ache as well. They are pretty much the same thing."

' _Neechan is not good with biology._ ' Oni concluded in her mind. She nodded and walked away from the sofa.

Despite everything that was going on in the living room, Elizabeth didn't seem even one bit troubled while she prepared some pancakes for breakfast. She was acting like Evan's screams didn't exist, skillfully handling the frying pan. Of course, she had to put a lot of focus on keeping her mind occupied with the thought of cooking and not all of the weird shit that she went through recently. Fun fact, she also found out that apparently her three other personalities were much more annoying than Evan's screams of agony.

" _Ok, you still haven't told us shit about what happened after that light engulfed us!"_ Hema pestered.

" _It was very weird thing."_ Yuki added on. _"Suddenly, our connection to your body was cut off and next, we were back inside your head but you were in the apartment instead of outside. It's like we feel asleep but didn't actually sleeping."_

' _I got no idea either!_ ' Elizabeth screamed internally. ' _We were teleported in some weird place that didn't follow the rules of space and time, ok!?_ '

" _Maybe we ate so much rice that our bellies felt warm and we feel asleep without realizing it!"_ Sunny exclaimed with a confident look on her face.

Elizabeth and her other two personalities stared at the Synchro for a good minute before Elizabeth and Yuki returned to their conversation while Hema grabbed Sunny and headed to hang her from one of the corpus callosum.

" _I'm starting to think that it might be because our existence is an anomaly created by the Spacetime poisoning you were exposed on."_ Yuki pressed her chin in thought. _"The place you were teleported to might have noticed that we are anomalies and so it suppressed our influence in your mind while you were there."_

' _I should visit that place more often then._ ' Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. ' _There I would at least be able to sleep at night._ '

" _For the record, that was Hema's fault, not mine."_ Yuki pouted. _"I will leave you now. We aren't sure what damage might hanging Sunny from your corpus callosum would cause, so I gotta stop Hema before it's too late!"_

Elizabeth just finished the last pancake and turned off the stove. She walked out of the kitchen and looked at her brother, he was still sweating and from the grimace he was making, she could tell that, pain wasn't leaving him alone. It was ironic how despite being far more experienced than her in dealing with this world, he always ended up with worse injuries than her just because he tried to protect his family. It was awful but she couldn't blame karma for giving him what he deserved.

"It's always… good people that… suffer." Evan muttered. "It's us… good people like me… that always… suffer the worse… God is a lie! A real God would never… let someone as good… and warm-hearted as ME... suffer this much! Getting burned alive… getting smashed in the ground… like a pancake… I don't deserve that!"

And he began to blame God for his misfortune. Of course he would. Elizabeth just rolled her eyes. She cared about her brother, yes. She didn't want to see him suffer, yes. But she wasn't going to give into his bullshit about being a good person, no thanks! At this moment, she wanted to laugh at him, mock him and his condition. But she wouldn't do that. Unlike Evan, she wasn't able to look at someone's misery and laugh while stomping on it.

"Avice, you should call You Show and tell them that we won't be able to join them at the Miami Tournament today." Elizabeth walked over and put her hand on Evan's forehead; he was cold, even freezing. "I will take care of him from here, ok?"

Avice looked up at her sister and nodded. She removed her hand from Evan's hair and moved to put his head on the sofa. A hand grabbed her. Evan opened his eyes and shook his head. It was a clear message and his sisters understood it. He didn't want Elizabeth to take care of his pain, he wanted Avice to be the one standing by his side. Of course, they shouldn't have expected anything else. Avice raised her head and gave Elizabeth a faint smile.

"Sorry, Eli." She apologized, her fingers running through Evan's hair once more. "But you can still,"

"No, I get it." Elizabeth raised a hand to silence her sister. She _understood_ that Evan didn't want her anywhere near him. "I will get you some pancakes to eat and then I will take care of Oni."

"Eli," Evan whispered.

This time the twins locked eyes with one another. Blue and red orbs found, once again, that they were unable to understand each other. Sixteen years of living together, yet they were still like strangers who met each other for the first time. Evan opened his mouth again and Elizabeth turned on her heel, leaving the room before her had the chance to say anything to her. Witnessing all of this, Avice put her free hand on her brother's check and rubbed it.

"You know, I always found it strange that the two of you have such a rocky relationship." Avice said. "But it's not your fault, I don't get along with Eli either. She really doesn't seem to like either of us."

"She loves us. More than anything else on this world." Evan said. "Before you were born, the two of us were inseparable, we could almost read our minds back then. But then I started giving all of my attention to you and she seems to have gotten jealous because of that. She must be feeling like the third wheel."

"Ah, what am I supposed to do with you, big bro?" Avice shook her head. "You are always trying to find an excuse for her stubbornness and disobedience." An awful smirk covered the little girl's face. "As her older brother, you should discipline her to be a more loyal sister. It's because you let her have such a soft heart that she turned into such an annoyance to carry around. Always trying to help out and what not bullshit, when you aren't around, I must follow after her and make sure she doesn't end up in trouble with that naïve personality of hers."

"Just let her be." Evan muttered and turned to the side, the bag falling from his stomach on the ground. "Also, there should be some painkillers around. Get me some."

Avice shook her head and leaned back into the sofa. She would just ask Elizabeth to find the painkillers when she gets back with the pancakes, but for the time being, she wanted to share some more time with her brother.

"Hey, what are you all still doing here? Reiji wants to talk with you." Ventus informed them, standing next to the sofa with his hands crossed.

Avice turned to look at the ninja duelist with a blank expression on her face. She looked him up and down before giving the most natural response that someone could give, when they met someone who wasn't there five seconds ago.

"You have thirty seconds to explain how you get inside before I call the police."

* * *

"I hope I didn't cause any inconvenienceby calling all of you here today." Reiji told the Lancers. The entire group was sitting inside their meeting room.

To say, at least the atmosphere around the group was very awkward. Avice had to hold onto her half-dead brother to make sure he doesn't fall off the chair, Oni was smiling without much of a concern as to why Reiji called everyone so suddenly and Elizabeth was sweating like a waterfall from all the pressure of everyone else's stares. Which, by the way, were directed toward the Greysons as usually. The only one that wasn't staring at them was Sawatari, but he was an idiot anyways.

After a full minute of watching Avice trying to kept her brother balanced on the chair, Levant finally had to ask the question that was in everyone else's mind. "Did something happen to your brother?"

"If getting one's stomach relocated behind their spine counts as something, then yes, something did happen." Evan hissed in pain.

"If it would be ok with you and your family, I will have the medic team of LDS look into your injuries after this meeting is over." Reiji said, fixing his glasses.

"I'm sure that everyone here has other duties to attend to, so we'll try to make this meeting as short as possible." Levant stated and stood up from his seat. "President Akaba, if I might…"

Reiji nodded, giving his consent for the Tracer to continue. The director of Leo Corporation pressed a button on his table and the blank white wall behind him opened to reveal a large black screen. Levant walked to the left side of the screen and crossed his hands behind his back, like a soldier about to explain the military plan to his fellow troopers. Ventus walked to the other side of the screen to assist in the explanation.

"As most of you already know, the events from last night were something that gave us more questions than answers." Levant began while the screen was still loading. "For those of you who are unfamiliar, a group was dispatched to find Sora who escaped from the hospital and bring him back if possible. Before we could get into contact though, a three side duel has been started between Sora, an individual that we recognized as Yuya Sakaki and another duelist that Kurosaki and Koharu were able to recognize as one of their comrades from the Xyz Dimension. Name is Yuto."

The screen behind Levant and Ventus then changed to show footages from the confrontation. It showed Yuya with Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon facing off against Yuto's Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon while in the background Avice was trying to keep Oni away from the battle.

"Several strange occurrences happened during that time." Levant continued. "First, an old enemy of the Xyz Duelists and apparent enemy of the Fusion Dimension as a whole, a masked individual known as Nightshroud interfered in the duel. His motives as of yet are unknown to us, but we learned several important things from that encounter. First, his main enemy appears to be just Academia since he showed no interest in dueling either Yuya Sakaki or Yuto. Second, Evan has apparently made a deal with him without informing anyone else about it."

"What?!" Elizabeth and Koharu shouted at the same time.

"This is going to be stupid." Evan groaned and leaned back into his chair.

Everyone's stares were at him again. He felt so popular right now, probably at least seventy percent of the people inside that room wanted to strangle him. Or sent him to the Shadow Realm, as the dub would say it. He could explain his way out of this, no problem. The problem was how much people would believe his words. No one in this room believed in anyone else, Evan could sense the silent hostility coming from each Lancer. If they once grew suspicious enough of his actions, he was sure that Shun, Koharu, or even Reiji would begin to supervise every action he made from this point onward. That on its own would put a lot of pressure on his plans because he needed to get unlimited access by Reiji in order to continue.

"It's true that I talked with Nightshroud behind everyone's back, but I got a very good reason to do that." Evan said. "We were all too fast at calling him an enemy. Apparently, Nightshroud's only objective was to get revenge on Academia for what they did to him in the past, when he came to this dimension for the first time, he didn't know who's enemy and who not, so he used methods that some of you might find unmoral."

"He brainwashed my comrades and send them out to fight his war!" Shun shouted. "He also put Koharu's life at risk again not too long ago!"

"And Reiji didn't use tricks on people to make the entire incident with all of the disappeared LDS staff be forgotten?" Evan asked back, surprising the Xyz Duelist. "The reason why he knocked Koharu out was the same as to why I didn't tell anyone about what happened. A part of our deal was that he would help out as long as I keep his anonymity. As for his duel against Koharu and my sister, I'm sure that they were hostile toward him and he used dueling in self-defense."

"That maniac almost burned you alive!" Elizabeth slammed her hands on the table and glared at her brother. "You are really going to take the side of someone who tried to kill you rather than your own sister!?"

"You are acting irrationally all of the time, Eli." Evan scolded her. "If you and Koharu tried to talk things through instead of following your feeling for revenge, Reiji might have been saved the trouble of covering up the complete destruction of a parking lot."

"Why you,"

"So, what exactly was the deal you made with Nightshroud?" Reiji interrupted. "Can you confirm that Nightshroud is going to be an ally of the Lancers throughout the war?"

"I can." Evan nodded. "The only thing he wants is revenge against Academia. He knows how the Fusion Dimension's military operates and what their plans are. Although he currently doesn't trust any of you enough to show up, if you give him time to warm up, he will feed us intel that might completely turn the odds in our absolute favor."

"I see," Reiji fixed his glasses again. "I'll let you to your 'negotiations' then, but I warn you from now, due to your reckless actions that have left most of the Lancers doubtful of your intentions, your actions are going to be monitor from now on."

' _Damn!_ ' Evan wanted to curse so badly, but he kept his calm appearance on the inside. He knew that the others wouldn't be smart enough to suggest monitoring him, so it must have been Reiji who used the moment of doubt in the other members to push his suggestions, then made it look like it was the Lancers themselves that wanted to limit Evan's rights. It was always a smart way to deal with troublemakers, but that also suggested that Reiji didn't trust in him from the very beginning. The CEO of Leo Corporation was only waiting for a chance to arise, and immediately used the same strategy that Evan himself used to ensure that Kurosaki and Koharu wouldn't get in his way.

"Very well then." Evan forced himself to smirk. "If you will sleep safer knowing that I'm under supervision, so be it."

"Levant." Reiji turned toward the duelist. "Continue on with the report."

"Right." The Tracer nodded and continued, the screen behind him changing to show Yugo's appearance. "After Sora was teleported back to Fusion, a new dimensional wormhole was detected in the park when the individual on the screen appeared. From what info we were able to gather, his name was Yugo. The duelist seem to be a master of Synchro Summoning, but he is known in the Xyz Dimension as 'Pawn of Fusion' which, along with his reaction to seeing a Xyz Duelist, would mean that the Synchro Dimension could be allied with Academia."

"At about the same time this happened, I and Elizabeth were ambushed by a group of hooded individuals." Ventus interjected and the screen changed again to show footage from the city. "They didn't state any name or reason why they attacked us, but one of them was able to teleport Elizabeth out of the blue, so they must have a very good teleportation technology."

"And then it all concluded with this." Levant gestured toward the screen that showed a light enveloping the entire park. "The scientists at Leo Corporation were able to measure that the energy of this event were off the charts. We have yet to understand the nature of this light, but it appears to be a form of mass, selective teleportation that can't be traced to any one of the four Dimensions. So, as usual, we will ask the Greysons to explain it to us in details."

"Wait, why us again?!" Avice complained.

"Because when it happened, we detected a data transmission from there." Reiji gestured toward the screen that this time showed the data of cards instead of footage. The monsters shown were ones that the Greysons were all too familiar with. ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon, Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda and Astral Angel Golden Knight. "These three cards of you have been transmitting information, a part of which we were able to decode. The data we found showed that the monsters were transmitting your exact locations to the light."

" _Whoops, did I forget to mention that our cards were made by Graild?"_ Foxy's spirit laughed silly. _"We wanted us to inform him what's happening, but I didn't know that our frequency can be caught by human technology."_

' _How do you NOT know that when Reiji already told us the same thing before the tournament!'_ Evan hissed.

"The fact that our monsters transmit data to, an unknown space isn't new information for you, President Akaba." Avice stood up and gestured toward the pictures. "As we said last time, the origins of the decks we have are unknown to us. What kind of data they transfer, to whom and to why, are all questions that, we, agreed to help you find out as long as you inform us about any new findings on the matter. The only thing we know about the light was that when it faded away, the three of us were back at our apartment somehow. If you don't believe us, there should be security cameras around our building that could confirm we never went back there on foot, but despite that, we left it this morning."

"So you are saying that the only thing the light did was to send all of you back to your home?" Reiji asked. That was far too much of a stretch to be true.

"If anything else happened, neither of us remembers it." Avice shrugged. "Unless you plan to search through our memories, this is everything I can tell you on the matter."

"Then we are going to host a vote to look in their memories next?" Koharu suggested.

"That's low." Ventus shook his head. "If you don't trust a friend, how are we going to fight beside one another?"

"They are not my friends though." Koharu pointed out.

"We are not going to read anyone's memories." Reiji stated. "Yuya Sakaki has been found unconscious in the park moments after the light faded, so it's possible that some technology beyond our understanding did that."

"Yuya was found unconscious?" Elizabeth gasped. Was he ok now? She wanted to ask about the little tomato head, but she choose to keep it to herself, no one else in the room seemed to care about these news anyways.

"Now to the last thing that I wanted to tell you all, Leo Corporation was able to manufacture more stable Pendulum Monsters for public use." The screen behind Reiji then changed again to show one of the new Pendulum Cards. Its name was Abyss Actor – Superstar. "As you can see on the screen, this is the first completely original archetype that our team was able to design. I'm sure that same of you would appreciate that we used their ace as part of the template for its creation."

"A demonic performer who's typing is Fiend, and it has eighteen hundred defense points?" Evan raised an eyebrow. "Its effect isn't as bad as its appearance."

"You dare call the great Neo New Sawatari's deck ugly!" Everyone turned their eyes. Well, at least now they knew who the deck was being made for.

"You can't say that I'm wrong though." Evan shrugged. "I don't mind if Leo Corporation uses my cards as inspiration, as long as they work properly."

"Those cards are mean to fight against Academia. I made sure that there are no flaws in their production or functionality." Reiji pointed out.

"I won't be needing any of these Pendulum Cards." Koharu shook her head. "If this meeting is done, can I go back to my duties?"

"Of course." Reiji stood up from his chair. "Everyone is free to go to what they were doing before I called you. I won't be able to host anymore meetings like this during the second round of the Tournament, so if anything happens, I will have someone from my staff come and inform all of you about it."

The Lancers nodded. Of course, that also meant that Reiji would actually be doing something else, which wasn't surprising for any of them. Despite it looking like his job was to just sit behind a chair the whole day and give orders, they were all aware that everything around them, the Lancer Program, the Miami Championship, were all made by him alone. So when he said that there won't be a possibility for any meetings after this one, it was clear to them all that they would have to step in their duty of Duel Soldiers soon.

The slide door opened and everyone walked into the white corridor. Shun and Koharu went to do their own things. Levant and Ventus returned back to the stadium where they looked for any Fragments or Fusion spies. Elizabeth left in a hurry to meet with You Show and learn what happened to Yuya, leaving Avice alone to deal with her injured brother and also look after Oni. Just when she thought that those were going to be her biggest problems, Sawatari appeared in front of the trio.

"Evan Greyson, I came here to settle our grudges!" Sawatari shouted and pointed at the injured duelist.

"Fuck off."

"You disrespected my deck! There is no bigger disgrace than to insult a duelist's pride, his deck!" Shingo declared and raised his hand to point at the ceiling. The siblings looked there, but there was nothing on the ceiling… "I'm going to repay you for this disgrace through a duel!"

"I can barely walk from pain." Evan pointed out. "You want me, an injured person who needs medical care, to duel against you?"

"Excuses!" Shingo stated dismissively before looking to the side. "But I could want until my new deck is completely developed for the duel…"

"How about we do something else instead?" Avice suggested and pointed at herself. "Duel me while I use my brother's deck! Since our skills are pretty much on the same level, it would be the same for you either way. Correct?"

"Ha, there's absolutely no way that a girl would be able to stand up against the skills of Neo New Sawatari!" Shingo laughed. "You will just embarrass yourself."

"Is that so?" Avice smiled and titled her head to the side. "Why don't you teach me then, niichan?"

Shingo stopped making himself looked like a fool and looked at the young Greyson. A huge blush covered his face and his brain stopped to work at the word 'niichan'. But little did the Neo New Sawatari knew, this innocent smile was hiding a huge surprise. Really, Avice had no reason to mock him, he was making a joke out of himself without her help, so, instead she was going to make fun of him by acting like a nice and innocent girl. There was also a saying that the smarter person always steps back from a pointless argument. She had no need to test out Shingo's pride.

"Shall we go find an empty area to duel, niichan?" Avice asked again, keeping on her cute persona. But on the inside she wanted to throw up for using the word 'niichan'.

* * *

"Hello there, Fusion Chick."

"Stop calling me that!"

Shingo watched from the side confused. So did Yaiba and Hokuto. They have heard from Masumi that You Show had new students and one of them called her 'degenerate' terms, but looking at them from the side, Masumi's blush was obvious despite her tanned skin. Evan smirked and pushed himself away from Avice, sitting down on one of the benches in the training room of LDS. He ignored the weird looks that the LDS trio were giving him, and processed to remove his Duel Disk, handling it over to Avice.

"Won't you explain what the three of you are doing inside LDS!?" Masumi demanded as she watched the young man making himself at home.

"I had a meeting with your 'director'." Evan said, emphasizing on the word director.

"You mean Akaba Reiji?" Yaiba asked.

"As if!" Hokuto laughed.

"You can go to his office and ask him if you don't believe me." Evan closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. Avice sat down next to him and put on the Wrist Dealer of her brother before connecting it to the main body of the Duel Disk. She removed her hand and pouted, the Wrist Dealer was way too big for her.

"It's really inconvenient to have your Deck Zone be separated from the main body of the Duel Disk, you know?"

Masumi shook her head. It was pointless to try and talk with the siblings, they were just going to do whatever they wanted. So, the Fusion Duelist went to Shingo to ask him what exactly was going on and why he took them to the training room. He was way too prideful to make friends with people from other Duel Schools, so taking someone, from You Show no less, was absolutely against his character.

"Mind telling me what exactly going on here?" Masumi asked.

"Heh, the girl asked me to teach her a few of my awesome dueling skills!" Shingo ran a hand through his hair. "Being the kind soul that I'm, I couldn't turn this girl's request to see a legend in action."

"Aha, got it." Masumi nodded. In other words, they were all going to get front seats watching Shingo getting his ass kicked by a twelve years old.

"Ok, I'm ready!" Avice jumped from the bench, holding a hand over the oversized Wrist Dealer. "Let's do this!"

"That's the spirit!" Shingo pumped his fist. "Today, my dueling lessons will be held in _Karakuri Showdown Castle_! Action Field on!"

A huge white and blue castle materialized out of thin air around the two duelists and rose up, holding them on the rooftop. Black sky and lightnings appeared right above their heads and their Duel Disks' activated, blades bursting to live.

"Duelists locked in battle!" Shingo began

"…"

"Um, kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters." Shingo's shoulders dropped a little.

"…"

"They storm through this field." The boy's head fell as well.

"Action Duel!" Avice shouted.

"Huh?! But that's not the whole cha-"

"DUEL!" Ignoring Shingo's words, Avice pressed on with the duel.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Shingo LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I see, so you aren't excited about Action Duels?" Shingo asked. "Worry not! With Neo New Sawatari's awesome dueling skills, you will be taught the amazement of Action Duels!"

"Ok." Avice nodded. "Show me, teach."

"Ha!" Shingo put both hands on his hips triumphantly, then followed with an awkward chuckle, remembering a specific details about his current deck. "Actually, why don't you show me what you got first and then I will judge how good you are."

"Ok then." Avice shrugged and looked at the cards she got. "Let's see now. I think I will play this like how my brother likes to."

"I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Marauder (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_ and set three cards face-down before ending my turn." An imposing man with swords instead of hands appeared before Avice with a dull groan.

Shingo's jaw dropped. "Y-you got Pendulum Cards as well?!"

"Of course." Avice shrugged like it was no big deal. "I got ones in my deck well. My older sister has them as well. Oh, did you watch Oni's duel? She used some pretty cool Pendulum cards!"

Hearing that there were people who didn't have to steal their Pendulum Cards from a student of a half dead school caused considerable amount of damage to Shingo's psyche.

"So how are you going to rate my opening move, sensei?" Avice crossed her arms.

"You opening move?" Shingo blinked in confusion for a moment. "Ah yes, it was good enough for a starter, but you should put weak Pendulum Monsters in the Pendulum Zones instead of summoning them like this. Now I'm going to show you what you could do once you become as skilled as someone like me. My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Shingo] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First, I activate Yosen Training Grounds." Shingo said and the spell appeared behind his back. "Then, I Normal Summon _Yosenju Kama Two (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ and activate its effect to Normal Summon _Yosenju Kama Three (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_ whose effect lets me Normal Summon _Yosenju Tsujik (Lv.4, ATK: 1000)_!" Three different beast-warrior monsters all appeared on Shingo's field.

"Whoa, amazing!" Avice clapped. "You just summoned three monsters at the same time, sensei!"

* * *

"Your sister keeps calling Shingo sensei." Masumi turned to look at Evan. "Don't tell me that he is really teaching her how to duel."

"Watch the duel and you will learn for yourself, Fusion Chick." Evan replied.

"Stop calling me that!"

* * *

"Heh, this is nothing for the great Shingo Sawatari." Shingo replied to Avice's compliment and threw his right arm forward. "Because three monsters were summoned this turn, Yosen Training Grounds gains three Yosen Counters. Then, I activate Tsujik's effect to increase Kama Three's attack power by a thousand until the end of this turn!"

 **Yosenju Kama 3, ATK: 1500 + 1000** **2500**

"Now, I'm going to attack your ChronoDevil Marauder with Yosenju Kama Three!" the beast-warrior pulled out its dagger and jumped toward the fiend.

"Oh no!" Avice panicked and looked around. "What am I going to do? Ah, right!" Avice smirked and pressed a button on her Duel Disk. "I'm going to activate my trap!"

"A trap!?" Shingo's eyes widened.

"Yes! It's the powerful trap my brother often uses!" Avice giggled. "Time Shift negates an attack against my ChronoDevil monsters and turns all monsters with lower equal or attack power to that of your Kama Three into Defense Position!"

"Wait! Timeout!" Shingo cried out, but it was too late. Marauder crossed his arms together and created a huge clock whose alarm ringed, dropping all of the monsters on the field to defense position.

"S-sorry sensei." Avice wept softly and lowered her head in false sadness. "I thought that I was supposed to try and block your attack."

"Ah no!" Shingo waved his hands. "You did you good! Very good! I just, you see, tried to act surprised so that the others won't realize that I knew about your counter and choose to attack in order to make the duel seem more equivalent."

"You did that for me?!" Avice beamed. "Thank you, sensei!"

"It's nothing. Nothing." Sawatari waved off the compliment. "I activate Yosen Training Grounds's effect to remove three counters and add Yosenju Oyam to my hand. Then, during the End Phase, the effect of my three Yosenju monsters returns them back to my hand!"

Like he said, the three beast-warriors all turned into whirlwinds and flew back to Shingo's hand, leaving his field completely exposed.

"Wow! Your monsters ran away!" Avice gasped in awe. "I guess that means that you got more tricks up your sleeve, right sensei? My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 2** **』**

"Let's see now." Avice rubbed her chin. "Perhaps, I should play this. The Spell Card, Stream Stun negates all spell card on the field and stops us from activating any Spells for the rest of the turn."

The field and even the sky above Avice and Shingo turned grey, freezing the effect of the Action Field.

' _She stopped me from using Action Cards!_ ' Shingo thought to himself. ' _Don't worry, Shingo! You still have Oyam in your hand. Even two of them. She won't be able to cause any major damage this turn!_ '

"Let's cause some major damage!" Avice shouted and played the last card in her hand. "I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv.3, ATK: 1300)_ and change ChronoDevil Marauder to attack position!"

The little monster in rusty knight armor floated above Avice's field and grabbed Marauder's arm, pulling the warrior back on his feet. The two nodded to one another and turned to face Shingo.

"Now battle! I attack you directly with ChronoDevil Marauder!" Avice cried out, sending her monster to swung its blades down on Shingo,

"I activate the effect of Yosenju Oyam from my hand! By discarding Yosenju Kama Three, I can Special Summon Oyam from my hand in Defense Position" A huge rock with two glowing yellow eyes and huge arms appeared in front of Shingo, blocking the attack. "Also, while Oyam is attacked, its attack and defense become each equal to that of the monster it's battling."

 **Yosenju Oyam, ATK: 0** → **1600, DEF: 0** → **1** **600,**

"I activate Timefrozer Ghost's quick effect!" Avice countered, gesturing toward her ghost monster. "Once per turn, this card can negate the effects of one card you control. I choose Yosenju Oyam!"

"Negate its effects?" Shingo looked up at his monster. Its skin quickly turned grey and the glowing eyes turned black. "B-but then its attack and defense will become…"

 **Yosenju Oyam, ATK:** **1600** **→ 0, DEF:** **1600** → **0**

"Then, because Marauder battles a defense position monster, its effect activates!" Avice cried out. "You will take piercing damage from this battle and my Marauder gets to attack you again!"

The warrior jumped over the frozen statue of a monster and swung its swords, bringing them down onto Oyam, he cut the Level 6 monster in two pieces.

 **『** **Shingo LP: 4000 - 1600** → **2400** **』**

"Now, Marauder attacks again!" Avice gestured forward with her left hand.

"I activate the effect of my second Yosenju Oyam!" Shingo showed the card to his opponent. "By discarding Yosenju Kama Two, I can Special Summon Oyam from my hand in Attack Position!"

The huge rock appeared in front of Marauder again and slammed its arms on the ground, knocking the warrior backward.

"Hmm, if I attack, the effect of Oyam will activate." Avice put a finger on her lower lips and looked at Shingo with puppy eyes. "Maybe I should activate my second trap: _Urgent Tuning_!"

"Urgent Tuning?" Shingo raised an eyebrow. "What's this card doing?"

"You are going to see!" Avice grinned and jumped a step back before raised her hands to gesture toward the two ChronoDevils on her side of the field. "Using the effect of Urgent Tuning, I'm going to tune my Level Four Marauder to my Level Three Timefrozer Ghost during the Battle Phase!" The Ghost chuckled and turned into three rings that flew forward and Marauder ran through them.

* * *

"A Synchro Summon during battle?" Hokuto raised an eyebrow and looked at Yaiba. "Have you heard of that before?"

The Synchro LDS shook his head. "It's completely new to me as well."

* * *

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)!_ "

Avice jumped off the rooftop just as Evan's to-go monster flew through the rings left behind by Timefrozer Ghost. The dragon roared and speared its wings to make a backflip in the air before diving down after Avice.

The young Greyson smirked and spread out her arms, the resistance that the air proved to her body allowing her to slow down enough for Mystic-Flare to fly underneath her allowed her to land on the monster's back.

"Now I'm going to attack Oyam with Mystic-Flare Dragon!" The Synchro roared and charged back toward the rooftop of the castle where its opponent was waiting for it.

"When Oyam battle's its attack and defense both become the same as the monster it battles." Shingo reminded, his beast's attack raising from 0 to 2400 in an instant. "But not reading a card's effect is a mistake done by many, so don't be too hard on yourself because of it."

"You got no idea how right you are, sensei." Avice chortled. "When Mystic-Flare battles a monster with the same attack power, its effect lets Mystic-Flare destroy that monster automatically."

"Ah, smart!" Shingo was taken aback. "But I got an answer to that! I activate Yosenju Tsujik's effect from my hand! By discarding it, I raise Oyam's attack power by a thousand!"

 **Yosenju Oyam, ATK: 2400 + 1000** → **3400**

"Then, I'm going to chain my trap!" Avice threw her arm forward and her last set card flipped face-up in front of Mystic-Flare Dragon. "Synchro Strike increases Mystic-Flare's attack power by five hundred for each of its materials. I used two monsters, so it gains a thousand attack points as well!"

"Uh-oh." Shingo gulped. A burning red aura surrounded Mystic-Flare's body, turning even the green energy that powered it into a crimson one while its strength began to increase.

 **ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon, ATK: 2400 + 1000** → **3400**

"Since our monsters have the same attack power again, Mystic-Flare's effect still resolves! Time Nullify!" The dragon roared and its canons fired two equally powerful blasts that blew up Shingo's monster.

 **『** **Shingo LP: 2400 - 3400** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

"That was actually pretty fun." Avice muttered to herself and jumped off Mystic-Flare's back. The dragon lowered its head to rub its cheek against Avice for a moment and then faded away with the rest of the field.

"Ha, that was a good one." Shingo said, brushing dust off his shoulder. "Although I obviously let you win, you got some talent. Keep training and one day you might become almost as skilled duelist as me."

"Thanks for your lesson, sensei!" Avice smiled at him.

"Now if you excuse me, I have to go do something." Shingo said, gesturing toward the exit.

"Sure thing. See you later sensei!" Avice waved after Sawatari.

"Poor guy." Hokuto sighed. "He's probably going to lock himself in the bathroom to cry."

"I'm sure he is more mature than that." Masumi defended.

"Say that to me after I finished that jumbo ramen challenge only to find that the bathroom was locked." Yaiba took a deep breath. Those were some truly dark times…

While the LDS trio were telling themselves stories about the top ten times Sawatari embarrassed himself, Avice walked over to her brother and handled him the Duel Disk.

"I was going to vomit from calling that low life 'niichan' and 'sensei'." Avice shivered at the thought.

"You were great out there, neechan!" Oni beamed and wrapped her arms around the taller girl's waist.

"We should be going on." Evan closed his eyes and put his hands on each side of the bench. Although his stomach wasn't hurting enough for him to scream bloody murder - well it was still hurting the same, but he got tired of screaming – he couldn't stood up without feeling that his stomach was going to drop on the ground.

"Let us help you out." Avice and Oni moved at each side of Evan and each of them put one of Evan's hands around her shoulder, before helping him raise back up.

Evan looked at both girls in surprise and smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Avice rolled her eyes but then smiled as well. "You looked after me since I was in diapers. This is the least I can do for you."

"Oni too!" Oni shouted from the other side. "You took care of Oni as your little sister, so Oni's going to take care of you now, niichan!"

* * *

"Graild or Uriel must have already met with them already." Solar said out loud, watching Miami City through a mirror inside an empty void. "This means that Shade's hand must have begun their move as well. I made a promise to Elizabeth that I can't break yet, but none of you did the same."

Solar turned on her wheel and faced the two humans in white robes that stood behind her. Their faces were covered by their enormous white hoods and the robes made it hard to tell if the people underneath them were men or women. It was also questionable if they were humans at all…

"To ensure that this world won't follow the fate of mine, we must restore the supremacy of the light." Solar said and gestured toward the mirror. "Now go my Tracers! Hunt down the heretics!"

The two hooded figures bowed to the older woman and then walked past her. They put their hands on the mirror and it sucked them inside, transporting them to Miami City.

* * *

 **Avice: We are so close, yet so far.**

 **Chapter** **34:** **Second Round Begin!**

 **Summary:** The second round of the Miami Championship begins with a surprising duel where Oni and Tatsuya have to face against each other despite being from the same school! During the same time a masked duelists appears in front of Evan and Avice respectively…

* * *

 **A/N: So, this chapter is more a recall everything that happened in the last few chapters and a built-up for what's going to follow next. Evan is now officially grounded by Reiji, so what's he going to do now that all of the Lancers are no longer trusting him?**

 **With the way things are going, I dare to say that we will get to the Battle Royale by Chapter 37, but I can't confirm anything.**

 **On another note, the summary and front picture of the story have already been updated and the pic shows partially Evan's outfit for the Synchro Arc. Because of that, I would like to ask you guys what you would like the Synchro Arc to focus onto? I personally don't want to drag it for 40+ chapters like I did with Standard.**

 **I'm also gonna be giving spoilers, but the Greysons won't take part in the Friendship Cup. Instead, I think of exploring more the life in the City and the conflict between Tops and Commons from the center of it, but what do you guys and girls think?**

 **Now to the reviews!**

Ethan Kironus **: Since everyone put this in their reviews one way or the other: Not spoilers. The end of last chapter shows what Oni and Graild's plan's outcome will look like. There are far too many variables to tell if Graild's plan will happen or not...**

 **Avice : I surely don't want to kill or be killed by my brother.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Thanks. Really, I don't know what else to say here.**

SPRGMR27 **: First things first. When I saw the username that sent this review I was like "This is a surprise, but a welcome one." So, to the actual review. I personally gave a lot of hints who the new Nightshroud is, so I'm happy that someone probably followed them. For the second part, I speculate that you are talking about Berserk Phantomus and while he is somewhere between a new ace and a powered-up version of the regular ace, he isn't brand new. The card was used to defeat Nightshroud in chapter 20.**

 **Avice : The Light of Destruction vs Darkness theory is actually an interesting one...**

 **That's all from us for today!**

 **Diabolic Tracer and Avice out!**


	34. Chapter 34

**So many reasons we believe,**

 _(We see Evan, Elizabeth, Avice and Oni and standing outside the city and looking at the sunrise.)_

 **in the good of every heart.**

 _(Reiji is shown watching the same scenario from his office.)_

 **No matter what the world,**

 _(Kurosaki is shown dueling viciously in Neo Heartland City.)_

 **may perceive as "truth",**

 _(Serena appears in a corridor, remembering about Academia and the invasion of Heartland City.)_

 **How do we know which road to take,**

 _(Yugo is riding his D-Wheel through the frozen area of Quartet of Quandry, and Clear Wing flies over him.)_

 **when temptation leads the way.**

 _(A silhouette of Yuri and Starve Venom appear.)_

 **Follow our virtue.**

 _(A red, green, blue, and pink blade of a Duel Disk are ignited at the same time.)_

 **Where it will lead us .**

 _(We see that the blades belong to Evan, Avice, Elizabeth and Oni respectively as they run off into the stadium.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Shun, Ventus, Koharu and Levant are all dueling someone with Raidraptor - Rise Falcon, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, and King of Dreams, Hope standing beside their respective duelist.)_

 **Shrouded in mystery!**

 _(Nightshroud's mask, falls and the screens turns black before it shows the back of a Slifer Red student.)_

 **Fate bestowing down upon me strength to carry through!**

 _(A badly beaten Elizabeth and Tempest Sina stand alongside each other as they look up and see one red and one green pendulum swinging over them. Elizabeth smiles.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(Evan and Avice look at each other, then they are replaced by Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit doing the same.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Evan and Avice raise their hands simultaneously toward the sun.)_

 **Light will shed hope on our forsaken souls!**

 _(Two dots appear on the sun, slowly they grow larger, revealing themselves to be Chrono Phantomus and Sola Starlit who fly down from the sky.)_

 _(As the instrumental goes are show shots of Yuya dueling Hikaru, Gong versus a hooded Synchro duelist, Avice versus Yugo and ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon roaring at Evil HERO Inferno Wing.)_

 **Through every sign is pointing me away**

 _(Elizabeth watches in horror as Berserk Phantomus brutally destroys several monsters)_

 **the question still remains**

 _(Elizabeth takes a step back and summons Tempest Sina with several Oracle Sister monsters.)_

 **Are they visions that you see**

 _(We are then shown that this whole scene happens in a ruined Miami City.)_

 **in panic and uncertainty?**

 _(Elizabeth sends Tempest Sina and the Oracle Sisters to crash with Berserk Phantomus and the ChronoDevils.)_

 **Another voice is telling me to stay.**

 _(Next, Evan and the Slifer Red student are standing back to back with their hoods on, Chrono Phantomus and the silhouette of a dragon, mimicking their respective duelist's stance in the background.)_

 **Have faith inside of you.**

 _(Avice puts a hand over her chest and closes her eyes.)_

 **Don't run from the reality that stands before you.**

 _(When she opens them again, she is dueling in the Miami Championship with Astral Angel Golden Knight by her side.)_

 **Give me the wisdom to unravel every tangled thread,**

 _(Elizabeth is holding both hands over her chest and a single tear runs down her cheek while Yuki, Sunny and Hema looks over her.)_

 **running within my every vein.**

 _(Avice is holding a white flower while the spirit of Sola Starlit has her arms wrapped around the girl.)_

 **Save me from silence drowning me inside of my head,**

 _(Oni is shown alone and on her knees with the spirit of her ace, Hallow Perla, trying to reassure her.)_

 **before the remedy is forever lost again.**

 _(Evan's eyes glow purple, Foxy and Wolfy stand beside him with their eyes glowing as well.)_

 **As the story goes!**

 _(Evan, Avice, Oni, Elizabeth, Koharu, Levant, Yuya and Shun are standing against a group of duelists lead by Hikaru and a boy in black armor.)_

 **Fallen in history!**

 _(Chrono Phantomus dodges Starve Venom's tail and pushes the dragon back as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir flies in.)_

 **Heaven shining down upon the courage to pursue!**

 _(Cuts between Yuki and Sunny summon a monster in their respective duel; the former in a battle royal with Koharu, Serena and the hooded Slifer Red student, while the latter's duelist isn't shown.)_

 **Scarlet, hear me now!**

 _(A demonic Evan with glowing purple eyes and an angelic Avice with floating white hair are standing against one another.)_

 **This is my vow to you!**

 _(Berserk Phantomus and Sola Electra_ _are shown with a dark and light aura respectively as their attacks hit one another causing the screen to turn white.)_

 **Night will soon end on our forsaken souls!**

 _(The screen zooms out to show a single white flower lying between Sola Starlit and Avice, and Evan and Chrono Phantomus, all of which are lying sideways underneath the night sky.)_

* * *

Second Round Begin!

Levant collapsed in his chair and took a deep breath, finally able to rest. The lights in his room were turned off and the darkness of the night was creeping outside the windows. But the tired boy couldn't be bothered dealing with such small things. Turning to his left, he touched the surface of his deck and through the darkness searched for the keyboard that was supposed to be there. Finding his objective, Levant pressed a button and his computer screen lightened back up, with one of the icons having a red '1' floating above it – a detail that Levant took into account as he clicked on it with the mouse.

 _[Call when you are able. It can be an emergency.]_

Levant didn't seem to react to that warning, but he looked at when the message was sent. Two hours ago. The sender was anonymous, which meant that Reiji's agents couldn't have learned anything if they came to search through his stuff while he was on duty. He had to give it to the CEO of Leo Corporation, he was very strict and untrusting, even to his own employ and Lancers. He already showed that by dealing with Evan – someone who could cause big trouble Levant's plans as well – but Reiji wasn't the type to leave his work only half-done.

He pressed the call button and waited for the anonymous to accept the call. After a full minute, a small screen appeared on the bottom left corner of his computer screen. Levant's eyes took a careful look at the person on the other end of the camera. It wasn't whom he expected to see at all. Instead of a woman with blonde hair, pink eyes and pink lipstick that made her constant smile look even warner, he was met by a girl - not older than him – with green hair that was standing up, lifeless purple eyes, an overlapping emotionless expression and a pale skin that might or might not have made Levant feel like he was looking at a corpse.

"Hello, this is the first time we meet even if it's from across dimensions." The girl bowed on the other side of the screen and Levant observed how her voice – just like her appearance – lacked any sort of emotion. "My name is Zenith and you must be Levant from Standard. Our apologies but Miss Trevor isn't here at the moment, so I'm taking her role for the time being."

Levant nodded. "Very well. I was sent a message to call. It stated that this could be an emergency, so will you explain that to me in more details or?"

"Yes, right away." Zenith nodded back. "Our installations in Synchro and Fusion sensed a tear in the fabric of space. Upon closer analyzing of the observation, we were able to determinate that this 'wavering' of space didn't affect either Synchro or Fusion, and with Standard being the only other world that's not destroyed, the possibilities were fairly limited."

"Any idea what the origins of that observation might be?" Levant asked. "For all you know, it could be a natural phenomenon or just another Fragment fell into Standard."

"We found that it was dimensional transport, from a pocket dimension, which negates the possibility of a Fragment since they are result of overlaying timelines." Zenith began to click some buttons on her keyboard. "The possibility is that someone from Grelyson has sent a group of their own Tracers to your dimension."

"Those bastards." Levant tch-ed and leaned back into his chair. "What about those three new 'Tracers' that appeared, the Greysons? Did the council take any decision what to do with them?"

"No, the council is indecisive on that issue. From what I heard, Doctor Pork discovered something important and the council choose to wait from taking any decisions until the results from the test he is preparing come out. For the time being, you should ignore them, unless they get in our way, in which case your mission is to eliminate them, ignoring the council's decision."

Levant nodded, unfazed by that decision. Why should he care? The Greysons were Tracers that according to Miss Trevor weren't summoned by Shade's Hand, so they weren't his comrades. So although Evan's dark potential proved that they weren't working for Grelyson, it was better to get rid of all loose ends before they had the chance of ruining his mission.

"Your current objective would be to locate Grelyson's Tracers and eliminate them before they could complete their mission." Zenith said and Levant's computer beeped, as he got another message from her. "I sent you a file that would help you out. We're not sure, but based on Grelyson' previous attacks, the chances are that they next target is going to be Yuya Sakaki."

"They are going after one of the four souls, huh?" Levant rolled his eyes, not surprised in the slightest that they would go after one of them. "Perhaps that means that our agents in Fusion will try to talk the Professor in not sending Yuri to this dimension, aren't they?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that, but I have heard that the Fusion personality is much stronger than the other three, so we don't have to worry about Grelyson going after him." Zenith turned away and Levant couldn't see what she was doing behind the camera. "Anyhow, Hikaru and Makioka will transport from Fusion tonight, in three hours from now. They are going to appear on the docks, you must make sure that Standard forces won't catch them, understood?"

"Understood." Levant nodded. Of course, they would give him more work to do just after Reiji freed him of duty for the day. At least once Hikaru and Makioka appeared, they would be able to take care of most issues in Standard and give him some time to rest.

"That's all then." Zenith finished. "You must make sure that Yuya remains alive, he is a very important piece of our plan."

"Tch, I don't see anything special in him but if you say so." Levant shrugged. "As long as Miss Trevor keeps her end of the deal, I don't care what you are doing."

"She always keeps her word. Just do you work and we will give you the freedom you desire so much" Zenith replied. There was a slight hint of anger in her voice that didn't past unnoticed by Levant.

The screen then disappeared and the call ended. Levant quickly downloaded the file that Zenith sent him and then deleted his history so that Reiji's people wouldn't find out about this conversation. Once he did that, the Tracer opened the file and began to read through it. He had to be quick and delete it once he was done. There was far too much on the line for him to act carelessly.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I knocked on the door and backed away, waiting for someone to answer. That Elizabeth, she had a lot of nerve asking me and Evan to come to Sakaki's house and see how he was doing, wish his a quick recovery. I didn't even care about this clown, but she was so forceful that in the end even Evan gave into her demand. I wasn't angry at our sister because of myself, but Evan had a small operation to stop his internal bleeding just one day ago, he hasn't completely recovered from that and she already sent him to go all the way from our apartment to Yuya's house. What if something happened to his stitches? She didn't care about that, but she cared enough about Sakaki?

Just then the front door opened and a woman with blonde hair and green eyes greeted us. She seemed to be Yuya's mother because she had the same annoying smile as him.

"Good day, miss." I put up a smile and waved with my brother following after me. "I'm Avice Greyson and this is my brother, Evan Greyson. We are from You Show and came to see how Yuya is doing. If we aren't introducing, could we walk in?"

"Of course!" the woman nodded and stepped aside to let us inside. "Syuzo told me a lot about you, but I was never able to meet you in person until now. My name is Yoko Sakaki by the way."

"It's nice to meet then, Miss Sakaki." My brother stepped forward and shook her hand.

"You are so nice." Miss Sakaki replied and walked past us. "Yuya still hasn't woken up. It's been two days already and Yuzu has been with him as long as she can. I'm sure that Syuzo is starting to worry about his daughter as well."

"I'm sure that he understands the situation." My brother replied, while I, on the other hand, was sure that if Yuzu wasn't controlling her father's… emotional responses, this would have become a much deeper issue. "Truth be told, since the tournament started we weren't able to spent time with the others from You Show. We're so shocked when we heard what happened to Yuya, our minds just couldn't process what happened to that poor tomato."

"Tomato?" Shit, he used that nickname!

"Ah yes, that's how we call him. Nicknames between close friends." I facepalmed while my brother tried to explain to Ms. Sakaki why he called her son a tomato. "For instance, he calls me… Um…"

"My brother forgets stuff when he gets emotional." I quickly jumped in before it became too awkward. "My brother always looked at Yuya as a younger brother, so this hurts him more than it would hurt a friend."

"Is that so? I'm very happy to know that Yuya is surrounded by friends that care that much about him." Yeah, she isn't good at distinguishing a truth from a lie…

As we walked up toward the second floor where Yuya's room was located, I looked around. There were several cats and dogs running around the house and I also saw several photos of Yuya, Ms. Sakaki and Mr. Sakaki hung around. Although I had absolutely no respect for Yuya's entertaining duel, I have seen recordings of several of his father's duels and could tell why the tomato head was so hard trying to be entertaining. That Yusho Sakaki was an absolute legend! I just couldn't turn my eyes from the screen while watching his duels, they were so entertaining, so lively and always moving that it was hard not to feel like your breath was taken away while watching them.

Although even Yusho's dueling didn't seem to be on our level, I was amazed because of what his entertaining dueling meant. Unlike Yuya, who is trying to reach his father and follows his footsteps, Yusho's Entertaining Dueling wasn't a replica, it was its own thing, with a message that isn't borrowed by someone else. It made me think about something I never realized before. The reason why I don't respect Yuya as a duelist isn't because he is weak, but because his dueling doesn't have a voice on its own, he doesn't have a message that he tries to spread. In a way, his Entertaining Dueling felt to me just as self-satisfaction, a boy's try to stroke his own ego.

In the end, if Yuya was able to find his own reason to duel, his own message that he wants to spread, I would start to respect him as a person and a duelist. But until that day come, until he matures enough to take grab his own destiny with both hand, and my brother approves, I won't be able to force myself to care about him.

"They are inside." Ms. Sakaki said and opened a door of Yuya's room.

We walked inside. The tomato head was still lying unconscious on the bed and Yuzu was sitting on the floor next to him. The room was pretty normal, I honestly expected it to be a mess knowing how Yuya tends to be, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was tidy. There was also a small figure of Sky Magician and a poster of Yusho Sakaki on the wall above his bed. Geez, he really looked up to his old man, didn't he?

"Avice, Evan. What are you doing here?" Yuzu was surprised to see us.

My brother walked over to her and kneeled down before putting a hand on her shoulder. "We came to see how Yuya is."

I folded my hands and glared at him from behind. That sentence, the tone he said it, I could always tell when my brother genuinely meant what he said or not and much to my shock, and disguise, he sounded genuine!? I couldn't believe it! My brother, Evan Greyson, actually cared about that human filth? If I wasn't trying to be polite, I would have vomited because of how disgusting the thought was.

"You didn't need to come here." Yuzu smiled back at my brother. Well, she was right, we didn't need to come here but Elizabeth forced us, so there was that.

"Do you have any idea how he got like this? Did you ask a doctor?" My brother asked.

"No, I got no idea how this happened." Um, did she just ignore the question about asking a doctor? "It happened while he was looking out for Sora. I found him in the part but the moment I got there he collapsed and remained like this ever since."

"Maybe you should have really visited a doctor." I suggested. "Who knows what could have happened before you got there."

I for one know that strange dimensional portals could appear, people with the same face as someone you know might pop out of thin air, some weird dragons could try to dominate your mind to destroy everything around you and then for the grand final some pillar of light would appear and threw you into a dying world to be attacked by corrupted monsters until you find a way out. And while Yuya might have not gone through all of that, I still believe that calling a therapist would have helped out a lot. Or, weirdly enough, an exorcist might do a better work.

"You are right, but we can't move Yuya like this." I almost facepalmed again, listening to Yuzu's excuse. She did know that it was possible to call a doctor to your house, didn't she?

" _Become one…"_

"Huh?" I looked around myself. Strangely, I felt some voice talking to me, but there was nothing around me.

"Is everything ok?" Ms. Sakaki turned to look back at me.

"Ah, yes. I just thought I heard something." I smiled again to show that there was nothing.

" _Heh, their voices becomes louder when they are together, doesn't it?"_ Sola's spirit appeared sitting on the bed. Yuzu and Ms. Sakaki weren't able to see her because she was spirit, but both me and my brother could not only see, but also hear my ace's voice. _"I can sense that both Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon exist within this room."_

I remained silent. Although I could ask her telepathically what she meant, I didn't think that my brother could hear my thoughts, and I didn't want to leave him out of his conversation.

" _Of course, that's not the only thing new."_ Sola continued and gestured toward Yuya. _"I can sense it, the soul of his Xyz persona is floating inside his body. It seems that_ _ **he**_ _is slowly starting to rebuild himself, which is good. But I think that the dragons are keeping his consciousness captive, so me and Phantomus will try and fight against their influence. Right, brother?"_

Just as Sina said that my brother's ace, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer appeared beside her and nodded. The two held out their hands in front of Yuya's chest and then… Then they both stuck their hands inside. I winched a little bit, if they weren't spirits, there would have been a huge hole inside Yuya's chest at the moment.

" _There they are!"_ Sola exclaimed and the two of them pulled some orbs out of Yuya's chest - one red and one blue – then smashed them into one another. _"Done. We damaged the dragons' influence so he is going to wake up soon. See ya!"_

Sola waved at me and disappeared along with my brother's Phantomus, leaving us where we started. I shook my head and leaned against the wall while the others, including my brother, sat next to Yuya's bed and waited for him to wake up. It was seriously starting to piss me off how caring Evan became about the tomato head after the weakling fell into a comatose.

"I think we should go now." It was already seven minutes since Sola told us that Yuya was going to wake up 'soon'.

"Yes, you are right." Evan nodded and turned toward Yuzu and Ms. Sakaki. "The rest of You Show are worried about Yuya as well. Because of that we must be strong, otherwise they would think that something happened to the little tomato and we are trying to hide it from them."

"Yes, you are right." Yuzu nodded meekly. "We must be strong so the others won't worry as much."

"See? Now you are talking sense?" I told her. "It's best we leave now so,"

"Umhm, mom?" Oh no.

I looked at the bed and Yuya was lying there with his eyes now open. The tomato head looked at his mother and then at the rest of us as well. He seemed confused, more than that, he looked tired despite having slept two full days.

As it was the tradition when an important characters wakes up after a long dream – I never watched all that much TV so I'm not sure if it's a tradition or not – everyone, by which I meant Yuzu and Yuya's mother, went bat-shit insane and the later quickly ran off to give him food and whatever not.

"Um, what happened?" Yuya asked us.

"Nothing of that much importance." My brother shrugged off the question. "Let's just say that you have been asleep for two days and everyone got worried."

"Two days!?"

"Don't worry too much about it." I added. "The tournament hasn't gotten into the next state or anything while you were asleep."

"Really?" Yuya asked again.

"Yes." Yuzu nodded. "The first round of Junior Youth matches end today."

I noted that she seemed much calmer now that Yuya woke up. Really, even though everyone in You Show is a softie, Yuzu was so worried about Yuya that one would start to think they were lovers or something. Of course since this was YuGiOh and romance is avoided like a plague, I don't except anything to happen. Actually, is it me, or was this universe redacting itself when something unexpected happened. Sora forgot all too quickly about Nightshroud's attack. People's memories of anything related to our actions seemed to fade a lot quicker.

Did that have anything to do with the fact that we are Tracers, or is this universe trying to make us disappear?

"The night I fainted, I meet Yuto." Oh, it seemed that the conversation went ahead while I was thinking. Yuya closed his eyes and lowered his head. "He told me our worlds are split between four different dimensions."

"Let me guess, the names of those dimensions are Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Standard, right?" Evan quickly interjected. Argh, he was already revealing too much to them!

"Yes, that's what he said." Yuya nodded. "But how do you know that?"

That was a legit question. How were we supposed to explain that to them without breaking or cover? Without revealing that we are from a different dimension ourselves?

"I did a research on my own." Evan crossed his arms. "Even since we joined your school, there were LDS students and whatnot lurking around, talking about how you attacked Sawatari with a Xyz Monster and whatnot. I wanted our school to put this incident behind, so I didn't tell anyone about my investigation. Plus, it sounded ridiculous, but when I saw Sora and Shun's duel and how relentless both of them were during that duel, the idea of different dimensions began to be more believable to me."

I stepped behind Evan and sighed in relief. Thank Ra, he was able to come up with a believable story. Yuzu and Yuya were still young and naïve, so they were easier to fool than someone like Reiji.

"I learned that Shun and Yuto's dimension – the Xyz Dimension – was at war with Sora's – the Fusion Dimension." Yuya added. "I watched Sora fight against Yuto, in front of me, disappearing."

"He must have been called back to Fusion then." I sighed and folded my hands behind my head.

"Yes, you were there as well, weren't you?" It seemed that Yuya was starting to remember. Although he could remember clearly Yuto and Sora, but not me, was a bit troubling.

"Y-you were there?" Yuzu turned to look at me as well.

"I wasn't there when he collapsed if that's what you were thinking." I corrected her. I and my siblings were probably light years away while that happened. "But I saw the part that Yuya is talking about. I also saw how a Duelist from the Synchro Dimension, Yugo, showed up and challenged Yuto to a duel."

"But why?" Yuzu kept asking stupid questions. "Yuto told me that his enemy was Fusion."

"Yuto said that there was a Pawn of Fusion in the Synchro Dimension." Yuya continued. "Apparently, the two of them had fought before."

"I don't think that Yuto is right." I shook my head. "Even if there was a Pawn of Fusion in the Synchro Dimension, Yugo said that something important was stolen from him as well. I'm not sure who, but someone seems to have tricked them into fighting against one another."

"But who could do that?" Oh come on Yuzu, seriously!?

"If Yuya has a look-alike in both Xyz and Synchro, there is probably a copy that exists in Fusion." I pointed out. "It could be that Yuto and Yugo somehow mistook each other for that third individual, which would lead to the duel and,"

Suddenly, Yuya stepped up from his bed and walked over to one of the drawers in his room. He took a card from there and looked at it.

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon." I stepped forward and took the card from Yuya's hand. "So that's what happened to it after Yuto lost. He gave it over to you?"

"So the beam of light that transported us away came from the dragons?" As ever, my brother was catching up quickly.

"Wait, what?" Yuzu kept staring at us dumbfounded. I couldn't blame her, things were getting really weird, even for us.

"There is more to both Dark Rebellion and Odd-Eyes that either of us knows." I stated and handled the card back to Yuya. "You probably felt it when Yugo and Yuto dueled, that agonizing pain in your chest, the call of destruction ringing in your ears…"

"Y-you sensed that as well?" Yuya's eyes widened.

"Even though we don't have dragons, we were able to feel their emotions." My brother stepped in. "Didn't you feel it in our second duel? That urge of violence from Odd-Eyes?"

"Yes, I…" Suddenly, Yuya gritted his teeth and put a hand over his face. "I just don't understand any of this! First Yuto, and then Yugo! Why the heck must they have the same face as me!? I just don't…" He turned to look at the rest of us and lowered his head. "What is all of this?!"

Before he could continue, my brother put a hand on his shoulder, causing the tomato head to rise his head. Although I disliked him, for many reasons, I did like my brother and put a hand on Yuya's other shoulder. I couldn't let him feel so confused, unable to understand the world around himself and what's going on. Why is it happening? I know that it would sound melodramatic, but I would support him because that's how I felt as well. Why were we the ones transported to this world and not anyone else from the eight billion humans that lived on our planet? Why did we felt pain in our chests when Yuto and Yugo dueled?

I never showed it because I had Evan and Elizabeth standing behind me, but I'm scared of all these unknown things put in front of me. I'm afraid of what would lie beyond the mist that stood in front of my path. But unlike me, Yuya had almost no one to share this experience with, he was alone, standing in front of all these questions, unsure what would the answers bring to him.

Then, suddenly, Yuzu but her hands on top of both mine and my brother's. "You are not alone in this, Yuya. According to what Yuto said, I apparently have a lookalike as well."

"Yuto said that!?" Yuya's eyes widened and Yuzu nodded in response to his question.

"Too much things are going on right now." My brother said. "I think we should first try to solve the current mysteries and then move on new ones. Instead of pushing our heads against a brick wall, why don't we dress up and head over to the stadium? Whatever is going on, I don't believe that Reiji hasn't learned about something about it as well."

That got me to narrow my eyes. So that was how my brother was going to get back to Reiji for outing him? This was definitely going to make Yuya and Yuzu have more questions toward LDS, which in turn would give Reiji and his Lancers more stuff to deal with, and therefore they will have less time to look at what my brother was plotting!

"Yuto said that my lookalike was a comrade of him and Shun." Yuzu pointed out. "Since both Sora and Yuto are gone now, the only one left to ask would be Shun."

"That's as good of an idea as any other." I nodded. Of course, Shun wouldn't talk to them, he didn't seem to like talking to anyone, but at least I would be able to get away of these dorks when we reach the stadium.

* * *

"Freedom, sweet freedom!" I was on the verge of falling into tears.

The moment we walked into the stadium, I told Yuya and Yuzu that there was something I and my brother had to do, then ran as far away as I could while dragging my brother with myself. After we reached a small café, I finally let go of my brother and had him order me some nice hot chocolate while I relaxed on the table. What? I said that I understood how Yuya feels, yes, but that didn't mean I would go out of my way to help him find the answers. He had to deal with his issues while we deal with ours.

"You seem very relaxed." Of course my five seconds of peace were quickly drowned once Levant, Ventus, Elizabeth and Oni came along.

"Why shouldn't I be?" I asked them.

"What if a Fragment suddenly attacks out of nowhere?" Ventus raised his hands in front of himself like some ninja. "You must always be prepared for the unexpected!"

"Worry not, I'm great at that." I replied. So many unexpected things happened so far that I'm barely getting surprised by them anymore. "What about you? How is the guard duty?"

"It's boring." Ventus sighed.

"I find it tolerable." Levant said.

I nodded and turned my attention more toward my sister and Oni. The latter seemed somewhat worried for some reason. Did something happen?

"Why isn't Oni as happy and charming as she was before?" I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Neechan…" Oni looked up at me. "Something happened."

"What exactly?" A lot of things happened, I had no idea what she was referring to.

"Oni's duel will be next." Elizabeth folded her hands in front of her chest. "And her opponent is going to be Tatsuya, from our school."

"Wait, what!?" Sorry, but I had a bit of a problem processing that information. "But they are from the same school, is that allowed?"

"According to the rules, only one student could be victor in every age group." Levant rubbed his chin in thought. "So if there aren't enough participants from other schools, it's possible to have a matchup in which students from the same school would have to fight each other."

That sucked. Like, it sucked a big time. It sucks like the vacuum of space! I understand that the idea of this tournament was to find the best Duelists for the Lancers, but to put classmates against one another when they are at such a young age was brutal for me.

"What should I do, neechan?" Oni walked over to me and put her hands on my knees. "If I win, won't Tatsuya start hating me?"

I smiled, it was such an easy question. I patted her on the head and gave her my answer."No, he won't hate you. But he will if you choose to not duel seriously because of that. Even if after this duel only one of you moves forward, your friendship is much more important and stronger than that. If you duel with a smile and enjoy yourself, then there will be nothing to be ashamed of, no matter the result."

It might seem hypocritical that I gave her such an advice while winning was everything that I cared about while dueling. Well, you are probably right. But there was a huge difference between us and Oni. She was still young, was able to find happiness in life, but me and my brother? We never had much of a purpose, our lives always lacked a certain spark to them. The only purpose we know was the one we got from winning. Be it a card game, a match tournament, or something else, only by winning, by proving that we were better than those around us, we were able to find something that would make us smile for real.

"Thanks, neechan!" Oni laughed and hugged me.

"Wow." My sister muttered. "I told her the same thing, but she didn't believe me that much, yet she hugged you like a hero."

"I guess the person matters." I laughed a little myself. "I mean, this was probably the last advice any of you expect to hear coming out of my mouth, right?"

"I agree." Ventus nodded.

"And I can second that." Levant stated.

"Meanies!" I stuck out my tongue at them.

"Anyways." Levant began and turned toward Ventus. "Today you will learn who's your opponent for the second round, so you should probably go prepare yourself in case your duel is today."

"Ah, right!" Ventus nodded eagerly. "I must warm up, so I could go beyond plus ultra when the time calls for it!"

"What's with those catchphrases all of a sudden?" I raised an eyebrow. "Where did they even come from, they are so random!"

"Anime!" Was Ventus only reply before he ran off.

"It seems you forgot that Ventus, as all Tracers, comes from a different world that this one." Levant shook his head. "Since no one here understands half of the things he is referring to, it makes his dueling seem more interesting. I guess you could say that his somewhat goofy personality and the childish catchphrases are part of his own Entertainment Dueling."

"So it seems." Elizabeth smiled and took Oni's hand. "But we got to go now. Oni has to prepare herself for her duel and it's going to start after five minutes."

"No pressure, huh?" I asked. My sister just waved me off and left along with Oni.

"Now that the others are gone," Levant sat down next to me. "We must talk business."

"If its anything related to Reiji, don't count me in." I told him. "After the way he treated my brother on the last meeting, I'm not going to save his sorry ass."

"While I admire your royalty toward your brother, I can't agree that Reiji's actions were unjust." I glared at Levant for those words. "Even if your brother was hiding information from the rest of the Lancers with good intentions, which is doubtful given his past record, we are talking about a team here. We are part of something bigger than us. We are going to fight against Academia as a team, so anyone who would take actions, which would waved the trust of the other participants into one another, should either be rehabilitated, punished, or removed from the group."

"In fact, if you ask me or any of the other Lancers, we would all say that Reiji was being soft toward your brother." The ability to control myself from pushing this bastard in the face was starting to disappear the more I listened. "Evan admitted that he was in contact with someone who was an enemy of the Lancers the last time we met, and yet, the only 'punishment' is that LDS will look more carefully at his actions from here on. Reiji wasn't even secretly going to spy on him, Evan was given information that he is going to be monitored. You can hate him as much as you want, but the fact stands that Reiji treats the two of you much better than any other Lancer."

"And how comes so?" I never noticed Reiji treating us any different from the others.

"You aren't put under secret surveillance like Shun, despite your actions being much more dangerous than his." Ok, touché. But this is just one example! "He allows you to take part in the production of new Pendulum Cards, a privilege that none of us was granted." Oh, two points, but still… "And your brother was able to go almost unpunished despite his actions being equal to committing treason!" Ok, gee, I admit that he might like us a bit more… "Haven't you noticed that for Reiji you and Evan are the most important duelists? You got skills and potential that very few could rival, in a war against Academia, you two would be more useful even than Reiji himself!"

Now I was left speechless. Reiji thought of us as his ultimate weapons against Academia? That definitely came as surprise to me.

"Fine, what does Reiji want from us then?" I asked.

"The thing I'm going to talk with you about isn't about the Lancers." Levant leaned back into his chair. "Its Tracer stuff. You already know that not every Tracer in the four dimensions choose to follow the side and well, I learned that there are two Tracers who came from an unknown region to try and assassinate Sakaki Yuya."

"Yuya?" This revelation caught me off guard. "Why would they go after an entertainer like him? He is practically harmless."

"The Tracers who are going after him don't seem to think that way." Levant replied. "It seem that you don't like him that much, but he is a centerpiece of this world. He is the protagonist for Ra's sake! I'm not sure what we would be supposed to do if something happened to him."

"Fine, I will do as you asked." I wasn't going to enter an argument with Levant about this. "But how did you learn that Yuya's life is in danger?"

"I'm part of LDS and through Reiji I also got connections to Leo Corporation. I can use their resources as long as they don't notice what's going on." So, he is stealing data from them?

"Hey there." My brother returned with my cup of hot chocolate and put it before me.

"Bye there." Levant stood up and looked at my brother. "I got a duty for you to handle. Already told Avice the details about it, so she will explain it to you. Until next time."

That was a rather rude way to leave someone just came. I leaned back into my chair and my brother looked at me. This was going to be a long explanation, wasn't it?

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"And now, let's introduce you to the last duel from the Youth Division for today!" The reporter announced. "This time, facing each other will be duelists from the You Show Duel School! On the left side is Yamashiro Tatsuya and on his right side is his opponent, Hakuryù Oni!" The small audience that usually watched the Youth Division's duels began to cheer. All except for the Greysons who still didn't like the idea of duels between schoolmates.

"And now, let's see what will be the Action Field for this duel!" The reporter gestured toward the screen with a spinning card that then stopped on… "It will be the Action Field - Balloon Castle!"

The field in front of the two young duelists became covered with balloon of different colors while red columns raised around them and held the ceiling made from yellow, blue and pink balloons.

"Good luck, Tatsuya!" Oni waved at her opponent.

"Likewise." Tatsuya replied with a smile. "Let's the better duelist win!"

"Okay!" Oni nodded. "Duelists locked in battle!"

"Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters!" Tatsuya continued.

"They storm through the field!"

"Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of dueling!"

"Action Duel!"

 **『** **Tatsuya** **LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Oni LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will take the first turn if it's ok." Tatsuya said politely and Oni nodded. "I activate the Spell Card - Double Summon which lets me Normal Summon twice this turn. Next, I'm going to call out _Red Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1300)_!" A completely red robot made from – as its name suggest- gadgets appeared before Tatsuya.

"Through Red's effect I will add Yellow Gadget to my hand!" Tatsuya stated as a card popped from his deck.

"Not so fast!" Oni exclaimed "I discard _Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring_ to negate Red's searching effect!"

Suddenly, electricity ran through Red's body and it powered down while the card that popped out of Tatsuya's deck got automatically shuffled back in before he could get it. The duelist frowned a little, but he continued.

"Then I will use my second Normal Summon to call out _Green Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_ and use its effect to add another Red Gadget to my hand!" Another card popped from Tatsuya's deck and he took it this time. "Next, I will activate _Iron Draw_! Since I control exactly two Machine monsters and no other monsters, I can draw two cards, but I can't search cards from my deck for the rest of this turn!"

"Despite Oni's early intervene, Tatsuya was able to search out a card and even draw some extra cards to refill his hand." The reporter explained.

"I will end my turn there." Tatsuya finished. "It's your move now, Oni."

"Thanks." The girl smiled and put her fingers on top of her deck. "Here it goes! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Oni] LP: 4000, Hand: 5** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Performallusion Tomb Singer (Lv.3, ATK: 1000)_." The microphone wielding skeleton stepped on Oni's field. "And when Tomb Singer is summoned, I get to Normal Summon again, so come out _Performallusion Candyllon (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_!" The skeleton hissed something in the microphone and a ghost in a white circus attire flew out of Oni's hand to join it.

"Oh my!" The reporter exclaimed. "Just like Tatsuya did, Oni was able to summon two monsters on her field in one turn!"

"Let's battle now!" Oni pointed forward as Candyllon flew past her and toward the Gadget monsters. "I attack Green Gadget with _Performallusion Candyllon_!"

"Oh no." Tatsuya looked around and noticed an Action Card trapped between the red balloons that made the columns of the castle. Thinking quickly, he jumped on the balloons below him, which launched the little boy in the air to grab the card. "I activate the Action Spell – Take Flight! This increases the attack power of my Green Gadget by six hundred!"

 **Green Gadget, ATK: 1400 + 600** → **2000**

"Uh, oh." Oni muttered and looked around, spotting an Action Card on top of the balcony. "Let's go there!" She pointed at her target and Tomb Singer grabbed the little girl before running off to catch the Action Card.

"You won't make it in time." Tatsuya pointed out. His Gadget pulled its fist back and charged its counterattack while the ghost was flying closer and closer toward it.

"You are wrong! Tomb Singer, throw!" The skeleton suddenly stopped in its tracks and swung Oni around before throwing the girl toward the balcony.

"Oh, my!" The reporter gasped. "Oni used her monster to throw her toward the Action Card like a rock!"

It really was like a rock, however because Tomb Singer didn't have eyeballs, its aim wasn't one hundred percent accurate and instead of flying straight into the Action Card, Oni flew over it and slammed into the wall of balloons, which pushed her back and she fell off the balcony. Everyone watching this winched, and almost no one paid attention to the Green Gadget as it pushed a hole into Candyllon's body, destroying the ghost.

 **『** **Oni LP: 4000 - 400** → **3600** **』**

"Are you ok?" Tatsuya was getting worried about the girl.

"I'm fine." Oni muttered and sat up on her knees. "I activate Performallusion Candyllon's effect." The little spirit appeared again in front of Oni and began to rotate, creating a white portal covered by mist. "When Candyllon is destroyed, I can Special Summon another Performallusion directly from my deck, so come, _Performallusion Wind Spirit (LV8 ATK: 2000)_!"

The ghost of a ballerina flew through the spiritual portal and charged toward the Gadgets again.

"It appears that Oni was not only able to recover from the attack, but she also summon a very strong monster on her field!" The reporter announced. "Could that be the start of another counterattack?"

"Let's go, Wind Spirit!" Oni exclaimed. "Attack Red Gadget with Piercing Typhoon!"

The ballerina started to spin on place gathering the wind and transformed into a giant Typhoon with two green eyes and a grin. The monster then flew toward Tatsuya and pierced through Red Gadget, which then blew up and the force knocked Tatsuya back.

 **『** **Tatsuya LP: 4000 - 700** → **3300** **』**

"That was a powerful attack." Tatsuya muttered. "You are really powerful, Oni."

"Thanks!" Oni smiled and took a card from her hand. "During the end of the Battle Phase your Green Gadget's attack is going to return back to its original value." The robot's arms dropped a little and its boost faded away.

 **Green Gadget, ATK: 2000 - 600** → **1400**

"I will set one card face-down and end my turn." Oni finished. She didn't have many strong monsters out, but she knew for a fact that Tatsuya probably didn't have those either since he was more strategic in nature.

"Then it's back to me, draw!" Tatsuya said, drawing another card.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Tatsuya] LP: 3300, Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to call out my friend, _Silver Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_!" A robot covered in silver armor appeared next to Green. "And through its effect, when Silver Gadget is Normal or Special Summoned, I can Special Summon a Level Four Machine from my hand, so come out, my second _Red Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1300)_." A second copy of the red robot appeared in front of Tatsuya. "And when Red Gadget is Summoned, I can add Yellow Gadget to my hand."

"I don't have anything to block your search this time." Oni replied with a small smile. Although her deck was based around blocking her opponent's moves, she liked when there was nothing to counter with, because it was then that a duel was most fun.

"Now I'm going to activate the Spell – _Limiter Removal_!" Tatsuya exclaimed as the familiar spell card appeared before him. "When this card is activated, I double the attack points of all my machine monsters, but they will all be destroyed during the End Phase!" All three machines began to grow in size, reaching the second floor of the castle

 **Green Gadget, ATK: 1400*2** → **2800**

 **Red Gadget, ATK: 1300*2** → **2600**

 **Silver Gadget, ATK: 1500*2** → **3000**

"W-woah!" Oni slumped back at the sight of the giant machines. "That's not going to be easy."

"Here I go!" Tatsuya jumped on top of his Silver Gadget. "I attack Performallusion Tomb Singer with Red Gadget!" The robot clenched its fist and threw it straight toward the skeleton.

"I activate Performallusion Pally Dolly's effect from my hand!" Oni exclaimed, showing the card to her opponent. "I return the attacked Tomb Singer to my hand and Special Summon _Performallusion Pally Dolly (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_ along with _Performallusion Lone Digger (Lv.6, DEF: 2000)_!" The skeleton waved bye-bye and disappeared, with the two zombies taking its place.

"Then I will attack your Pally Dolly with Red Gadget." Tatsuya stated and his monster slammed its fist down onto the monster, destroying it. "Then, Green Gadget will attackPerformallusion Lone Digger."

Oni didn't respond with anything and just turned around to look for an Action Card. She jumped on the balloons and flew upward onto the second level, but there were no cards in sight. The little girl turned back and winched, seeing her monster getting stepped on by Green Gadget and then destroyed.

"Finally, Silver Gadget will destroy Performallusion Wind Spirit." The Silver robot's eye glowed and it moved toward the ballerina that took a step back.

"Wait!" Oni jumped onto a column and grabbed an Action Card. "I activate Double Attack to double my Wind Spirit's attack points!"

 **Performallusion Wind Spirit, ATK: 2000*2** → **4000**

The spirit gained more power as it jumped back and kicked against the balloons to send itself toward Silver Gadget's head.

"Then I will use an Action Card as well!" Tatsuya exclaimed and jumped onto the balcony where the card that Oni failed to grab the first time was. "I activate Zero Penalty to reduce your monster's attack to zero!"

 **Performallusion Wind Spirit, ATK: 4000** → **0**

"Ah!" Oni grabbed her head. "I completely forgot about this Action Card!"

But it was too late. The Silver Gadget ducked to avoid Wind Spirit's attack and then turned around to hit her in the back. Oni's monster scream and its body was thrown against a pile of balloons before it faded away.

 **『** **Oni LP: 3600 - 3000** → **600** **』**

"Woah!" Yuya exclaimed. "I have never seen Tatsuya dueling this good!"

"He's going all out." Evan pointed out. "Just like Oni, he wants to show how much he has improved since the tournament began. He knows that Oni was powerful Ritual Monsters, while he has no fancy Summoning methods so, in a way, this duel is him trying to prove himself."

"You think so?" Yuya looked back at the older duelist. "But why? He doesn't need to prove himself to us!"

"Maybe not to us." Avice leaned forward and looked at the field. "But he needs to prove his strength to himself."

"I will set a card." Tatsuya finished. "And during the End Phase of this turn, Limited Removal's effect is going to destroy all of my monsters." The Gadgets malfunctioned and fell apart. "But then Silver Gadget's second effect will call another friend to take his place! So say hello to _Golden Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_!"

A golden version of Tatsuya's robots flew onto the field and stopped before its owner.

"So you weren't planning to leave your field empty?" Oni smiled.

"Not at all." Tatsuya returned the smile. "When Golden Gadget is summoned, it can call out a friend, so come out _Yellow Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1200)_!" Finally making its debut, was a yellow robot. "And of course, when Yellow is summoned, I can add another Green Gadget to my hand."

"Keeping both field and hand presence at the same time." Oni narrowed her eyes a little bit. "Defeating this strategy would be very hard for me, if even possible. But I won't give up because that's how You Show taught me to duel! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Oni] LP: 600, Hand: 2** **』**

"I activate Book of Life!" A green spell book appeared on Oni's field and glowed brightly. "With this card's effect, I banish Silver Gadget from your Graveyard and revive Performallusion Wind Spirit from mine!"

"My Gadget?!" Tatsuya looked down at his Duel Disk. The spirit of his machine flew out and was absorbed into the book, which then opened and Oni's monster flew onto the field with 2000 attack points.

"Now I activate Wind Spirit's effect!" Oni's monster began to dance in a circle and created a huge vortex that sucked in the balloons around the two duelists. "I shuffle Performallusion Pally Dolly and Performallusion Candyllon back into my deck to shuffle your two Gadgets into the deck as well!"

The spirits of Oni's fallen zombies flew out of the vortex and toward the Machines, taking their hands. The Performallusion then began to guilt the Gadgets toward Tatsuya's deck.

"If so, I will activate my trap, _Metalhold the Moving Blockade_!" A giant gadget with two cannons on its shoulders raised from the ground and stood in front of Tatsuya. "When Metalhold is activated, I can equip my Gadgets to it and increase its attack power by theirs!"

The giant fortress reached out and grabbed the smaller Gadgets, then then transformed into balls and it put them into its chest, where they would power up its weapons.

 **Metalhold the Moving Blockade, ATK: 0** → **2900**

"Oh." Oni turned around and jumped onto a column, after which she kicked herself away and landed back on the first floor, grabbing an Action Card. "… I will end my turn there."

"It seems, Oni didn't get the card that she needed." The reporter commented. "Because of the difference between Wind Spirit and Metalhold's attack points, she is unable to do anything else but end her turn."

'A bad action Card?' Tatsuya thought. "If that's it, I will take my turn!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Tatsuya] LP: 3300, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card - _Crashbug Road_. This lets us both Special Summon a monster from your hand with the same level as a Level Four or lower Monster we control. Since I have the Level Four Metalhold the Moving Blockade, I can Special Summon _Green Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_." A second copy of his green robot appeared next to Metalhold. "And when Green is Summoned, I can add my third Red Gadget from the deck to the hand."

"I don't have a Level Four, so I cannot Special Summon." Oni lowered her head.

"Now, I will show you my ace!" Tatsuya exclaimed. "I release Green Gadget to Advance Summon _**Performachine Gadget Giant**_!"

A huge, multicolored robot raised on Tatsuya's field. The monster's armor was mostly blue with its gears being orange, yellow, green and etc. A single red eye glowed in the center of its round head and a red bowtie on its upper chest.

* * *

 **Performachine Gadget Giant**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 2000**

 **Effect: If this card is Tribute Summoned by Tributing a "Gadget" monster, it gains ATK equal to the Tributed monster's original ATK. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles a Special Summoned monster: You can destroy that monster.**

* * *

"Performachine?" Oni tilted her head to the side confused by that name.

"Just like how your Performallusion monsters symbolize your Entertainment Dueling, my Performachine Gadget symbolize mine!" Tatsuya exclaimed. "Now, Gadget Giant's effect activates! When its Advance Summoned using a Gadget monster as its material, it gains that Gadget's original attack points!"

 **Performachine Gadget Giant, ATK: 1000 + 1400** → **2400**

"Now he was two monsters which are stronger than Oni's." Ayu commented.

"This duel is so intense it gives me the shivers!" Futoshi added.

"Let's battle!" Tatsuya said. "I attack Performallusion Wind Spirit with Metalhold the Moving Blockade!" The huge machine leaned forward and charged its cannons which then fired at Oni and her monster.

"I activate my Action Spell, _Rejuvenation_! This spell increases my Wind Spirit's attack points by eight hundred and negates its destruction by battle" Oni countered, an invisible barrier forming around her monster, giving it a boost.

 **Performallusion Wind Spirit, ATK: 2000 + 800** → **2800**

The zombie jumped up, avoiding the first beam and then kicked the second one, redirecting it to the side. After doing that, the ghostly ballerina landed in front of Oni and bowed, while the girl took only a hundred points of damage.

 **『** **Oni LP: 600 - 100** → **500** **』**

"But during the end of the damage step, the effect of Rejuvenation will run out." Tatsuya pointed out. "So now it's time for the main event! Performachine Gadget Giant, attack Performallusion Wind Spirit with _**Joy Factory**_!"

The machine's eye glowed and it turned to the side, showing the green orbs on its shoulders. It then fired a wave of musing and happiness that wrapped around Performallusion Wind Spirit and exploded, knocking Oni back.

 **『** **Oni LP: 500 - 400** → **100** **』**

"A-are you sure that you are ok?" Tatsuya jumped onto the balloons and look at Oni.

"Yes, Oni is fine." The little girl raised back up and nodded. "Oni can still fight!"

"I will end my turn here then." Tatsuya finished. The only card that was currently in his hand was his Red Gadget, so he didn't even have anything to set.

"It's my turn. Draw!" Oni exclaimed, drawing a new card.

 **『** **Turn 6 [Oni] LP: 100, Hand: 2** **』**

The girl took a deep breath and looked at the card she drew. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was definitely something that she needed in this situation. "I activate _Swords of Revealing Lights_!"

The spell card appeared in front of Oni and burst with a brilliant light that consumed the entire field. Tatsuya closed his eyes and his monsters moved their robotic arms to cover their faces while several swords made from hard light fell around them, trapping them.

"While Swords of Revealing Light are in play, you can't attack." Oni stated. "And at the end of your third turn after this card is activated, my spell will destroy itself."

"So I won't be able to attack you for three turns?" Tatsuya asked. That was a powerful effect that could turn the tide of this duel. That's it if Oni drew a good card in her next three turns.

"Exactly, with Swords of Revealing Light in play, Oni is safe for three more turns." The little girl explained and put her last card face-down on the blade of her Duel Disk. "I will also set one card and then I'm going to end my turn."

"It's my turn then." Tatsuya said. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Tatsuya] LP: 3300, Hand: 2** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Red Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1300)_ and use its effect to add Yellow Gadget to my hand!" A familiar card popped out of Tatsuya's deck and he added it to his hand. "Then I'm setting one card and end my turn."

"It seems that Tatsuya isn't letting this slow him down." Evan commented from the sideline, causing the other duelists from You Show to look at him. "He is using the time to build up his field more and prepare himself for a counterattack."

"My turn!" Oni exclaimed and drew a card. With her hand empty, a lot was bet on that draw.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Oni] LP: 100, Hand: 1** **』**

Oni's eyes widened. The card that she drew… Was it destiny that choose this to be the card she would get in such a hopeless situation?

"I Flip Summon _Performallusion Tomb Singer (Lv.3, ATK: 1000)_." Her set monster turned face-up and the happy skeleton began to jump up and down. "Next, I activate Performallusion Lone Digger's effect from my Graveyard! I return Tomb Singer to my hand in order to revive it!"

The skeleton's head dropped in shock and it waved a white flag before it disappeared in a cloud of black mist. Out of that smoke jumped a huge fat monster and slammed its pick into the balloons.

"Now I activate the Ritual Spell, _Pendulum Advent_! I use Lone Digger as my tribute!" A large black coffin with a pentagram appeared before Oni and her monster turned into six flames that flew over to the pentagram, one at each end, while the six floated above the center.

" _As the last curtain of thy performance falls, the restless spirit raises over the cloak of depravity! Step beyond the veil and shake the boundaries between life and death! Ritual Summon, Level Six! Horror Perla the Ritual Performer (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!

The coffin levitated in the air and then turned into a standing position. Its lid fell off and blue flames burst out of the coffin with a young woman wearing a black hood and a blindfold flew out, swinging her magic wand made of bones.

"W-what's this!?" the reported shouted in excitement. "Oni just summoned a unique Pendulum-Ritual monster!"

"Woah!" Tatsuya muttered. "A Pendulum-Ritual hybrid? I don't think that Yuya-niichan has such a card in his deck!"

"This monster isn't created by borrowing strength from Yuya-niichan." Oni shook her head. "Horror Perla is a result of the strength given to me by my neechans and niichan! Let's go! Horror Perla, attack Red Gadget! _Glance of Medusa_!" The Performed moved her fists in circular motions in front of her own face before opening the palms of her hands; she fired a purple wave of energy at the robot.

"That won't happen!" Tatsuya shook his head and Metalhold the Moving Blockade moved in front of the smaller robot, protecting it from the attack. "While Metalhold the Moving Blockade is on my field, you can't target other monsters I control with battle or card effects!"

"W-what!?" Oni bit her lower lip. That was bad, her monster wasn't strong enough to attack Metalhold the Moving Blockade. "I… I set a monster face-down and end my turn."

"Even though Oni summoned a strong monster, due to Metalhold she is unable to use it." The reporter sighed, disappointed that they were unable to see the Ritual-Pendulum hybrid in action.

"Sorry for ruining your performance." Tatsuya rubbed the back of his head. "But, I will take my turn now."

 **『** **Turn 9 [Tatsuya] LP: 3300, Hand: 2** **』**

"I will start by Normal Summoning another _Yellow Gadget (Lv.4, ATK: 1200)_ and then I'm going to use its effect to add Green Gadget to my hand." Tatsuya looked at the cards in his hand. He had a trap that he could set, but… "With this, I'm going to end my turn."

"My turn!" Oni exclaimed. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 10 [Oni] LP: 100, Hand: 1** **』**

"Not good enough." Oni muttered and jumped through the balloons. "I must find a good Action Card!"

"I won't let only you have fun!" Tatsuya smiled and ran off in the other direction, jumping through the balloons, he began to search for action cards as well.

' _Action Cards that destroy are very rare and usually have high cost._ ' Oni thought as she kept searching with Perla following suit. ' _Therefore, I would need to find a card that would let my monster defeat his through battle._ '

"As the two duelist began to search for action cards, their time is beginning to slowly run out." The reporter commented.

"Found one!" Tatsuya raised his hand to show that he had an Action Card. "I activate the Action Spell – _**Enemy Support**_ to halve Perla's attack and increase Metalhold's by the same amount!"

* * *

 **Enemy Support (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 monster your opponent controls and 1 monster you control: Halve the first target's ATK, and if you do, the second target gains the same amount of ATK.**

* * *

"W-what!?" Oni looked back at her ace. The monster fell down on its knees, feeling the effect of spell already starting to take over its body.

 **Horror Perla the Ritual Performer, ATK: 2400/2** → **1200**

 **Metalhold the Moving Blockade, ATK: 2900 + 1200** → **4100**

"T-there is no beating over this!?" Oni gasped. "I… I set one card face-down and end my turn."

"Oni is really out of options." Ayu observed.

"But Tatsuya's field is still growing stronger with each passed turn." Futoshi added.

"Which one of them should we cheer on?" Yuzu asked.

"Neither, or both." Elizabeth stepped into the conversation. "They are both your classmates, so you shouldn't choose one over the other."

"You are right, Eli-neechan!" Ayu agreed.

"Don't lose Oni! Don't lose Tatsuya!" Futoshi shouted.

Down on the field, the two duelists heard their friends sheering them one and looked up. Even though they were both students of You Show, destiny had them face each other in order to move forward in the tournament.

"It's my turn again." Tatsuya exclaimed. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 11 [Tatsuya] LP: 3300, Hand: 3** **』**

"I'm going to Normal Summon _Green Gadget_ _(Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_ and then I activate the spell card, _Mystical Space Typhoon_ to destroy your _Swords of Revealing Light_!"

A strong whirlwind began on Tatsuya's side of the field and raised the swords of light above his monsters before shattering them into pieces. With this, Oni's best line of defense was gone.

"Let's battle!" Tatsuya exclaimed. "I attack Horror Perla the Ritual Performer with Performachine Gadget Giant! _Joy Factory_!" The machine fondled its arms so that both of its shoulders were pointing forward and then fired at Perla.

"I activate my trap card, _Illusion Laugh_!" Oni exclaimed, activating her trap. "By banishing a Level Severn or higher Performallusion from my Graveyard, I can swap your monster's attack and defense points!" The spirit of Performallusion Wind Spirit appeared in front of Oni and then flew over to Performachine Gadget Giant.

 **Performachine Gadget Giant, ATK: 2400** → **2000, DEF: 2000** → **2400**

"But that's not enough to change the tides." Tatsuya pointed out.

"Maybe not, but now I can activate a useful effect from my deck!" Oni smiled.

"From the deck!?" Tatsuya's eyes widened. "How?!"

"When a card or effect is activated while Horror Perla the Ritual Performer is on my field, I can activate a monster's effect which can be chained to the already activated card effect directly from my deck! So, I choose to activate the effect of _**Performallusion Dagger Juggler**_ and increase Perla's attack points by a thousand!"

* * *

 **Performallusion Dagger Juggler**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: DARK/Type: Zombie/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: If a card or effect is activated that would change the ATK and/or DEF or a monster (Quick Effect): You can discard this card to target 1 monster you control; increase its ATK by 1000 and if you do, the first time it would be destroyed by battle or card effects this turn, it's not destroyed. If a monster is sent from your hand to the Graveyard, except during the turn this card was sent there: You can Special Summon this card, but banish it if it's sent to the Graveyard again.**

* * *

"Oh no!" Tatsuya took a step back as he realized what was happening.

 **Horror Perla the Ritual Performer, ATK: 1200 + 1000** → **2200**

"Counterattack!" Oni exclaimed. The performer jumped back to avoid Performachine Gadget Giant's attack and then threw her magical wand in front of it. The magic item created a circle around the huge machine and it exploded with fireworks that turned into smiling faces.

 **『** **Tatsuya LP: 3300 - 200** → **3100** **』**

"N-no way!" Tatsuya gasped, not in anger, but in pure amazement that Oni was able to think about using her trap on his monster in order to trigger her monster's effect. "However, my Metalhold the Moving Blockade has an attack left.!"

The machine's cannons began to glow and it aimed them down toward the performer. With a difference of attack points that was 1900, there was no effect in Oni's deck that could buff her monster enough to take this hit.

"The fun is not over yet!" Oni exclaimed and jumped on her monster's wand. A magical circle formed around Perla's arms to enhance them and she pulled the wand upward, launching the little girl toward the ceiling of the castle, where an Action Card was sticking out. "I activate, the Action Spell _Encore_! This allows me to copy the effect of an Action Card that's in my Graveyard."

"You can do that as well?!" Tatsuya gulped, knowing which was going to be the card that Oni would activate.

"I activate Double Attack to double Perla's attack points until the end of this battle!" Oni clenched her fist triumphantly while her monster pointed her staff at the huge machine and fired five magical orbs at it.

 **Horror Perla the Ritual Performer, ATK: 2200*2** → **4400**

Two of the magical orbs collided with Metalhold the Moving Blockade's blasts, destroying them, while the other three destroyed its cannons and head. The huge robot collapsed on its knees and then exploded.

 **『** **Tatsuya LP: 3100 - 300** → **2800** **』**

"Ah, then using Green Gadget I will destroy your set monster!" the small green robot charged toward Tomb Singer, destroying the skeleton.

"At the end of the battle, the attack of my Perla returns to how it was at the start." Oni explained.

 **Horror Perla the Ritual Performer, ATK: 4400** → **2200**

"I will change my other Gadgets to Defense mode and set another face-down card before ending my turn." Another set card appeared before Tatsuya for a moment before fading away.

"I'm sorry about your monsters." Oni bowed.

"That was amazing!" Tatsuya told Oni. "You were able to fend off all of my strongest monsters and even destroyed them!"

"Y-you aren't mad?" Oni asked. She was confused by the boy's reaction.

"Of course not!" Tatsuya shook his head. "Yuya nii-chan always taught us that the most important thing was having fun! If I don't win this year, I can try the next one. But the most important part is to have fun while dueling!"

That was what Avice and Elizabeth said as well. Oni had always wanted to make people smile through her dueling, which was a part of why she joined You Show. Yuya, Yuzu, Evan, Avice, everyone there taught her so much. She had to repay them for what they did.

"Very well then." Oni smiled and raised her hands toward the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen! As you can see in this duel brought to you by the Duelists of You Show, my hand is empty and my field was left absent of any cards except for my most loyal monster, Horror Perla the Ritual Performer. With this next draw, the ending of this show will be decided."

Unknown to both Oni and the Greysons, all three of their pendulums began to swing. That wasn't just a kinetic movement, oh no. Oni's fate, her destiny in this duel, was swinging between victory and defeat.

"As two of my mentors from You Show would say, this will be my Destiny Draw!" Oni cried out and pulled the top card of her deck.

 **『** **Turn 12 [Oni] LP: 100, Hand: 1** **』**

Oni looked at the card that she drew. It came!

"Battle!" Oni threw her first forward. "Horror Perla the Ritual Performer attack Greed Gadget! Glance of Medusa!"

The Ritual monster crossed its arms and fired a purple wave of energy that was meant to turn the Machine into rock.

"I will activate my trap – _Shift_ , to change the attack target to a new monster!" An old trap flipped face-up on Tatsuya's field. "Then, I will activate my second trap - Stronghold the Moving Fortress to Special Summon it on my field as a monster!"

"Huh, why would he do that?" Ayu asked.

"Stronghold's effect would increase its attack points to three thousand if Green, Red and Yellow Gadget are all on the field at the same time." Yuya pointed out. "Therefore, when the chain resolves, Tatsuya will redirect the attack to Stronghold and win!"

"I knew that you would do that!" Oni exclaimed. "That's why I have this card! When my opponent Special Summons a monster I can discard Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer to destroy all of your monsters whose defense is less than her attack points!"

"Oh no!" Tatsuya gasped. The spirit of Perla's original form appeared over the field and then flew down onto Tatsuya's monsters, disabling all of them. The monsters began to fall apart, leaving nothing to protect Tatsuya.

"And when a monster is discarded, I can revive Performallusion Dagger Juggler from my Graveyard!"

A half decayed zombie raised from the floor of balloons. It had three arms, with the third one having been surgically attached to its belly. Its head was twisted to the side with its left eye socket being empty while the right one had a yellow coloring of the sclera. The monster wore a pink collar with yellow stripes around its neck and was juggling with four sharp knives.

"Horror Perla the Ritual Performer, Performallusion Dagger Juggler, end this together!" Oni's two monsters jumped between Tatsuya and grabbed him by the hands before throwing the boy into the balloons.

 **『** **Tatsuya LP: 2800 - 2200** → **600 - 1000** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Oni** **』**

The whole audience that watched their match burst into cheers and the Solid Vision disappeared, leaving the two kids standing in the empty arena. Oni walked over to the boy and reached out with a hand to help him get up.

"Thanks." Tatsuya smiled and took Oni's hand. "You did great."

"You did even better." Oni smiled back.

"Would you mind if we have another duel after this tournament is over?" Tatsuya asked curious what would be the girl's answer.

"Yes, I would love to!" Oni nodded eagerly. Unfortunately, she knew that her destiny wouldn't allow her to fulfil that request. "We can duel when this is over."

The girl then turned back and looked at the rest of You Show, but her smile quickly turned into a frown. Evan and Avice were no longer with the rest of the school even though they were there when the duel started. She could only wonder where her niichan and neechan disappeared to this time.

* * *

Sakaki Yuya – such a hard target to eliminate. The masked Duelist had been hiding in the shadow for the entire day, waiting for everyone to leave so they could go down there and finish off Sakaki Yuya. At first, they were planning to attack him at home, but there were four other people in his room, so attacking there wasn't optimal.

Even now, he was surrounded by friends, while most of them were just children that could easily be scared, they were also older that would probably try to put a fight. So the best bet to eliminate Yuya before he obtained his berserk ability would be to first get rid of those that surround him. This way, he would fall into so much despair, knowing that his friends all died because of him, that defeating him would be a piece of cake.

"I have been waiting for you." The masked duelist stepped out of the shadows and turned to face his victim.

"It's Yuya that you are waiting for, isn't it?" Avice asked.

"How do you know that?" Shit! That was supposed to be a secret mission.

"Let's say that a bird told me and leave it there." Avice smirked. "But I figured that since he is always surrounded by people, it would be best to first eliminate us one by one, so I moved somewhere without many people specially for this."

"So you set me a trap?" The masked duelist tilted their head. "Too bad, I was given a deck that's meant to counter the destructive light radiating from yours."

"We will see." Avice smirked.

* * *

At another part of the stadium, Evan was walking casually through an empty corridor. Today was the last duel from the Junior Youth, so most people would be watching it. Suddenly, the Greyson stopped in his tracks and a tall duelist in a white hood with a black and yellow mask stepped in front of him.

"What an honor that you came here alone." The duelist said mockingly.

"Yeah, yeah." Evan waved a hand dismissively. "You probably came here to eliminate me. Not the first one to try bud, but you also won't be the last one to fail."

"Confident words." The masked duelist raised his left arm, showing a custom, triangular Duel Disk on it. "But can you back them up? My deck was specially designed to piece the darkness that floats through yours."

Evan whistled. "Fancy Duel Disk."

"Enough fooling around!" the masked duelist shouted.

Then, at two different places at the same time, four duelist shouted the same two words.

"Let's Duel!"

* * *

 **(Omake anyone?)**

 **Darkness of Mind**

ChronoDevils and Astral Angels were both unique archetypes that weren't created by the hand of a man, but by their imagination. Those two archetypes were a physical manifestation of their user's personality, desires, fears, and so on. Because of the strong bond that they shared with their creator, the monsters of those archetypes had their own place deep within the psychic of their host.

All of the ChronoDevil spirits existed within Evan's mind, which was their lair, the place they spent while he didn't need them in a duel, and where they returned to heal after a duel ends. The appearance of their home always changed, so we won't be describing it.

Personally, many of the ChronoDevils preferred the appearance of a hellish abyss filled with flames and horrors, as their home. However, because creating such an image inside their host caused nightmares to haunt him every night, they often created something more, as they would say, 'human friendly'.

This special lair of theirs wasn't just a place to rest. They also had various activities to fill their free time with, the more bloodthirsty spent their free time fighting against one another in a huge Battle Royal, the rest often talked with one another, and the Wild Tamers spent their time either annoying the rest, of doing childish pranks for which they would often suffer an unspeakable torture as punishment.

And today it was going to be the later. It all started with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy standing next to one another, within, whatever shape their lair took this time around.

"Hey, hey!" Foxy called out, catching the fiend's attention.

Phantomus turned around to see what the Beast-Warrior wanted when suddenly a sharp fist collided with its shoulder.

"Are you mad?" Foxy asked with a smug smirk on her face after hitting Evan's ace monster.

"…" In turn, Phantomus stared at the Beast-Warrior with a blank expression on his face.

"Hey!" Foxy shouted and threw another punch against his shoulder. "Are you mad?"

"…" The fiend kept staring blankly at the much shorter monster.

Already annoyed with the lack of a response, Foxy reached behind herself. Even as she grabbed her signature hammer, Phantomus' expression remained neutral. The lack of response pushed the Wild Tamer's anger even further and she swung her weapon with all of her strength. The fiend didn't even try to dodge the attack and the hammer connected with his shoulder.

A sharp sound of several bones cracking at the same time echoed through the air and the two monsters observed the result. Phamtomus' left hand was bent outward from the elbow down under a degree that was impossible for neither a human, nor a Duel Spirit to achieve without breaking all of the bones in their hand. And it just so happened that his hand was indeed broken.

"Sooo," Foxy trailed off, hiding the hammer behind her back. "Are you mad now?"

"…" This time, Phantomus' silence sent chills down the smaller Spirit's spine.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Evan suddenly felt the urge to smile. He couldn't tell why, but something inside of him was telling him that Foxy was currently suffering through pain that equaled to thousands of deaths. And he was enjoying that thought, not knowing that this thought was already reality.

* * *

 **(Diabolic Tracer: Hey there! Welcome to our new afterchapter** **segment. Some of you might already be familiar with this one, but the name of this little additional piece is "The More You Know" or just** **T.M.Y.K. In here, I will be putting additional trivia and interesting information about the universe of Arc-Tracers!)**

 **Fragments : Fragments are a spacial distortion formed when a particle from a timeline falls apart and gets corrupted by the dangerous radiation that exist in the space-time continuum outside a given timeline. Depending on whenever it was a living being or not that got corrupted, Fragments could come in two variations. The first, and weakest are those created from non-living things. They don't have their own body and when one of them falls into a timeline, they always take a host, or create their own body that looks like a human they have met in the last timeline they visited.**

 **The second group, the stronger Fragments, are those created by living beings. Their appearance is similar to that of the living being they used to be before their 'fragmentized' state. Not much is known about them expect that they are able to control the lesser Fragments.**

 **While the Fragments as a whole are an enigma without a real purpose in their existence, expect to float through the space-time continuum until they get absorbed into a timeline and then repeat. Despite that, Fragments are able to communicate with each other telepathically through great distance distance, as every Fragment appears to view the Tracers as enemies, despite the only ones who had come in contact with Tracer having been killed before they could share than information with anyone else.**

* * *

 **Avice: Hello back everyone! We just got a lot of new previews for you this time!**

 **Chapter 35:** **Light and Darkness in Despair**

 **Summary:** Evan and Avice begin their duels against the masked assailants that were meant to eliminate Yuya Sakaki. However, having figured a fatal weakness in the ChronoDevil and Astral Angel decks, the masked duelists use their Anti-Dark and Anti-Light decks to shut down the siblings' strategies and push them into a corner.

 **Avice: And it took them only 35 chapters to realize that Anti-Light cards work best against my deck!**

 **Chapter 36:** **LDS' Records**

 **Summary:** As the second round of the Miami Championship goes with full force, Reiji makes a record about how far his Lancer program has progressed and all about all those strange things that he has yet no answers about.

 **Avice: I'm ashamed to admit this, but we didn't exactly have an idea where to put Yuya's first Berserk Mode and Serena's first, full, canon appearance, so we created this recap for that purpose.**

 **Chapter 37:** **Battle Royale On!**

 **Summary:** The third round of the Miami Championship begins and everyone is surprised to learn that it'll be a city wide Battle Royale. Searching for Pendulum Cards, Avice stumbled upon a girl that looks almost the same as Yuzu that challenges her to a duel. At the same time, several unknown characters begin to appear all over the city.

 **Avice: As you will notice from reading the next few previews, the Battle Royale is going to be a wild ride! Also, please note that Diabolic Tracer put here only the important duels, there are going to be much more, not-that-important duels whose importance wasn't enough for them to be put in the summary.**

 **Chapter 38:** **Supreme Demon Awakens!**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale becomes more dangerous with a dangerous group known as the Obelisk Force starting to attack the other duelists. However, when Evan stumbles upon a few of them, suddenly a strong pain pierces his chest and a dark aura surrounds him, while Avice experiences some changes herself.

 **Avice: Puberty. Those changes are called puberty. I'm just joking with you.**

 **Chapter 39: Copy of White**

 **Summary:** As the second day of the Battle Royale starts, the remaining duelists choose to separate and look for other survivors. While looking through the ice area, Yuya and Gongenzaka end up in a duel against Hikaru and a girl called Makioka respectively. Meanwhile, Avice and Elizabeth came across a girl that looks just like Avice herself.

 **Avice: Gasp! I got Dimensional Counterparts as well!**

 **Chapter 40: Stages of Rebellion.**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale is at its end and most of the Obelisk Forces have been driven out, despite the heavy loses, the Standard Duelists keep pushing the enemy away. During that time, while Ventus is helping Koharu in searching for Fusion remnants, the two of them come across the strongest duelist that participated in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension that his fellow Fusion soldiers nicknamed Kaiser Ryo. at the same time, Evan and Avice both begin a duel against Yuya's counterparts, Yuri and Yugo respectively.

 **Avice: Ryo Marufuji who? Zane Truesdale what? Nothing here, let's move on...**

 **Chapter 41: Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Avice: Again, those changes are called puberty. Jokes aside, I can't say anything without giving spoilers.**

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

 **Avice: Why though? Why would you do that?**

 **Evan: I dunno.**

* * *

 **A/N: Hello everyone! I know that it hasn't been all that long since my last update, but it sure did feel like I haven't updated this story. This time around we got a more Avice-centered chapter because we haven't gotten to see her view on this situation. It seem that while Elizabeth and Evan are starting to warm up a little toward You Show, Avice is getting more hateful at Yuya and Yuzu because they take her brother's attention off her.**

 **We also got Tatsuya and Oni's duel! Honestly, I got no idea which one I wanted to win, and choose to have Oni be the winner at the last all, what's the point of having this duel if it won't change anything about the canon? Some of you might raise an eyebrow as to why I choose to give Tatsuya Gadgets instead of creating a completely new** **Performachine archetype, but I love the Gadget archetype and have no idea what an** **Performachine's general playstyle should be, so there is your explanation.**

 **Lastly, I want to address something that I forgot to put into my A/Ns for a while now.** **Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Tracers already has more follows, favorites and reviews than its predecessor Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-Twins. I know, I know, this isn't much of an archievement, but it makes me personally happy to know that the idea to reboot a story, that a big portion of you probably hasn't noticed before, wasn't a failure! To celebrate this, I added an old panel from my previous story that was unfortunatelly prematurely eliminated before it could get anywhere - the** **T.M.Y.K. section!**

 **I have already planned the first two trivias to be about the Fragments and Tracers because they are a central part of this story's universe, but I'm going to add trivia to a lot of other things as well, probably everything that has been seen/mentioned and is going to be seen/mentioned in the future chapters. You can also give suggestions about my next trivias. Everything can be requested, expect for characters since that would lead to spoilers. Anything that has been in Arc-Tracers has a backstory behind it and I would love to share some of these with you guys and girls!**

 **Now onto our reviews! (Avice: By the way, we are already at 96 reviews, only 4 more until we reach 100!)**

ScalchopWarrior **: "** **Hope we're not gonna get another Twins** **" I can't promise anything there buddy.**

ThePLOThand **: Yes! Mystic-Flare and** **Oracle Sister of Sailors - Aqueen are based of exactly those monsters! The Astral Angel one though is more of an odd coincidence, as your review is the first time I hear about a card called Luminous Soldier. I'm happy that someone noticed that fact.**

 **And that's all for today. Ho you enjoyed reading this and we will see you next time.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	35. Chapter 35

Light and Darkness in Despair

 **Evan's POV**

"Let's Duel!" I and my opponent shouted at the same time, drawing five cards from our decks.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Unknown LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will take the first turn!" My opponent laughed and took a card from their hand. "I was given information about your deck in case I happen to face you. You use a ChronoDevil deck that focuses on controlled Beatdown tactics. However, more importantly that that is that all ChronoDevil monsters are DARK attribute, perfect for someone with a dark soul, like you. However, today this overreliance in the power of darkness will be your undoing!"

"Are you ready to make a move now?" I narrowed my eyes. A dog that barks doesn't bite, same with a duelist who spends half of their turn bragging.

"Confident, are you not?" Oh please, there was no need to take this opponent seriously at the moment, if he wanted to scare me, it would take more than a few crappy words. "But now I will make you atone for your sins, follower of Darkness! I Normal Summon _Consecrated Light (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_!"

A bright light shined upon the bastard's field before it transformed into a face whose eyes remained closed and its lips were slightly curved upward into a satisfied smile.

"While Consecrated Light is face-up on my field neither of us can Normal or Special Summon DARK monsters and DARK monsters on the field can't declare an attack!" What!? A single level one monster locked out all of my ChronoDevils?! "Moreover, Consecrated Light can't be destroyed by battle with DARK monsters and I take no damage from those battles."

"Why the heck is that a part of its effect when the previous part already makes my monsters unable to attack?" There was no reason for the card to flip the bird at me for a third time with its effect!

"Now I will set three cards and end my turn!" The cards at the back as well, just great. This was going to be one of _those_ duels, wasn't it?

"My turn, draw!" I shouted, drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

I looked at the card that I just got – it was Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer – my strongest Main Deck monster, but I won't be able to summon it while Consecrated Light was on the field. I scanned through my hand, ChronoDevil Summit Hornet, Critical Overload, ChronoDevil Marauder, Anomaly in the Dark Dimension, and Timeline Fusion. Neither of these cards was practically useful in the situation I got myself into.

"I will set one monster and two face-downs." All I could do at the moment was try to set my monsters. Since Consecrated Light didn't negate setting of DARK monsters, I would at least be able to build a strong defense. "That's for my turn."

"Hmm, I guess that's the best you can do when Darkness relinquished you." Now his talk about darkness began to sound creepy. "But I won't let you use those cards! Double Continuous Trap open! _Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror_ negates the effects of all DARK monsters on the field and in the Graveyard, while _Xing Zhen Hu_ lets me stop your set cards from activating while its face-up on the field."

A large mirror appeared above the field and shined down onto my field. I winched and took a step back, despite this not being an Action Duel I was able to feel the intense heat produced by the reflected light. At the same time, two chains pulled my set cards to the ground and locked them away.

"With this, all of the cards that you played will become useless." My opponent wasn't wrong about it, I was hoping that at least the ChronoDevil Summit Hornet that I set would be useful if it gets sent to the Graveyard, but his traps even negated the effects of cards in my Graveyard. "It's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Unknown] LP: 4000, Hand: 2** **』**

"I will start my turn by Normal Summoning _**Occupant of Grelyson - WurnXy**_!" A long black worm with yellow circuit patterns running through its body and a white orb in the center of its mouth appeared in front of my opponent.

* * *

 **Occupant of Grelyson – WurnXy**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Insect/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 300**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned while all monsters you control are LIGHT: You can Special Summon 1 "Occupant of Grelyson – WurnXy" from your hand or Deck, but it has its effects negated. An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card on the field as Xyz Material gains this effect.**

● **When it's Xyz Summoned: It gains 300 ATK, and if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent.**

* * *

"Grelyson?" I have heard that name before. Don't tell me that Berberus wasn't the only one that survived the destruction of that dimension.

"Next, WurnXy's effect lets me Special Summon another copy of itself from my hand!" A second copy of the worm appeared and both of them raised their heads, making some weird screeching sound with the eyeballs inside their mouths. "Now, I'm going to Overlay my two WurnXy to open the gate toward another world!"

This time, instead of the strange galactic portal, a huge black hole opened behind my opponent and sucked in the two monsters.

" _From the deeps of forgotten space, raise the defender wielding a javelin blessed by the destructive deity of Light! Xyz Summon!_ _ **Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance**_!"

The black hole blew up and huge machine covered in white armor appeared on the field. The monster had a triangle in place of its legs so it floated in the air with a large yellow cube floating inside a hole in its chest. The monster wielded an interesting javelin with a hand protector that covered its wrist while its left hand was completely replaced by a shield with two blades sticking out of its sides.

* * *

 **Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance**

 **Rank: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1800/DEF: 1200**

 **2 Level 3 LIGHT monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn, during either player's turn: If a face-up Attack Position LIGHT monster you control is targeted by a card effect, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; change it to face-up Defense Position, and if you do, it cannot be destroyed by battle this turn. During the End Phase, if this effect was used this turn: Inflict 500 damage to your opponent**

* * *

"The effect of my two WurnXy activates when they are used as Xyz Materials." The Duelist continued. "With their power, my Lance will not only gain six hundred more attack points, but it will also be able to inflict piercing damage when it battles."

Ah, just great. I looked up at the machine, it raised its spear over the head and blue energy began to fly through its body, getting absorbed into the core of its chest, which, in turn, caused the end of the javelin to glow as a second blade appeared on the top.

 **Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance, ATK: 1800 + 300*2** → **2400**

"Next, I'm going to equip Defender of Grelyson – GrelforceLancerwith Rare Metalmorph to further increase its attack points by five hundred!" A lair of metal wrapped tightly around the lancer, creating a bulkier version of its armor with a plate to cover up its exposed core.

 **Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance, ATK: 2400 + 500** → **2900**

"Just great." I groaned. That was going to be 1900 points of direct damage when it attacks my monster. Maybe even more if the card that it drew was another power boost.

"I will set one card face-down and then attack!" The Xyz monster's eyes shined brightly and it looked down at my set monster. The back of my card turned transparent and ChronoDevil Summit Hornet showed up to look around itself before the Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance swung down its lance, piercing my monster's chest and blowing it up.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 - 1900** → **2100** **』**

Several of the fragments flew over and hit the ground around me with one even cutting my shoulder. I winched and put a hand over the cut. Yes, this was just like with Nightshroud and Berberus, my opponent was using some ability to turn damage real outside of Action Duels. Oh well, it wasn't like the anime hasn't used something similar to this before, but it bothers me that the attack cut my jacket. It would be a pain to sew it up when I haven't held a needle throughout my entire life.

Maybe I should ask Elizabeth to do it for me.

"Heh, so you set ChronoDevil Summit Hornet hoping that you would at least be able to use its effect in the Graveyard, didn't you?" The duelist shook his head. "Although you aren't from this timeline, you were able to already adapt to this stupid card game."

"What are you talking about?" This duelist wasn't a Fragment, but could they be another fake Tracer. "If you are a Tracer, you should know how to duel as well. Or were you never a fan of the game in our world as well?"

"Our world?" the masked duelist tilted their head. "Unless you come from a world where giant mecha are fighting Kaijus, I don't think we were pulled from the same timeline."

"Um, who is Kaiju?" I tilted my head. Did anyone know who that is?

"I thought so." The Duelist shook their head and put a card inside their Duel Disk. "Well, there are no cards in my hand, so I will end my turn here. Now make your move. If you got any more to do, that's it."

Oh please. I looked down at my Duel Disk, even if it was a complete lockdown that I had to fight against, I believe that this deck would answer my call and give me the miracle that I need to turn this duel around. All I had to do was believe in my cards and keep going forward!

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I sighed. This opponent didn't seem like much, but it would be best to play it cautiously and not get over myself. First I'm going to see what I'm up against and then I will make a strategy to defeat it.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I will take the first turn." My opponent stated. I didn't say anything, but I was glad on the inside that they did that. "I Normal Summon _Ally of Justice Core Destroyer (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_!"

Sorry, what was that? Someone actually played the Ally of Justice archetype? For a moment there I thought that this opponent might actually be a bit of a trouble but there's no way I could be defeat by a trash archetype like this one.

"I set a card face-down and end my turn." My opponent finished.

"Oi, what is this?" I crossed my arms unimpressed. "Do you really think that a trash archetype like this one would actually be any kind of trouble for me to beat?" I shook my head in disappointment. "You must be very bold to even think facing me with this trash."

"Hmm, it seems you aren't like the rest that think of every card as equally important and useful." My opponent commented. "However, I know that the deck you use is called Astral Angel which focuses on brutal controlled Beatdown tactics and relies completely on LIGHT monsters, which my Ally of Justice are designed to get rid of."

"Hmm, little Catastor over there might be a bit on the better side of this archetype, but my brother's ChronoDevils are the only deck worthy to actually stand a chance against mine!" I'm not the type of duelist that would lie that every card had a potential. Just like with humans, there was a line between the useful ones and there literal trash. "My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I will start by Normal Summoning _Astral Angel Einplus (Lv.1, ATK: 200)_!" The triangle monster appeared before me and floated next to my shoulder. "Then I activate my Quick-Play Spell, _Selig Transform_ to transform my Einplus into a stronger monster!"

My monster's body fell apart, explosion the core inside of it. After that, new pieces of armor flew out of thin air and connected around the glowing ball of light, giving it a new, more powerful body to use.

"Illuminati of light that watches over the cosmos! Transform into a whirlpool of light and Transcend beyond the limits of the Universe! Transformation Summon! Level Four! Sacred protector if Heavens! _Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

My knight landed on the field and swung its sword in front of its body. Due to Core Destroyer's effect, my Knight would be destroyed if I tried to attack, however when it leaves the field, my Fusion's effect will destroy all monsters that my opponent controls!

"I will set one card and then attack your Ally of Justice Core Destroyer with Golden Knight!" The face-down card appeared before me for a moment after which my knight charged toward the four-legged beast.

"Core Destroyer's effect activates! When it battles a LIGHT monster, that monster will automatically be destroyed!" Just as I expected, the monster's eye glowed red and it fired a beam that pierced through my knight and destroyed it.

"At this time the effect of my Astral Angel Golden Knight activates! When it leaves the field all of your monsters get destroyed" I exclaimed and the remains of my monster's body flew toward the opponent's field.

"I expected you to do something like this." My opponent chuckled. "Golden Knight is your go-to monster not because of its boosting effect, but because of its devastating second effect, isn't it? Fitting for a source of destruction, such as yourself, isn't it? Too bad, I will activate my Continuous Trap - _Light-Imprisoning Mirror_! While this card is face-up all your LIGHT monsters on the field and in the Graveyard lose their effects."

A lair of shadows formed on the field around me and covered the entire ground along with my legs. I felt a chill go up my spine from the coldness of these shadows. Ok, I take back what I said earlier, this opponent might be a little difficult to beat if they use cards outside the Ally of Justice archetype.

"I activate my Trap, _**Miracle's Awakening**_!" I exclaimed, activating the trap card that I just set. "With this card, I can revive my _Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lv.4, DEF: 2000)_ and before you say anything, this trap can be activated on the turn it was set if there are no monsters on my field."

* * *

 **Miracle's Awakening (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 monster that was destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to your Graveyard this turn; Special Summon it. If you control no monsters, you can activate this card the turn it was set.**

* * *

I took a deep breath. Now at least I had a barrier to take one of the attacks for me next turn. Of course that didn't mean much since Ally of Justice Core Destroyer could still easily destroy it using its own effect.

"With this, I end my turn." I stated.

"Then I draw!" My opponent laughed, adding another card to their hand.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Unknown] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

"First, I will activate the Spell Card – _Foolish Burial_ to send Ally of Justice Garadholg from my deck to the Graveyard." I would have joked that it's understandable for my opponent to want this card out of their deck, but I was too shocked about the fact that they ran Garadholg in the first place to say anything.

"Wordless, are you?" My opponent taunted me. "Well, now I'll change than by Normal Summoning _Black Salvo (Lv.3, ATK: 100)_." The small black bomb with the scary grinning face began to jump up and down in joy. "Next, I will activate Black Salvo's effect to revive a DARK machine from my Graveyard in Defense Position. Rise back up, _Ally of Justice Garadholg (Lv.4, DEF: 400)_!"

"I'm already starting to have a bad feeling about this." I gulped and prepared myself for what was going to come next.

"Now I tune my Level Three Black Salvo to my Level Three Core Destroyer and my Level Four Garadholg!" The little black monster blew up and three rings flew in the air after which the other two monster then jumped through and transformed into seven orbs.

" _Move forward! The impenetrable fortress representing justice, bring your hammer onto the criminals hiding in the light! Synchro Summon! Level Ten!_ _Ally of Justice Decisive Armor (Lv.10, ATK: 3300)!_ "

Everything around me began to tremble as the huge white and golden body of the monster appeared through the Synchro rings and pushed against the walls, breaking them. I jumped back to avoid all of the debris from falling on my head. Hopefully Reiji had an insurance and a good lawyer because I couldn't see how he was going to cover up the destruction of a part of the stadium.

"Now I'm going to first set one card face-down and then I will activate Decisive Armor's effect! Since you control a LIGHT monster I can discard all cards in my hand to look at your hand and destroy all LIGHT monsters in it!"

The monster's cannons aimed at me and then shone light that revealed my cards to the masked Duelist. The cards I had on me were D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation, Astral Angel Star Frieden and Astral Angel Unterbrecher Kreuzfahrer.

"Tch, only six hundred points of attack. You are lucky." My opponent sighed. "Now, Decisive Armor will destroy your Angels and inflict their attacks points to you as damage!"

The huge robot's cannons began to glow and then they fired several blasts at me. I gritted my teeth and tried to hold my footing, but the strength of the attacks was just too much and I got thrown backward, slamming into a wall. Damn it!

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 600** → **3400** **』**

"Now I will activate the card that I just set!" my opponent continued. So, they were smart enough to set their spell cards before activating Decisive Armor's effect. "I activate the Spell - Synchro Blast Wave to destroy your Golden Knight."

Decisive Armor's cannons readjusted themselves, aiming at my Fusion Monster. The knight stepped forward and held out its sword in front of its body in a defensive position. Despite that, its defensive capabilities weren't enough as the machine unleashed all of its firepower, carving deep holes into my warrior's body, even tearing off its left arm. I winched while Golden Knight's core shut down and its body fell into the shadows that covered the ground.

"Now that there are no other monsters on the field, I'm going to attack you directly with Decisive Armor!" I just moved my hands in front of my body and prepared myself for another barrage that fell on top of me.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3400 - 3300** → **100** **』**

I screamed in pain while the blasts of light burned my skin and clothes. After what felt like an eternity, the fire stopped and my body instinctively collapsed on the ground. Was that the amount of pain that my brother was going through while he dueled Berberus? I could barely keep my eyes opened, let alone move any muscles.

"Hmm, you were lucky to survive this turn, but you won't have the same luck next time. Turn end!" I couldn't even grin my teeth in anger or look at my opponent to show how annoyed I was by them running their mouth.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"My turn, draw!" I shouted.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 2100, Hand: 4** **』**

ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon – yet another strong monster that I couldn't use at all because of my opponent's Anti-DARK cards. I just took ChronoDevil Marauder from my hand and set it on the field. That was it, all I could do was set another monster and wait for it to get destroyed.

"My turn is over." I really needed to get a good card on my next turn!

"Very well, I will get rid of whatever you put face-down this time." My opponent laughed again. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Unknown] LP: 4000, Hand: 1** **』**

"Not a bad draw." My opponent seemed to nod to themselves before turning their attention back to me. "I'm going to attack your facedown monster with my Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance!"

Like before, the Xyz Monster casted light upon my card, revealing ChronoDevil Marauder who kneeled in front of the machine with its swords crossed in front of its chest. The lancer raised its spear and then brought it down onto the warrior, cutting it in half. Like the previous time that this happened, the shockwave created by the attack pushed me back, reducing my Life Points once again.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2100 - 1900** → **200** **』**

"I'm going to set one card and end my turn!" my opponent finished, putting his last card facedown on the field.

I tried to take a step forward, but my legs gave up and I collapsed on one knee. My wounds from the duel with Berberus began to feel hot. No, it was my entire body that felt that way. I looked down at my hand and gasped at the sight. Darkness was being emitted from my flesh, I could sense something inside of me telling me to keep fighting on. I can't lose this duel. I can never lose! _**I'm unbeatable!**_

"W-what the hell are you doing?" I glared at my opponent. What was I doing? The thing that they pushed me to do; light can never erase darkness!

"Gather!" I shouted and stretched out my right hand forward. All of the dark aura that was being emitted from my body began to gather into my hand, all of this power, it was within my gasp. "With my right hand, I will draw a new future for the souls lost within the light! The strongest of Duelists can connect with their decks and change time itself! _**Dark Draw**_!"

The top card of my deck began to emit the same dark energy and I pulled it, leaving a trace of darkness behind it.

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 200, Hand: 4** **』**

"It's here!" a card that would give me the chance to change the future! "I activate the Spell Card – _Allure of Darkness_! With its effect, I'm going to draw two cards and then I banish the DARK monster, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer!"

"Chrono Phantomus? But wasn't that card supposed to be your ace?" I raised an eyebrow at the question.

"As the demon whose domain is time itself, being banished carries no limitations to my Phantomus!" I stated. "I now activate _Double Cyclone_ to target a Spell or Trap Card on both of our fields and destroy them! The one I choose to destroy on your field is Shadow-ImprisoningMirror!"

Two cyclones flew out of my card and raised a card on both of our fields in the air before slamming them together. The mirror that used to shine upon my field was shattered into hundreds of little pieces that fell around us and then disappeared completely.

"Even if you do that, while I control Consecrated Light no DARK monster can't be Normal or Special Summon!" I had to admit, that was a very annoying effect, but I already have dealt with it.

"You are wrong." I stated and pointed to the side where one of my Trap Cards was glowing.

"You activated a trap!?" my opponent took a step back. "But how?"

"Simply, I activated it from the Graveyard." I pointed out. "The card that I destroyed on my field with Double Cyclone was the Trap known as _Critical Overload_! When this trap is send to the Graveyard, I can destroy one card on your field and then draw a card. You know which one I choose, don't you?"

"Damn you." My opponent hissed while Consecrated Light opened its eyes and looked around. Its small body cracked and it then burst into dust that was taken away by the wind.

"Now that there are no monsters on my field and you can no longer stop me from summoning, I'm going to Special Summon _ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2300)_ from my hand!" The huge cyborg dragon appeared behind me holding two spears and roared. "Next, I use Clocklord's effect to target your Lancer and reduce its attack points by Clocklord's!"

My dragon roared again and jumped forward, throwing both of its spears toward the machine. My opponent's monster moved forward as well and raised its shield, deflecting the first attack, but the second one pierced its stomach, knocking the machine on the ground.

 **Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance, ATK: 2900 - 2300** → **600**

"Then I will activate Grelforce Lancer's effect!" my opponent threw their arm forward and the monster raised its shield, absorbing one of its Xyz Materials into the weapon before turning from attack to defense position. "When it's targeted by a card effect, I can change Grelforce Lancer to Defense Mode and protect it from destruction for the rest of this turn!"

"A defensive effect?" That could be troublesome.

"Not completely." My opponent shook their head. "During the end of this turn, since Grelforce Lancer activated its effect you are going to take five hundred points of damage."

"I see." This was their last hope of victory. "Then I will banish ChronoDevil Summit Hornet from my Graveyard to return Xing Zhen Hu and Rare Metalmorph back to your hand!"

My monster raised through a hole and slammed its head against the two cards, returning both of them to my opponent's hand. While his happened, the armor that covered Grelforce Lancer faded away as well, reducing the monster's attack points even further.

 **Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance, ATK: 600 - 500** → **100**

"Now that my last set card is no longer sealed, I will activate it! Anomaly in the Dark Dimension revives my banished _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_." The space in front of me broke into pieces of glass and my ace flew through the crack, landing on my field. "The monster Special Summoned by Anomaly in the Dark Dimension gains eight hundred extra attack points, but as a cost will be destroyed at the end of this turn!"

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 + 800** → **3300**

"Even if you power it up, your monsters can't hurt mine!" my opponent pointed toward me. "You lose!"

"Phantomus' effect activates." I said.

"What?"

"Once per turn, Phantomus can inherit the effect of a face-up Pendulum Monster in my Extra Deck. The ChronoDevil Marauder that you destroyed last turn was a Pendulum Monster so now my Phantomus has the ability to attack Defense Position monsters twice per turn and inflict piercing damage to them! _Cursed Void Absorb_!"

"Piercing damage!?" my opponent exclaimed.

The gauntlets on my monsters' arms opened and the gears inside of them began to spin, pulling forward two blades that the gauntlets' armor closed around. My monster crossed its blades in an 'X' shape and then shot forward with its jets.

"Now Phantomus attack his monster. Double Void Slash!" My monster flew over the fallen machine and swung its blades down onto its shield.

"I activate my Quick-Play Spell – Half Shut!" The masked guy raised his hand forward. "This card is going to halve your monster's attack points!"

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 3300/2** → **1650**

"That's not enough!" I shouted My monsters blades cut through Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance's shield and sliced part of the machine's shoulder off.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 4000 - 450** → **3550** **』**

"And again!" I shouted, using Marauder's effect to allow Phantomus a second attack that cut off a part of the robot's waist, damaging it even further.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 3550 - 450** → **3100** **』**

"It's over." My opponent chuckled and took a step back. Despite their words, I could see that they were trying to cover a cut on the side of their body.

"It's not over yet." I took another card from my hand and put it in the spot. "I activate _Timeline Fusion_ to fuse together my two monsters!"

Several clock gears appeared around my monsters and pulled them toward one another, merging them in a vortex of colors. Taking a deep breath, I put my hands together and began to say the chant that was ingrained into my soul.

" _Hollow soul of the demon king, take the sacrificed dragon destroyed of time and unveil your true power! The demon king with unrivaled hatred, shatter the chains and raise through calamity! Fusion Summon! Embodiment of my burning soul! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer (Lv.9, ATK: 2900)!_ "

My strongest monster appeared out of its imprisonment and the weapons on its wrist began to construct themselves.

"Even if you summon it now, your Berserk Phantomus cannot destroy my monster or do any damage." My opponent commented.

"Wrong." I said simply and took the last card that I needed from my hand. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _**Cursed Void Absorption**_!"

The card that I played showcased Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer standing in the center of a ring of chains that all appeared to be rotating around him while black flames flew out of his back, creating huge demonic wings and enhancing the weapons.

* * *

 **Cursed Void Absorption (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 "Phantomus" monster you control and 1 face-up Pendulum Monster in your Extra Deck; until the end of this turn, the targeted "Phantomus" monster gains that monster's effects. If a "Phantomus" monster you control** **battles an opponent's monster,** **you can banish this card from your Graveyard, and if you do, return hat opponent's monster to the bottom of the Deck at the start of the Damage Step.**

* * *

"With the effect of Cursed Void Absorption, my Berserk Phantomus gains ChronoDevil Marauder's piercing effect. Now go!" My monster summoned out its axes and swung them at Defender of Grelyson – Grelforce Lance, knocking it back.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 3100 - 1700** → **1400** **』**

"Impossible!" my opponent took a step back, holding a hand over their chest. "You actually…"

" _Calamity Void Slash_!" I yelled and my monster charged again, cutting the Xyz Monster in half. The attack caused the machine's body to converging into flames and then blow up. The explosion send my screaming opponent flying backward, before they slammed on the ground seemingly unconscious.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 1400 - 1700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

"And that's was that." I sighed and walked over to my opponent. "I have to admit, locking me out of using monsters, spell and traps did lift the level of difficulty by a little bit."

I really had to know who those fake Tracers were working for and what exactly their boss expected to happen in this duel. Of course, I didn't have the time to lurk around, or wait for this piece of trash to wake up. Reiji and his people probably already caught up wind on what's going on, so I had to clear this place swiftly. Raising my Duel Disk, I looked through the options that I had. Good thing that the one I used was a custom one, because I don't think that the standard Duel Disks of this Dimension had this function available.

Without any further ado, I pressed the button and aimed my Disk down onto the unconscious Duelist, engulfing them in a purple light…

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"I see that you are still willing to keep going, but your body is already too damaged to move!" my opponent sing-sang while they looked down at me.

They must have themselves for someone very important just because they managed to drop my Life Points all the way down to 100. Such behavior, acting so smugly while in the middle of dueling someone as strong as me, I won't forgive that disgrace to go unpunished. Yes, I could feel it, the burning spirit telling me to stand back up and beam my opponent into a bloody pulp. My knowledge of the game, my skills, they were all superior to these fakes!

My body rose back up. I couldn't tell how, it was almost like a miracle, the feeling of pain stopped being registered by my nerves and the agony that I was going through a moments ago felt like nothing more than a long passed memory. I looked down at my hands and gasped. There was light coming out of my skin! Its warmness, the strength hidden inside that brilliant spark, I could feel it all running throughout my body, and something was unlocked. New potential, new possibilities, they were all calling out for me and I wasn't going to disappoint them.

"Gather!" I shouted and stretched out my right hand forward. All of the white aura that was being emitted from my body began to gather into my hand, its strength, its potential, they were only for me to use! "This light hand will shine with a miracle gifted by the power of destruction! The strongest of Duelists can connect with their decks and change reality itself! _**Astral Draw**_!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Avice] LP: 100, Hand: 2** **』**

"I activate the Spell, _Pot of Wishes_!" I exclaimed and showed my opponent the card before putting it into the card slot. "This card's effect lets me draw two cards at the cost of banishing five cards from the top of my deck. Call it a much better Pot of Desires if you will!"

I took the two cards and then looked at the cards I was about to banish. Yes, the one that I needed to be banished was among them!

"Next I activate the Equip Spell, _D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation_!" I exclaimed, playing the aforementioned card. "I discard one card from my hand to revive one of my banished monsters and then equip it withDifferent Dimension Reincarnation! Raise before me, _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

A crack in space formed and my monster flew through it, landing in front of me, wrist her wrists aimed to fire at our enemies.

"You were able to brought out your ace, but due to Different Dimension Reincarnation's effect, you could only bright it in Attack Position and without its effect, your monster cannot raised its attack points." My opponent commented.

"Ngh!" Suddenly, my monster put a hand over her chest. "That annoying trap card is blocking my abilities. Let's get rid of it!"

"That was the plan." I nodded and took another card from my hand. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _**Linear Ray Artillery**_! When Sola is on my field, this card lets me banish one card on the field face-down! Get rid of his Light-Imprisoning Mirror!"

"Gladly!" My monster replied and put her arms together, focusing all of her energy in one spot, then fired a laser that cut through the mirror and it disappeared from reality.

* * *

 **Linear Ray Artillery (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **If you control a "Sola" monster: Banish 1 card your opponent controls face-down. If a "Sola" monster you control** **battles an opponent's monster,** **you can banish this card from your Graveyard, and if you do, your monster gains ATK equal to the ATK of the opponent's monster until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"Be damned!" My opponent clenched their fists in anger.

"Now that your trap can no longer negate my monster's effects, I'm going to activate the effect of Astral Angel Einplus in my Graveyard!" the card popped out of my Graveyard slot and I took it. "I increase Sola's level by one in order to revive Einplus. However, if my monster is summoned this way, it will be banished when it leaves the field!"

The triangle appeared above Sola and rotated over her head, creating a small star that began to glow on the field.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, Lv: 6** → **Lv: 7**

"A level seven and a tuner, you can't be…" Finally, they were starting to pick up on what I was going to do next.

"I tune my Level Seven Sola Starlit the Pendulum Slayer to my Level One Astral Angel Einplus!" The triangle rotated around Sola's waist and transformed into a single ring. My ace closed her eyes and stretched out her arms to the side, her body transforming into seven stars.

" _The supreme angel with the burning soul of a star. Spread your beautiful wings of destruction and erase our enemies with your blazing light! Synchro Summon! Level Eight! **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph**_!"

A blue pendulum crashed on the ground before me. A pair of glowing eyes appearance within the pendulum and it started to crack until it break into pieces and the new form of Sola appeared from inside. She was a little taller than her regular form, probably not more than one year older though. The monster wore a white mask with a golden 'V' sticking out of its forehead, a large blue visor in the shape of a four point star and pointy headphones on the side of its head.

The new Sola wore a much less skin revealing white bodysuit that was black across chest and tights, and a blue circuit pattern that started from her neck, moved down to her stomach and then separated toward the legs. The new suit had metal gauntlets and boots with huge golden bolts sticking out of them, small shoulder plates and a metal spine attached to the back of the suit with eight big spikes floating behind her.

The new Sola jumped into the air and the blades attached themselves to the artificial spine, glowing brightly, the spikes formed two 'C' shaped wings made from solid blue light with circuit patterns running through them. Her helmet opened and retracted itself toward her forehead and cheeks, revealing my monster's crystal blue eyes with the white pupils that were in the shape of stars. Her white hair floated behind her in two ponytails while my monster clenched her right fist and pointed it toward our enemy.

* * *

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Synchro/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 10**

 **ATK: 3000/DEF: 2000**

 **1 LIGHT Tuner Monster + 1 or more non-Tuner Monsters**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can target 1 Trap Card in your Graveyard, destroy this card and banish that target, then apply the banished Trap Card's effect.**

 **Effect: Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; its ATK becomes equal to half its current ATK, and if it does, this card gains that lost ATK, also inflict the same amount as damage to your opponent. During either player's turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card: You can banish 1 card in your Pendulum Zone; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that card, then you can Special Summon 1 Level 7 or lower "Sola" monster that's banished or face-up in your Extra Deck. If this Synchro Summoned card leaves the field because of a card effect: You can place this card in your Pendulum Zone.**

* * *

"N-no way!" my opponent gasped. "You actually evolved her?!"

"I activate Sola Electra's effect!" I clenched my right hand into a fist. "Once per turn, I can halve the attack points of one of your monsters, then Sola gains that lost attack! _**Photon Link Conversion**_!" My monster's wings spread to the side and then fired several needles made of white energy that pierced through Ally of Justice Decisive Armor and its glow began to fade while my monster's wings began to practically burn with the amount of energy that was absorbed.

 **Ally of Justice Decisive Armor, ATK: 3300/2** → **1650**

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 1650** → **4650**

"T-that's…" my opponent stumbled backward and fell down while I narrowed my eyes. I haven't even revealed the full effect and yet they were already this scared? Pathetic.

"That's not all." I continued. "Next, you will lose Life Points equal to the amount of attack that my Sola Electra absorbed."

My monster returned her hands back to her sides and fired a series of energy needles at the masked duelist. They screamed and fell on their knees, but Sola's attack was done yet. After the needles hit, they all exploded, launching the weakling into the air while they screamed in agony.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 4000 - 1650** → **2350** **』**

"Let's finish this." I'm starting to get bored of this. "Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, attack Ally of Justice Decisive Armor! _**Photon Particle Stream**_!"

My monster threw her arms to the sides and all the bolts attached to her gauntlets flew off, creating a circle in front of her that then charged itself and formed a barrier of solid light. Sola charged her arm beams and fired them together through the barrier, which increased the size of the attack by ten times and the beam ended up enveloping the entire corridor that we were into. My opponent screamed again and tried to reach out, but their cloak caught fire.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 2350 - 3000** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

After my monster's attack ended, the field faded away along with Sola who nodded to me before disappearing. I tried to look for the duelist that I just defeated; it would be troublesome if they burned away after that attack. However, there was no one in sight.

I know you would probably start screaming about how I just incinerated a human-being but before you do any of that, there were no traces of anything burned. You know that usually when something burns, it leaves either ashes or makes the ground dark, but there was none of that. Like the duel never really happened and the masked freak whose ass I kicked never existed.

"Avice!" I heard my name being called and turned back to see both Ventus and Levant running toward me.

"Holy!" Ventus suddenly stopped. "What happened here?"

"Huh?" I looked back and…

Ok, I forgot to mention that apparently the heat from Sola's attack was so intense that the walls of the stadium have started to melt. So if my opponent wasn't burned to a crisp, they might have suffered a very intense heatstroke. But if the duelist died wouldn't that mean that they would probably never try to assassinate Yuya again? So, job completed?

"I ask again!" Ventus gestured toward both of his hands at the melting walls. "What. Happened. Here?"

"Somebody appeared out of nowhere and attacked me." I said the truth for the first part. "I got no idea who it could have been, but I heard that they wanted to get rid of Yuya Sakaki, so they might be assassins sent by Academia."

"If that' so, then that would mean that Academia already sees Standard as an enemy." Levant rubbed his chin in thought.

' _So, he was going to follow with the lie I said and not reveal that those were Tracers to Ventus?_ ' I thought looking at the two. ' _Interesting. Could Levant be working against his partner's back?_ '

"We should warm Akaba Reiji about this incident." I said and walked over to Levant. "He must know that Academia is on the move and also to close off this corridor before anyone burn themselves."

"She is right." Levant nodded and turned to Ventus. "We must warn the others before it's too late. There might be other assassins hiding around the place."

Ventus nodded and along with Levant they ran off, leaving me alone. I sighed and removed the Duel Disk from my hand before walking out of the corridor. Although I still got no idea who that Masked Duelist was, or why their tried to kill Yuya, I found that something was definitely going on in our party as well. Levant knew too much about the attack, warning us about it in advance and then hiding about it from Ventus despite the latter being a Tracer as well. I've got no idea what the heck was going on, but I should talk with my brother before taking any further actions.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"How did this all happen!?" Solar yelled and smashed one of the mirrors in the ground.

Her Tracers, the only people from another world that she was able to talk into joining her side of the conflict were completely destroyed and by no other but those damn Greysons! Laura was suffering several intense injuries which included third scale burns and a heatstroke, which meant that she was going to spend several weeks sealed into a tank to recover. Michael on the other had was gone, there was no sight of him and she could neither communicate with him nor force his Duel Disk into teleporting back.

"I can't believe it!" Solar cried out and threw another small mirror, shattering it into several pieces. "Not only were they able to defeat my best, but the girl was able to unlock another side of Sola's power!"

"What other end did you expect, waging war against the spirits that used to be Grelyson's strongest guardians?" An old man asked. "Phantomus and Sola both hold infinity potential as Duel Monsters, and after what happened to their last owners they probably hate us enough to even protect the devil just to anger us. If you have ordered your Tracers to avoid their holders at all cost, we might have been able to save their timeline from the devil's wrath."

"After the Xyz piece was absorbed, our time to save that world got cut in half." Solar clenched her fist. "If the Demon Delist awakes, Shade's Hand will with do doubt use their control over his corrupted form to send the monster into attacking us. That won't be a battle that we will be able to win, will it?"

"I have given up on this fight long ago." The old man took a deep breath and pulled out a small projector and pressed it. "This journey has made me coming many sins that I will never be able to pay for in the afterlife."

Solar didn't say anything to this. She just looked at the projection that the man was looking at. The hologram showed a younger but still as serious her, along with a woman that looked almost exactly like her but with a warm smile on her face and in between them, Solar's nephew. It was a memory from much more peaceful times that were sadly long gone.

She turned back, unable to watch the hologram of her nephew. Mostly because he insisted to hold his special card when the 'photo' was taken. Every time she saw looked at her nephew, she would also see the card of Phantomus that he was holding, and that always reminded her of the nightmare that she lived through twenty years ago.

"I will make sure to end it all." Solar muttered. "If this timeline follows the same path as all the others, Yuya Sakaki and those around him will meet their demise in the Synchro Dimension, I promise you that."

The old man didn't respond to Solar's promise. He turned off the projector off and turned around to leave her on her own accords.

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K. (also known as 'Why don't I make a Wikipedia for this?')**

 **Tracers: Tracers are humans pulled from their home universe, timeline, or dimension for one reason or another. Just like the Fragments, those individuals were subjected to the radiation that exist in the space-time continuum outside a given timeline, but unlike Fragments they remained their humanity to the most part. While side-effects such as split-personality and falling into madness could happen, they were extremely rare. Unlike Fragments, a Tracer don't lose their body when they get pulled out of their world, but if they are pulled from a completely different universe, their appearance would drastically change to match with that of the world they currently reside in.**

 **There are three knows generations of Tracers according to Graild. The first wave are survivors from the original dimension that got lost between the worlds when Ray split the world into four pieces. Currently not much is known about them, except that they are survivors from the Original Dimension with changed memories.**

 **The second and the third wave – which is also known as Fake Tracers – are both created by humans from other realities with the difference being their objectives. The second wave, known also as the Greysons are a group of three siblings whose mission was to trace and collect the pieces of a powerful artifact known as "Pendulum of Faith".**

 **Fake Tracers' don't have a certain objective in their new world, but it's known that their waged war on other supernatural beings such as Nightshroud and the Fragments, which also gave the group the nickname "Executors".**

* * *

 **Avice: Previews are back and will we get a 100 Reviews with this chapter?**

 **Chapter 36: LDS' Records**

 **Summary:** As the second round of the Miami Championship goes with full force, Reiji makes a record about how far his Lancer program has progressed and all about all those strange things that he has yet no answers about.

 **Chapter 37: Battle Royale On!**

Summary: The third round of the Miami Championship begins and everyone is surprised to learn that it'll be a city wide Battle Royale. Searching for Pendulum Cards, Avice stumbled upon a girl that looks almost the same as Yuzu that challenges her to a duel. At the same time, several unknown characters begin to appear all over the city.

 **Chapter** **38:** **Supreme Demon Awakens!**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale becomes more dangerous with a dangerous group known as the Obelisk Force starting to attack the other duelists. However, when Evan stumbles upon a few of them, suddenly a strong pain pierces his chest and a dark aura surrounds him, while Avice experiences some changes herself.

 **Chapter** **39:** **Copy of White**

 **Summary:** As the second day of the Battle Royale starts, the remaining duelists choose to separate and look for other survivors. While looking through the ice area, Yuya and Gongenzaka end up in a duel against Hikaru and a girl called Makioka respectively. Meanwhile, Avice and Elizabeth came across a girl that looks just like Avice herself.

 **Chapter** **40:** **Stages of Rebellion.**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale is at its end and most of the Obelisk Forces have been driven out, despite the heavy loses, the Standard Duelists keep pushing the enemy away. During that time, while Ventus is helping Koharu in searching for Fusion remnants, the two of them come across the strongest duelist that participated in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension – at the same time, Evan and Avice both begin a duel against Yuya's counterparts, Yuri and Yugo respectively.

 **Chapter 41:** **Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

* * *

 **A/N: So... First post from the computer, yay! I was originally going to add a scene with Elizabeth talking to Yuya and Yuzu at the start of the chapter, but given the nature of the next chapter, I choose to save it for then.**

 **Also, as you may have noticed, there is no longer a theme song. The reason for that is that I figured it takes too much space, so from now on when there is a "New OP" for this story, I will write it at the start of the chapter from where this new OP is meant to start and won't put it in the next ones.**

 **Sadly, there is not much else, except for two reviews.**

bennyf5302 **: Thanks!**

ScalchopWarrior **: About Avice's personality, I can't say that I wanted any of my main characters to be hated, as that would be too strong of a word, but she and Evan are meant to be assholes, so having people get enough emotionally invested in them as to want to drown them in a toilet is still a win for me.**

 **Well, if you have made already made Performachine cards, people could go to your** _Yu-Gi-Oh Duels: Who Would Win?_ **to request a duel, can't they? If anyone here wants to see a duel with canon or OC characters that you haven't seen in a story, go check ScalchopWarrior's** _Yu-Gi-Oh Duels: Who Would Win?_

 **As for TMYK, I really got a lot of things to write there, but I'm not sure which ones are both "important" and "interesting", so I would be happy if anyone would give me an advice on what they would want me to put there next time.**

 **Constructive criticism is also welcome as I always try to improve. Thanks to everyone for reading this rather smile chapter and we will see you next time.**

 **Avice : Although next chapter won't be much bigger either.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	36. Chapter 36

***Diabolic Tracer lies face-down on the ground with flies surrounding their body. Probably dead.***

 **Avice: Yo, get up. You got to write another chapter.**

 **Diabolic Tracer: ...**

 ***Avice grabs a basketball bat*: Ok then. *smashes DT's head.***

 **Diabolic Tracer: Ouch!**

* * *

LDS' Records

"You are allowed to begin the test." The head scientist said.

Immediately several people in white lab coats nodded and began to type into the computers in front of them. While they did that, Akaba Reiji looked at the enforced window, into the next room. It was completely white with nothing else inside of it - like a cell. The only thing inside was a single blade of blue grass. One of the scientists pulled a switch and the inside of the room was lighted up, making it impossible to see anything inside the blinding light. The energy charts quickly raised into the red zone and the glow inside the cell suddenly began to distort and twist.

"I have to admit, Director Akaba, I was very skeptical when you brought that glass to be researched." The head scientist commented. "But that single blade of glass accelerated our research on dimension transportation. In just a few days, we found more than we would have within a month."

"I have seen your reports on the matter." Reiji commented. "But from what I read, you were unable to tell what exactly caused this phenomenon."

"My apologies, but this was far beyond our range of expertise." The scientist admitted. "Whatever chemical reaction played part in altering the grass' atoms to the point where it became an entity existing independently from the natural progression of time, it definitely wasn't something that exists inside this dimension."

Reiji nodded, taking that into account, he turned back to the window and looked at the distorting light. It worried it a great deal. Not waging war against his father and his army of Duelists, not jumping through dimensions, but a little piece of grass actually scared the great Reiji Akaba. It reminded him that even his knowledge wasn't that complete. There was still so much that he didn't know about yet. How many strange things existed out there that he didn't have the slightest idea about?

"We can confirm that an inter-dimensional gate has been established inside the cell!" One of the younger scientists shouted and turned back to look at the head scientist.

"Good." The head scientist nodded and gestured with his right hand, waving it down. "Turn it off. End the test."

"Right away!" The younger scientist followed the orders and everyone began to type into their computers again.

Slowly, the blinding light began to fade and the distortion disappeared along with in. Reiji paid attention to a screen on the side that measured the temperature inside the room. During the experiment, the inside had reached 387 degree Celsius, yet once the light had completely disappeared, the grass was still inside the room, unfazed by the extreme temperatures that its surroundings have reached. Just like the head scientist have told him, it has become an entity existing independently from the natural progression of time, which meant that it was unaffected by actions that happen in the 'present'.

"We will wait for the room's temperature to cool down and then send someone to retrieve the subject." The head scientist ordered and turned toward the CEO once again. "I'm sorry for that interruption sir, but is there anything else you would want to know? The new information that you were able to get us about Pendulum Summoning also helped up a lot for the card design department."

"Is that so?" Reiji raised an eyebrow. "I haven't had the chance to go there myself yet, but the new Pendulum Cards that I saw them design were definitely an improvement."

"Indeed sir." The head scientist stepped toward the door to exit the observation room and Reiji followed after him. "From what I know, those new cards you got them to scan had a more natural affinity that Sakaki Yuya's. But some of the things I heard trouble me."

"What is it?" Reiji asked. He hasn't heard about anything that could possibly be a problem; no one in the staff told him anything about that.

The door slide open and they walked into a corridor with several doors arranged on the sides. The two men began to make their way toward the elevator at the end of the corridor and the scientist continued.

"The researchers there say that those cards you brought them to use as templates appear to have been designed with a more simplified data to be easily manufactured in large numbers and used as weapons." The scientist admitted. "Since those decks don't come from this world, and are clearly meant to be used for war, I'm extremely worried about which dimension they could be origin from."

"It's good that you informed me about it." Reiji fixed his glasses. Of course, he already had his suspicions, but choose to keep them for himself as to not make the Lancers even more isolated from one another. "I'll have to talk with the card designers first, before I take any other actions. How long do you think it would take to perfect the dimension transporting technology?"

"With all the data we gathered so far, it would take us several days, not more than a week." The scientist replied. "However, installing the technology inside the Duel Disks would be troublesome because they don't have the necessary technology to generated enough energy for a dimension jump. We are brainstorming ideas about how else to make the technology easily accessible for the Lancers."

The door of the elevator opened up and Reiji walked inside of it while the scientist remained down in the research center. The CEO of Leo Corporation turned around to look at his employee and give a bit of advice.

"Wouldn't it be possible to program the Dimensionizer into a card instead?" Reiji asked. "Cards are able to generate and hold a large amount of energy within them. This way we would be able to make the technology easy to carry."

"Y-you are right!" the scientist approved. "I'll talk with the card designers and we will begin work on creating a Dimensionizer immediately!"

Reiji nodded and the door of the elevator closed. The D/D/D Duelist pulled out his Duel Disk and began to look through the files that were installed on it. He pressed an icon and an empty note appeared on the screen on which he began to write.

Reiji was keeping an eye at Sakaki Yuya and the constant evolution of Pendulum Summoning as well as observing the Lancers that were currently with LDS. So far, almost everything was going according to his plan. Even though the spy of Fusion known as Sora Shiunin was able to escape and Kurosaki's ally, Yuto, suddenly disappeared, no big deviations happened from what he had expected initially.

Sakaki Yuya's Pendulum Summoning has evolved by a lot and information states that he even obtained a new Fusion Monster known as Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon.

But there were also troublesome news. Three siblings, Evan, Avice and Elizabeth Greyson have appeared in the city within the last three weeks. There was no previous entry of data about them which meant that they weren't from this Dimension, however, the data of their cards that they use showed results that were absolutely astonishing. Their Synchro, Fusion and Xyz not only had the energy readings observed with cards of Interdimensional Duelists such as Kurosaki and Shiunin, but with the Greysons' those reads were much higher. In conclusion, there was no information where they came from nor whenever they are allies or spies sent to infiltrate the Lancers.

The only significant information that Reiji was able to get about those siblings were they dueling skills. When it came to duels, they were inhuman in their abilities, able to hold up against the additional power that Action Cards gave to their opponents. The emphasis that two of them put onto winning their duels in only a few turns and their focus on maintaining field and hand presence in case their One Turn Kills don't play out as planned showed that they had actual experience that wasn't something a normal Duel School would teach.

Despite their secretive nature, the Greysons were able to give a lot of knowledge to Reiji and accelerated the preparation of his Lancer program. The new Pendulum Monsters designed by using ChronoDevils, Astral Angels and Oracle Sisters as prototypes were much more stable than the ones created from observing Sakaki Yuya's. Not just that, the new monsters also appeared more 'natural' with stronger energy readings.

Reiji paused for a moment and thought about the next note that he was about to write a little longer. But he made up his mind and write it down anyway just as the elevator stopped.

 _I dare not say it, but they might as well be the strongest weapon that the Lancers have against any opposite force that comes out way._

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"What should I do?" Yuya looked up at me.

I had no idea what answer to give to this question. Yuya was going to be dueling Kachidoki Isao in just a few minutes and he wasn't the only one worried about this match. I had a lot on my chest and my head ran with horrible images of what could happen to Yuya based on what I saw that Isao pull off in his previous duel against the Synchro Duelist from LDS. Although I wasn't as soft as most people from this universe – I mean, I have seen a lot of horrible things on the TV every night – I just couldn't stand back and watch Yuya Dueling against that barbarian!

Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything else either. As bad as that Kachidoki was, this was tournament and there were rules that I wasn't allowed to break. Once he stepped onto that area, the only thing that Yuya would have to help him out would be his Entertaining Dueling. Of course I knew that he was going to win because he was the protagonist and all of that, but on just what cost would this victory come?

"Don't worry too much about it." I tried to put up a smile and put a hand on his shoulder. "Keep following your own Dueling and you will win this duel because unlike Kachidoki – who is only dueling for himself – you are doing it for everyone watching you." Ugh, this sounded so cliché that I wanted to tear off my own tongue, but no other motivate speech came to my mind at the time.

"Thanks." Yuya said, albeit softly. Damn, I could sense that my words didn't relax him all that much. Not that I could blame him about that.

"Coming up next, is our second match." I heard the announcer and patted Yuya on the shoulder again. This meant that his turn to shine has come.

"Good luck out there." I told him and stepped back. I was about to turn around and walk to the others to watch the duel with them, but I just couldn't move away while Yuya was still there. "Just remember, Yuya. Keep smiling and nothing will be able to keep you from moving forward."

Yuya nodded and put on a smile before moving out into the stadium. I couldn't tell if his smile was genuine or he was just forcing himself in order to not show us how worried he was, but there was nothing else for that I could do, so I walked back to the others and sat down next to Yuzu.

"How did it go?" She asked me.

"How you would expect it to go." I admitted. "What would you tell him? We both saw the degree of violence that Kachidoki dueled in the last round and he obviously won't be gentler against Yuya."

Yuzu nodded and her eyes turned back to Yuya. "He was trying not to show it to us, but I saw that Yuya was worried, maybe even scared about this match."

"Of course, he won't tell anyone about his thoughts because he doesn't want to worry anyone." I put a hand on my head. Seriously, I hated that side of Yuya! He always put others and their feelings above his and tried to never show us how worried, sad or scared he was. "But it's not fair that he is trying to carry the burden all alone. We are his friends for God sake, why can't he be honest with himself around us at least?"

Yuzu didn't reply, but I saw that her eyes lowered a little as well. She probably wondered about the same thing as well, or maybe she was just worried because the match has started and an Action Field already materialized on the area where Yuya was going to face his opponent. I turned to look at it, but my hands unconsciously clenched into fists. I wasn't going to pray for Yuya to win because I knew that it was going to happen either way, but I would hope with all of my heart that he wouldn't do anything that will be regretted later down the line.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Battle." On a screen, Reiji watched the ongoing duel. Kachidoki was able to reduce Yuya's Life Points to just 100 in just two turns, however things had suddenly changed… "I attack Supreme Victory Star Idaten with Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon. Revolt of the Lightning. Disobey!"

One attack from the Xyz Monster. That's all it took to send the Ryozanpaku School's participant flying backward with a loud scream of pain. The security cameras shadowed it all, everyone in the stadium was equally shocked by the brutal finale brought by no other but Sakaki Yuya himself. Of course, Reiji already expected that the Xyz Dragon must have been in the performer's deck since it wasn't in Yuto's deck that they were able to recover after the duel in the park.

The CEO of Leo Corporation stared at the screen with an indifferent look on his face, but deep inside he found the scene to be deeply fascinating. Not because of the brutal Duel Style that Sakaki Yuya showcased, but because he had moved the evolution of Pendulum forward once again. From Pendulum Summoning going directly into a Xyz Summon. It made him wonder, just how much more Sakaki was going to be able to grow as a Duelist before it comes time for Standard to join the Dimension War.

"Sakaki Yuya has Yuto's card." Shun muttered to himself and turned around to leave.

"Hey, what's going here?" Reiji turned away from the screen and looked back to see Ventus and Levant standing in front of Shun. The ninja duelist looked past the angry Xyz survivor and turned toward the CEO. "We got some troubling news!"

"What is it?" Reiji leaned back into his chair ready to listen to what they had to tell him.

"It's really bad, we-" Ventus began, when Levant suddenly stepped in front of him.

"After some unknown Duelist tried to invade the stadium we began to search for anyone else who could be hiding." Levant explained and pulled something out of his pocket. "We found this lying on the ground at one of the entrances."

Reiji looked at the item that Levant showed him and his eyes widened. It was a card. Its color was yellow like that of a Normal Monster, but it had no stats or name, just the picture of a young man with a hood holding his hands in front of his face in pure terror. However, that was the worst of it. That card… was torn in two.

"Academia…" Shun quickly joined in, taking the card torn card from Levant's hand. "They have sent more than one agent after all."

"There was a strong Xyz Summoning followed by a Fusion Summoning in the area, so it's possible." Levant nodded. "We also checked the cameras, but they were destroyed a little before the duel started."

"Nah!" Ventus shook his head. "Fusion Duelists won't be able to escape without alerting my ninja senses."

"Whoever did this, they have dangerous technology on their hands and I don't want to risk having them run around the city." Reiji said and turned toward the younger pair of Duelists. "Levant, Ventus. Take Koharu with you and look around."

"Yes, sir!" Both Duelists saluted and then Ventus threw a smoke bomb on the ground, disappearing from the room.

"Damn it!" Levant cursed and ran off toward the exit. "I hate when he does that."

"As for you, Kurosaki." Reiji continued, his eyes staring at the Xyz Duelist, who returned it with an equally cold glare on his own. "No matter what the reason are, I can't let you take actions that would impede the progress of the tournament."

Kusanagi tch-ed and looked away.

"Don't forget why I'm holding this tournament and what I'll be using it for." Reiji reminded him.

Kurosaki sighed and turned his back, waving for Reiji's guard to let him pass. Although the Xyz Duelist wasn't fond of letting his friend's card in the hands of that Sakaki Yuya, he currently had no other allies to help him in the fight against Fusion, so he couldn't let his rash actions to deteriorate his relationships with Standard.

"Pardon the abruptness, but we have a change of schedule." Reiji looked at the big screen again. "Regarding the upcoming third match, due to absence of LDS' Shijima Hokuto, Kirigakure Cooking School's Motoka Michio wins by default!"

"Absence?" Reiji repeated the word that stuck him. A student of LDS wouldn't turn down his duty as a duelist like that, nevertheless at a big tournament like this.

"President!" An elder employee called out. "About three hours ago, we detected a powerful summoning energy within Miami City."

"What method was it?" Reiji asked. He could feel what the answer was going to be, but he needed to be sure.

"Fusion." The employee confirmed. "We've found the cameras that detected the energy as well. Please look at this."

The recording showed, just as Reiji expected, Shijima Hokuto backing against the wall while a hooded Duelist stepped forward. A bright flash of light covered the area for just a moment and the unknown assailant pulled a card out of the shield-shaped Duel Disk.

Reiji kept looking at the screen. Once the hooded figure turned around and ran away, he told them to return to that moment and zoom to see the hooded figure's face. It was a familiar face. After that, Reiji said nothing more. They were just one step away from entering war now. And as bitter as it was, he would be the one to make that step and challenge his father for the fate of the dimensions.

* * *

"Finally!" Levant groaned and leaned against a wall.

Getting away from Ventus and Koharu wasn't an easy task. The first was really starting to buy the idea of being partners and barely gave him any space, worry too much that 'An Academia agent or a Fragment could jump out of nowhere at any time', while Koharu was just the distrustful type that one had to handle with a lot of care, or else she was going to get suspicious and probably follow him all the way out here.

"You can come out." Levant said and stretched out his arms. "No one followed me, I made sure of that."

"Since you are always going with a ninja by your side, I couldn't be one hundred percent sure." Hikaru stepped out of the shadows and looked around. "Plus, I did encounter him once while on a scouting mission in this dimension and the masked bastard wasn't half bad with a deck."

"Every Tracer is a good Duelist." Levant retorted. "The worst problem that you could get when dueling against Ventus is that he uses two decks, so you could never be one hundred percent prepared for what's going to happen."

"Just way until I get my rematch." Hikaru smirked before pulling a card from his deck. "According to our superiors, the Battle Royale will start tomorrow. Since you are a part of Reiji's Lancers he will most likely send you along with the rest to fight the Academia forces, so make sure to put this card somewhere safe." Saying that, Hikaru threw the card over to Levant, who caught it with ease. "Once you are done, Academia will open a gate toward that spot to send their Special Forces."

"So you are working with Armityle Purple, huh?" Levant looked over the card and put it into his empty Deck holster. "But while I'm out there risking my skin, what are you going to be doing?"

"I and Makioka will try to eliminate as many unneeded bugs as possible." Hikaru smirked. "The doctor also wants a blood sample of one of those fools you told us about, but unfortunately Haou is going to be the one doing the hunting on that mission."

"If you ever get the chance to contact him, tell him to be careful." Levant raised his head up and looked at the sky. "The Greyson is strong, filled with Darkness. Even Haou's Gentle Darkness would have trouble controlling that force of nature."

* * *

Somewhere far off, a Duelist wearing a red jacket with cat ears sticking from the hood was standing on top of a building, looking down at the lights of the night city. In none of his previous incarnations did he felt such sentiment about cities, but after losing his last form, this new one has begun to absorb his soul. His reason to keep fighting, the names that they called him before, his identity; all of those things were starting to get obscure to him.

He could feel it. After losing most of his essence, he was forced to live like a parasite, feed off the darkness of other Duelists, make them his puppets, but after that defeat, he found himself being the one whose darkness was being used to feed someone else.

Nightshroud removed the black dragon mask from his face and looked at it. How weird it felt to be able to look at the last part of himself from inside another body. His golden eyes stared into the blue eyes of the mask and his thumb rubbed against its edge.

"I don't have enough strength to maintain control for long." Nightshroud said to someone. Yet, he was alone on the rooftop. "Whatever happens tomorrow, it will all be up to you, understand?"

Yes. Of course he understood. The black mask turned into mist and absorbed itself into Nightshroud's wrists, returning inside the host's body. The duelist sighed and closed his eyes. Once he opened again, they were no longer going to be yellow…

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K.**

 **Armityle Purple** **: The fourth rank of Academia made for only the special units that answer to the highest authority, the Professor. Their usual uniform is a purple one. Unlike other units, the Armityle Purple** **are allowed to wear clothes other than their uniforms, even while inside Academia. Not much is known about Armityle Purple** **, except that only the best of the best are recruited into that unit, and even goes as far as to recruit duelists from other dimensions, such as Synchro and Xyz.**

 **Because of the extreme skill set required to become a part of this special force, there hasn't been a time throughout the entire history of Academia, when the** Armityle Purple **had as much as ten members.**

* * *

 **Avice: Did you miss me? Well, it hasn't been so long since we last meet, but did you?**

 **Chapter 37: Battle Royale On!**

Summary: The third round of the Miami Championship begins and everyone is surprised to learn that it'll be a city wide Battle Royale. Searching for Pendulum Cards, Avice stumbled upon a girl that looks almost the same as Yuzu that challenges her to a duel. At the same time, several unknown characters begin to appear all over the city.

 **Chapter** **38:** **Supreme Demon Awakens!**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale becomes more dangerous with a dangerous group known as the Obelisk Force starting to attack the other duelists. However, when Evan stumbles upon a few of them, suddenly a strong pain pierces his chest and a dark aura surrounds him, while Avice experiences some changes herself.

 **Chapter** **39:** **Copy of White**

 **Summary:** As the second day of the Battle Royale starts, the remaining duelists choose to separate and look for other survivors. While looking through the ice area, Yuya and Gongenzaka end up in a duel against Hikaru and a girl called Makioka respectively. Meanwhile, Avice and Elizabeth came across a girl that looks just like Avice herself.

 **Chapter** **40:** **Stages of Rebellion.**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale is at its end and most of the Obelisk Forces have been driven out, despite the heavy loses, the Standard Duelists keep pushing the enemy away. During that time, while Ventus is helping Koharu in searching for Fusion remnants, the two of them come across the strongest duelist that participated in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension – at the same time, Evan and Avice both begin a duel against Yuya's counterparts, Yuri and Yugo respectively.

 **Chapter 41:** **Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that definitely was a very small chapter, wasn't it? But fear not, for in the next chapter the Battle Royale will begin! I honestly got a lot of ideas and I hope that I will be able to post the next chapter before the end of the week that's after the next one. In other words, I hope to post the next chapter before 28th of** **October, but I can't promise anything. Because of how long the next few chapters are going to be, I need extra time to write them.**

 **On a side note, I'm a little disappointed that no one seemed to notice what Evan did last chapter. Or maybe you did but choose to keep it to yourself, but, oh well, now we knew exactly what happens when you lost to Evan from here on.**

 **Big thanks to Zaphkiel Eterna for being the first one to follow AND favorite in a long time! It probably won't be an exaggeration if I say that this was what motivated me to try and get this chapter out before the end of the week.**

 **Now to respond to the reviews!**

FearMeHorror **: Thanks! I'm happy to hear that the slow pace of the story hasn't annoyed you. I hope that I will be able to at least keep the current quality of my story as well (that's if I can't improve it). Your words meant a lot to me, thanks.**

ScalchopWarrior **: I already covered up your review in a PM, so I won't bother copying it here. Thanks for the input.**

 **That's all for now. Probably for the next two weeks as well... Thanks for reading, I hope you have a good day, night, and if you feel like it, you could drop a review.**

 **Avice: "Drop a review right now and you can win... Well, we don't have anything to offer really, so you win... Thin air?"**

 **Diabolic Tracer: "On a not-so-side-note, we reached f*cking 100 reviews! Whoohoo!"**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	37. Chapter 37

**Avice : It's so big!**

 **Diabolic Tracer: Hehe *blushes***

 **Avice : I meant the chapter, your perv!**

* * *

Battle Royale On!

 **Elizabeth's POV**

My deck was all updated with new cards and my Duel Disk was set – I was ready to go. Today was going to be the third round of the Maiami Championship for the Junior Youth Division, but for some reason Reiji called I and my brother to both be there, so it must be something serious. Avice and Oni were preparing as well, everyone wanted to be in their best shape for today, so everyone was preparing their decks. The only one that was missing was my brother, who said that there was something 'special' he had to prepare.

"Make sure to be extra careful for today." Avice warned me.

"Tell me the truth, do you expect something to happen?" I looked back at her. Warning me out of nowhere, just wasn't like my sister at all. She must be expecting something.

"Heh, you really haven't figured it out, have you?" Avice's lips dropped into a frown as she looked at me. "Think about it, if today is just the Junior Youth's third round, why would you and brother be called there as well? By Akaba Reiji no less. He probably plans to use the tournament as an excuse to declare war against the Fusion Dimension and as our seniors, it's going to be up to the older Duelists such as you and brother to help out in case things go out of control."

"Oh." That made a lot of sense actually. Still, I would rather have this conflict resolve peacefully than help declaring war against an entire Dimension. I sat down on the sofa and waited for Evan to show up while trying to communicate with my alternative personalities once again. Of course they were always around, bothering me, except when I needed to have a talk with them. Since I haven't seen any of their decks (they manifest only when one of the personalities takes over my body for some reason) I needed to discuss what type of deck each one would handle dueling against the best.

Long before any one of them replied to any of my mental screams, the door of Evan's door was kicked open and I heard his footsteps getting louder as he came into the living room. I looked up at him, he had finally chosen to change his clothes, huh? He was wearing a black leather jacket, almost the same as the old one, but this time it was much longer, reaching down to his stomach with two red lines running down the side of his sleeves and two sinister red eyes were drawn on its pockets.

Weirdly, there was some strange white matter on the shoulders, upper chest of the jacket; it didn't seem to be leather. Underneath it, he wore a light grey V-neck shirt with a red collar and several red stripes running down the sides. Finally, he had black sporting pants, which spotted the same white matter on the knees and outer thighs, as well as on the front of his black and purple sneakers. It seemed like he either didn't notice that I was looking at me, or just ignored it because he reached into his pockets and pulled two black gloves with white on the back of the fingers and the knuckles, which he then proceed to put on as well.

"Niichan looks good!" Oni gave a thumb up.

"Whew." Avice whistled and looked our brother from head to toe. "That's the secret thing you were working on in the last few days?"

"You made this?" I never knew that Evan had any knowledge about how to sew, let alone make his out clothes. I walked over and ran my hand through the front of his jacket. As I thought, the black and red parts were all leather, but the red one was much stiffer and rough on the touch. It didn't feel like anything that someone would want to make their clothes out of.

"I used one of my old pair of clothes to make this." Evan smirked and stepped away before spinning around to let me see that the upper back of the jacket was covered in the same white matter while the lower part had a strange, big, red circle with wings drawn on it.

"It certainly grabs the attention." I said, focusing my attention more to the lower part of the jacket. There were also two red belts sewed to the end of the jacket, which made them hang from behind my brother like a pair of tails. Speaking about animalistic features, this jacket also had a hood with cat ears like the previous one, but to push it one step further this time it also had a red cat head drawn on the front of the hood.

"Best part is, I didn't make this one just to look at it." I raised my head to meet my brother's eyes and raised an eyebrow. "You see, these white pieces aren't just for decoration. I used carbon fibres for these bad boys. Since I heard that it has high stiffness and low weight, it would work well as an armor without raising too much attention onto me."

I had to admit, the jacket didn't look too much out of there ordinary, and it was probably going to catch less attention that a full set of armor. "But why do you need to wear something to protect yourself? I don't think that anyone will try to stab or shot you in this world."

In response, Evan just glared at me. What? I wasn't wrong, was… Oh, I remembered what could have made him think about using additional protection. I winched just from the memories of the last two weeks.

"Since everyone is ready, we should move out now." Avice stretched out her arms and then put them behind her head. "That's unless Big Bro has something to tell us."

"Indeed I do." Evan nodded and looked over all of us. "Today we expect the Fusion Dimension to make their move. I'm not sure how exactly, but Reiji probably plans to use the Junior Youth Division's third round to lure out our enemies, so Avice will be in most danger from all of us. Another thing about Reiji is that he cares too much about this city to want to cause panic and chaos, so it's most likely that the third round will be set somewhere out of the public's eyes. In this case Leo Corporation will probably use the security cameras to show the round. Today will also be the last round of the Youth Division's final round, won't it?"

"Yes!" Oni nodded. "What must I do, niichan?"

"Just act like you don't know what's going on." Evan said and reached to tie his Wrist Dealer onto his left hand. "The Youth Division's finale will probably be used to distract people's attention in case things don't go exactly according to Reiji's plan. I want you to stay away from the rest of the audience if it's possible. Since we don't know how many soldiers Academia will send nor what places they would focus on attacking first, it's very possible that they are going to go after the stadium filled with civilians, the perfect death trap."

"What if things don't go according to this plan?" I asked. Evan was no foreteller, we shouldn't believe his hypotheses.

"It will happen exactly as I'm thinking." I shook my head at his response. "It's what Reiji's preparing for. Both Shun and Koharu know how Academia operates, so if he was wrong they would have said so earlier. Their silence during the preparation is the biggest confirmation that you could ask for. And before you go about how an army wouldn't use the same tactic twice, you're completely wrong to think that."

'It was the tactic that Academia used in order to invade the Xyz Dimension, wasn't it?' I bit my lower lip unconsciously while thinking about it. Coming out of nowhere, destroying everything in their path that was probably how Academia was able to take over the entire dimension. Since Standard is a peaceful world as well and Sora could confirm it to the enemy, there was no point to change tactics when dealing with the same type of enemy.

"Let's go now." I snapped back from my thoughts just in time to see everyone else passing me to walk out of the apartment.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

Ah, there we were finally! All of us that remained from the Junior Youth class were gathered on the stadium, waiting for the instructions about how today round would plays out. As I already expected, Kurosaki wasn't with the other members, so Reiji must have probably called him for something. Oh well, he wouldn't have been the only entertaining opponent from the bunch that was able to reach this part. The one Knight of Duels seemed worried since me and Ventus took out his buddies in the last round. Were they planning to get together to this round and use sheer numbers to overpower their opponents? How sad.

"Kurosaki hasn't show up, huh?" Yuzu muttered.

"Where did he go?" Yuya asked.

I just sighed and stepped more to the left to get in a distance at which I wouldn't have to listen to their stupid chattered. Brother, sister, Levant, Koharu and Kurosaki were all going to show up once the time came, so I had no need to worry what was going to happen next. It was a genius move on Reiji's part to put his best duelists as backup. This way, the weaklings would be exterminated first while the strong ones won't have too much of a problem fighting against Academia.

"Hey there!" I peaked up a little and saw a boy with curly red hair. He was wearing a long-sleeved blue collared shirt with a purple bow tie around his neck, and an orange jacket on top of that missing the right sleeve – what a weird way to dress up.

"Huh? Are you talking to me?" I asked and he nodded eagerly.

"You are from You Show as well, aren't you?" I held back from rolling my eyes after hearing the name of that damn school being spoken out with so much energy. "I'm a fan of Yusho Sakaki's Dueling as well!"

"Oh?" Well at least we was following after the footsteps of the better Sakaki. "That's nice. Maybe we could have an entertaining duel if he have to face each other."

"Sure! I'll show you my Entertainment Dueling!" This time, I sighed in defeat. When I meant an entertaining duel, I didn't mean an Entertainment Dueling, but maybe this guy would show a better performance that our clown over there.

"The name is Dennis by the way." The boy reached out for a handshake. "Dennis McField."

"Avice Greyson." I replied and accepted the handshake. The round hasn't begun yet and I already made a friend, sort of? Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad as I expected.

"Everyone, thank you for waiting!" Ah, entertainment Hitler showed up! "Right now, a Battle Royale between these sixteen Junior Youth competitors will take place!"

Everyone else seemed to gasp at this, but I just hid my smirk. My brother was right as always! Reiji was going to be using this third round to begin his war against Academia and what better way to enter a war of dueling than through a Battle Royale?

"Now then, let's explain the rules!" the announcer continued. "The match will begin promptly at noon! At that time Action Cards will be spread out! And here is the important part! There are Pendulum Cards from Leo Corporation hidden in the city! The competitors must find at least two of them to Duel!"

Searching for Pendulum Cards through the City? It matched another one of my brother's predictions – the third round wasn't going to take place in front of everyone. Using the Pendulum Cards as an excuse, Reiji just got himself the top sixteen Junior Youth duelists to guard the city against Academia's forces. However, it disappointed me that people would need those annoying Pendulum Cards in order to duel. Reiji is putting too much importance in this weak summoning method.

"The matches will be held under the Ante Rule with the Pendulum Cards included!" the announcer keep going, ignoring the shock and confusion of everyone else. The winner then takes the amount of Pendulum Cards bet by the loser and acquires them as their own! The time limit is twenty-four hours! Also, the city will be split into four areas based on the fields in the Field Spell: Wonder Quartet! Competitors are free to battle in any of those four areas! The starting time is almost upon us! All entrants please prepare your Duel Disks!"

I clenched my fist and pushed forward, the blade of my Duel Disk activating. After than I swung it and put it in front of my chest, ready to start kicking asses! The Battle Royale mode was automatically activated and all I had to do was wait for the time to come while a part of the stadium elevated to open up a gate.

"Now then, let's get this started!" Nice exclaimed. "Duelists locked in battle! Kicking against the earth and dancing in the air alongside their monsters! They storm through the field! Behold! This is the newest and greatest evolution of dueling! Action-"

"Duel!" We all shouted in unison and ran toward the gate. I could hear the sound of Action Cards getting scared while trying to focus on just the path that was in front of me. Brother, make sure to see this, I will definitely make you proud with my dueling!

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

I watched through the window of Leo Corporation's tower as the entire city was converted into an Action Field. Or would it be more exact to call it a battlefield? My brother walked next to me and activated his Duel Disk, the blade coming to live to form a scythe in front of his hand. Like death itself, Evan and Avice probably didn't share my worries about all those people who were going to face Academia. What was I saying? It wasn't 'probably', they **definitely** didn't feel anything.

"Reiji will keep his royal dogs on a strap until Academia shows its face." Evan commented. "If we move out now we'll be able to buy ourselves some time."

"Time for what?" I gritted my teeth and grabbed my brother's shoulder, pulling him toward me. "What are you plotting this time!?"

"Just follow me and you will get everything." My brother grabbed my hand, his hold was much stronger than mine and I even began to feel pain in my hand. "I can't let those amateurs to have all of the fun. I'm sure that Academia won't send just regular troops, at least one officer would have to show up and I want to be the one to capture them for a few questions before…"

"Before what?"

"Before… I sent them to Reiji for interrogation." I said nothing to that, but it was clear as a day to me that he was lying about his intentions.

I hated it so much! Always being shoved to the side, my warnings and request being ignored by Evan and Avice who would go out to do their own thing no matter how much I tried to protest. Yes, I loved them because I was their sister - it was only natural – but I also hated them for the kind of people that they turned out to be. I wanted to show them that they couldn't take me for a fool, to teach them a lesson, but how? To slap Evan across the face? I already did that once and I'm still regretting that I was too weak to control myself and ended up hurting someone I cared a lot about.

"Duel me!" I activated my Duel Disk and pointed the blade at my brother.

"Excuse me?" Of course, he was dumbfound about it. I haven't dueled against him in a long while and the only one of my siblings I had real experience against in this world was Avice, but…

"You heard me! I challenge you to a duel." I repeated, but I couldn't withstand watching him in the eyes. "You think of yourself as the strongest, believe that everything is allowed to you just because you are skilled, so I want to show you that I'm strong as well!"

"If you are willing to stand in my way, don't expect any mercy from my side." I felt a chill go down my spine. His sentence, it was so cold and serious, it made me actually feel scared from my own brother.

"I won't lose." I warned him. Despite the fear, I had to stand my ground and face against him!

My brother sighed and stepped past me. "Very well, but we will have the duel outside. Somewhere without cameras because I don't want to hear Reiji's complaining."

I nodded and followed after him. Although victory was never my goal when I played, this time defeat was unacceptable! I had to win this duel not just because I wanted my brother to see how strong I was on my own, but to also unlock his heart and fulfil my duty as his family. I wanted to help him find a real reason to keep living that wasn't an obsession over always winning.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I whistled to myself while walking through the empty city. There was no one else around, the place was big so it wasn't likely for me to run into another participant and even if I did, I haven't collected any Pendulum Cards yet. Although… Maybe I should try to play this silly game for a bit until the real fun begins? Yes, I could go around and beat all the others while waiting for Academia to show up.

"Hey!" Suddenly, completely out of nowhere, Ventus landed in front of me.

"Sweet Slifer!" I yelled and took a step back. "My heart almost jumped out of my chest because of you, jackass!"

"Sorry!" He immediately put his hands together and bowed. "I wasn't trying to scare you."

"Yeah, whatever." He must be lying! There was no way that someone would have thought to jump right in front of someone's nose without any malicious intent behind their choice. "Why are you here anyway?"

"A duel." Ventus exclaimed and pulled two Pendulum Cards out of his pocket before pointing at them. "I already got a pair!"

"I got zero yet." I replied, dismissing the ninja. "You will have to look for an opponent somewhere else."

"That's a letdown." Well, excuse me! "I was hoping to duel against one of you siblings sometime, but it seems that this won't happen today."

"Life sucks." I shrugged. Although it would be funny to smash his face in the concrete, he was a Lancer so I had no interest in dueling a possible puppet. "Do you know where I could find Pendulum Cards by a chance?"

"Yes! There is one right onto that tree!" Ventus nodded and pointed toward the object he was talking about. Yes, I could faintly see a card behind the leaves.

Just then, some platforms began to slide from the buildings around us and a light covered everything. Once it all died down, we were standing in the middle of a frozen wasteland! Not just that, but the tree was also covered in ice!

"Bad luck." I gritted my teeth while Ventus just shrugged it off. "You should try finding another card."

"I know that." Calm down Avice. Take deep breaths, done let such a small thing anger you too much!

"Hey, doesn't the girl look like Yuzu a little?" Huh?

I raised my head and looked around, noticing someone who was slowly stepping toward us. She had blue hair tied into a ponytail and her face looked a lot like Yuzu's indeed. A counterpart possible? She was also wearing a red uniform that reminded me a lot of the Slifer Red jacket from GX. Wait. GX, Judai Yuki, Fusion Summoning, a girl that looks like Yuzu and wears a Slifer Red uniform, you already reached the same conclusion that I just did, didn't you?

"Hey, Ventus." I whispered.

"Yes?" He whispered back.

"I have the gut feeling that Academia is starting to show up already." I replied. "Why don't you go search the rest of the city? Help anyone who gets in trouble while I deal with our little copycat here?"

"Are you sure?" I glared back at him. What did me mean if I'm sure!? "Ok, ok! I'll let you take care of this one."

With that said, the ninja jumped onto a huge block of ice and then toward the next one and so on, he quickly disappeared from my view. Once he was gone, I began to slowly walk toward the girl while she moved toward me at the same pace. I didn't have high expectation from her, but hopefully she would be able to entertain me for just a bit.

"Are you from Academia?" I asked once she was close enough to hear me.

"So, you are a Xyz Duelist, aren't you?" Xyz Duelist? She must be trying to hunt down the survivors of Xyz then, which means that she isn't strong enough to face an enemy her group hasn't beaten before – such a disappointment.

"It seems like you got me." I raised my hands. "I guess we will be dueling now, won't we?"

"I won't let any Xyz Duelist to get away from me!" the girl declared and activated her own Duel Disk. It was shaped like a shield with a blue blade in the form of a sword.

"Good, good!" I couldn't help it! My smile went wider and I raised my Duel Disk to show that I'm ready. I was going to teach this worm how powerful and dangerous duelists exist out there! "I haven't had the chance to beat any of you scum in a while, so you will be my first victim for today, ok?"

"I'm a Duelist taught by Academia!" the girl exclaimed. "I won't lose to the same kind that my comrades already defeated once!"

"Duel!"

 **『** **Serena LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"My turn!" The Yuzu look-alike quickly picked a card from her hand. "I activate the Spell Card: Polymerization! Through its effect, I can fuse together Lunalight White Rabbit and Lunalight Purple Butterfly!" Two female monsters appeared behind the girl and fell into a multi-colored vortex.

" _The lively white rabbit illuminated by moonlight! Butterfly with violet poison! Spiral into the moon's gravity and become a new power! Fusion Summon! Come to me! Beautiful beast that dances in the moonlight! Lunalight Cat Dancer (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)!_ "

Out of the vortex jumped a purple skinned neko wearing a blue dress that looked like that of a dancer (duh, the monster's name had dancer in it) and was holding two daggers, so, that escalated quickly.

"I will then set a card face-down and end my turn." Hmm, that's it?

I tapped my Duel Disk and zoomed onto the Fusion Monster to see its effect. Apparently this Cat Dancer had the ability to attack all monsters twice by releasing another monster. To summon a monster with such a simple and straightforward effect meant that her deck didn't have much variation. It must be the simplest of simplest Beatdown tactics out there.

"Are you going to take your turn?" the girl asked me. She seemed to be getting annoyed, must be the serious type that doesn't take any fooling around.

"Don't worry, I was just going to do that." I stated and looked around. "But before I do, I should tell you that right now we are standing on an Action Field, so there must be Action Cards around here."

"Action Cards?" she looked at me skeptically.

"Cards scattered around the field to support the duelists during duels. To use one you just need to grab it and then you can activate it whenever you see fit." I explained to her. Of course, it might look stupid to be telling her about Action Cards and give her that advantage, but it would be too boring to just beat her without giving her a chance to crawl for her life.

"Why would you tell me that?" she asked me again. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for your words?"

"Believe whatever you want." I shrugged, not really caring what this lookalike thought. "I'm just giving you a fair chance to fight back."

"I don't need advices from a Xyz Remnant!" the lookalike shouted at me.

'But you are still going to listen to it, won't you?' I thought. "It's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

I looked at my hand, with the cards that I had at the moment I would be able to set up a few Extra Deck summons for the turn, probably would be best to use them for Synchro and Transformation, but it would get much more interesting if I proved her by Xyz Summoning. After all, this girl looked like she had some fire and it's easy to get under her skin, so a Xyz Summon would probably make her want to give her all. Not that she wasn't going to go all out if I used anything else, I could tell by that cold stare of hers that she was willing to win by any method available. So bold from her, so sad that I would have to ruin that cute face.

"I will start by Normal Summoning _Astral Angel Einplus (Lv.1, ATK: 200)_!" The little triangle flew in front of me causing the lookalike to raise an eyebrow.

"A Tuner monster? Are you a Synchro user?" So it appears that she was familiar with Synchro as well.

"I'm much more than that." I smirked and took another card from my hand. "I activate the Spell Card – _Photon Lead_ to Special Summon a Level Four or lower LIGHT monster from my hand, so come out, _Astral Angel Digital (Lv.2, ATK: 200)_." The little disk appeared next to the other simple figure on my field. "Next, I activate Digital's effect! When its Special Summoned, I can call out two more Digitals from my deck!"

"Are you going for a Level Seven Synchro?" Yuzu's lookalike asked me.

"Oh, I don't have such a monster in my Extra Deck." I shook my finger. "Brute strength is something used only by commons, I prefer a much more elegant style of dueling that puts grace above big numbers. But before that, there is one last preparation that I need to make, so I activate the Spell Card – _**Star Duplicate**_! With it, I target Digital and Special Summon an Astral Angel with the same level from my deck, so say hello to _Astral Angel Star Frieden (Lv.2, ATK: 600)_!"

* * *

 **Star Duplicate (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 LIGHT monster you control: Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" monster from deck with the same Level, but its effects are negated. If this card is in your Graveyard, except during the turn it was sent there from the field, you can banish this card: Add 1 Level 4 or lower "Astral Angel" monster from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

A halo appeared above my field and the humanoid monster made of cosmic energy fell through it, landing next to the rest of my monsters.

"Let's get this started now!" All of the conditions were already met! "I Overlay my three Level Two Astral Angel Digital!"

My three monsters turned into yellow streams of energy. They shot into the air as the galaxy portal opened in the sky and then dived in it.

" _The heavenly dragon, break through the fabrics of space and annihilate the unholy that stands in your sight! Xyz Summon! Rank Two! Astral Angel Dragolight (RANK: 2, ATK: 1000)!_ "

"So that's your Xyz monster?" The lookalike remarked. "I expected more than this."

"My dueling is just starting." I retorted. She was going to witness my true strength in just a bit… "To finish this, I'm going to tune my Level Two _Astral Angel Star Frieden_ to my Astral Angel Einplus!" My triangle turned into a Synchro ring and surrounded Star Frieden who turned into two spheres of light.

"The universe is always expanding! Activate, the hunter able to detect its prey from across the stars! Synchro Summon! Level Three! _**Astral Angel Bewegungsmelder**_!"

A slim white jet with black wings and underbelly flew through the pillar of light. Its wings turned downward and turned into hands with three fingers at the ends. The upper part of its body slid forward creating a visor over the monster's pink eyes (which were located on its nose) while exposing its core, which was on the top. Its tail turned upside down and the rudder split into two parts that formed small legs. A blue aura surrounded it to show that I put the monster in Defense Position.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Bewegungsmelder**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 600/DEF: 1700**

 **1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: If this card is Synchro Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" Tuner from your hand or Banished Zone in Defense Position. Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; its ATK becomes 0, and if it does, its effects are negated. These changes last until the end of this turn. If the monster targeted by this effect is destroyed this turn, inflict damage to your opponent equal to half its original ATK.**

* * *

"Synchro as well?" the girl narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me that they already took a side in the war."

"I don't know the answer to that, so I won't tell you anything." Sheesh, was war the only thing that this one could think about. I could attack with Dragolight and use its effect to return the Fusion back into her Extra Deck, but I should save my Xyz Materials for her turn. "Now check out my! I activate Bewegungsmelder's effect! Once per turn, I can target one of your monsters and reduce its attack to zero, as well as negate its effects. You got only one monster anyways, so here it goes! _**Area Stun**_!"

My Synchro flew over the lookalike's fusion and dropped a pink cube of energy that unleashed a stream of electricity which paralyzed the monster.

 **Lunalight Cat Dancer, ATK: 2400** → **0**

"You little..." She gritted her teeth, apparently trying to hold back from insulting me. How kindly from her.

"Now battle! I attack your Lunalight Cat Dancer with Astral Angel Dragolight. _Space Shatter_!"

My dragon roared and flew into the sky before firing a barrage of beams down onto the Fusion Monster, destroying it. The Yuzu lookalike screamed and took a few steps back, probably hurt from the extreme heat of my monster's beams.

 **『** **Serena LP: 4000 - 1000** → **3000** **』**

"Is that the best you got?" She muttered and forced herself to look up at me. "I didn't even feel that."

"You did not?" I tilted my head to the side; this was going to be fun then. "Well, then I'm not sure if you are going to feel this one. When the monster targeted by Bewegungsmelder is destroyed, you take half of its original attack points as damage. If I remember correctly, that Cat Dancer of yours got twenty-four hundred attack, so half of that will be twelve hundred points of damage."

This time, the duplicate's eyes widened and she raised her head just in time to see my Bewegungsmelder dropping another 'gift' that blew up in her face, launching her body backward. Actually, even I was impressed by how far she got and… Oh, what's this? Her body smashed through the ice that was covering the Pendulum Card I wanted to take, nice.

 **『** **Serena LP: 3000 - 1200** → **1800** **』**

"Now I see why Academia invades other dimensions. Beating people to a pulp is actually a lot of fun." I smiled and walked toward the girl. "Come on, don't tell me that you already passed out, I was just warming up, you know?"

No response. She was lying flat on the ground like some doll, it was so boring to watch her. Still, I kept my eyes on her just in case while I moved forward and took the Pendulum Card that she was so kind to get out of the ice for me. Of course, I wasn't sure if rules allowed you to put Pendulum Cards into your deck during an ongoing duel, so I put it into my pocket for the time being. Actually, the rules never mentioned that I need to hold those cards in my deck in the first place…

"Ugh." The lookalike finally groaned and her body began to slowly lift itself from the snow.

"Did you have your beauty sleep?" I smirked and jumped onto Dragolight's back, patting the monster on the head. "Are you ready to get serious now, or will you do the smart thing and admit defeat?"

"Nonsense!" The girl shouted and raised back onto her feet, holding out her Duel Disk. "If I forfeit this duel, the Professor will never acknowledge my abilities! You got a lucky shot just now, but that's going to change soon! I have already activated my trap, Lunalight Reincarnation Dance! When you destroyed my Cat Dancer, this card allowed me to add two new Lunalight monsters from the deck to my hand."

"Oh?" That was interesting. "Whelp, there's not much else I can do now, so I'm just going to end my turn. But before I beat your sorry ass, why don't you tell me your name?"

"As if I have the need to be acknowledged by the likes of you." I groaned at her response.

"Honestly, with that tsundere behavior of yours and your short temper, it feels like I'm talking with every generic lead girl from a harem anime, ever." I guess that's what she was made for, to be the weeb's idol. "I bet that in my world people are currently reading fanfics about you being their girlfriend or something."

"I got no idea what you said, but if it's not about this duel, I don't care!" And of course, she has only one single thing on her mind like all those anime girls I mentioned.

"If I was sure that you weren't going to be disgusted by the idea, I would have already kissed you like how a boy kisses a girl." What? I had to be honest with her about that.

"Ewww!" A reaction of disgust – just like I predicted.

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

I followed after Evan as he leadeth me into the forest area. No one else has come here and the trees were thick enough to hide us from the cameras for the most part. He really thought a lot about how to make our duel a secret one, didn't he?

" _You are at a huge disadvantage."_ Hema appeared beside me. _"I call feel it, the duelist aura that comes from your brother isn't an ordinary one, his skills are on a completely different league from yours."_

' _Gee, thanks.'_ I rolled my eyes. _'And where the heck were you when I tried to contact the three of you earlier today?'_

" _You called for us?"_ Yuki appeared confused. _"That's strange, we didn't hear your voice. Actually, we were in a deep slumber until now. I'm not sure what was up with that, but now that all of us are here, we can help you out in this duel!"_

' _No, I'm going to fight him on my own!'_ I exclaimed. _'This is something personal between me and my brother, outsides shouldn't interfere.'_

" _Technically, as a part of your mind, we are his sisters as well."_ Really Hema?! Right now you brought that up? _"But I see that you are determined to fight with your own strength, so we are going to sit to the side and watch as you requested."_

" _Aww, but I wanted to duel as well!"_ I heard Sunny whining from inside my head.

"Here is a good spot." I turned back to Evan after he said something. My brother was standing in a medium-sized opening between the trees, enough for a duel to take place. "Are you ready for this?"

"I already answered that." I replied and raised my Duel Disk. "Since Dueling and winning are the only things you know, I will talk to you through that. This time, you are the one who's about to lose, brother."

"I gave you a last warning, this won't be the same as our duels from when we were children." My brother raised his own Duel Disk as well. "If you have the courage to challenge me, I will throw everything that I got toward you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." It wouldn't really be a victory for me if he held back in this duel. "How did they say it back in the anime? Ah, yes! It's time to duel!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Elizabeth LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" I exclaimed and scanned through my hand. There were some very good cards, I should be able to Xyz Summon this turn, but it would be better to hold back from doing so on my first turn. "I'm going to set one monster and two facedown cards. With this my turn is over!"

I haven't dueled a lot, so I didn't have that much experience. However, I have seen Evan duel several times already. I knew how his early turns usually went and the type of monsters he would call out in a situation like this one. So, I was far more prepared for this match than him!

"A defensive move? Smart, but I will get rid of it in an instant! My turn. Draw!" I prepared myself for what he was going to summon this turn.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I'm going to Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Unknollow (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ and through its effect I'm going to Special Summon a Level Six or lower DARK monster from my hand. I choose _ChronoDevil Time Psycher (Lv.3, ATK: 300)_!"

I just watched as two of my brother's monster appeared on the field at almost the same time. That was the worst duo of monsters that I could have to face on his first turn.

"Due to Time Psycher's effect, I get to draw a card for every ChronoDevil that was on my field when I Special Summon him, so that's two cards." He was back at holding six cards in his hand! "Next, Unknollow's effect copies the level of the monster summoned by its effect, so raised into a level three!"

The creature made of black matter changed its shape and turned into a copy of Time Psycher as its Level changed accordingly.

 **ChronoDevil Unknollow, Lv.1** → **3**

"Let's bring out one of my favorites!" Here it was, just the monster that I expected him to summon in this situation. "I overlay my Level ThreeChronoDevil Unknollow and ChronoDevil Time Psycher."

The galaxy portal opened in front of my brother and his two monsters flew into it.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)!_ "

"I activate Void Lancer's effect! By detaching both of its Xyz Materials, I'm going to prevent you from activating those set cards on your field. _Voided Zone_!" Evan's Xyz Monster absorbed the materials into its spear and two clock gears appeared over my set cards, turning them grey. "Now to battle! I attack your set monster with Void Lancer!"

I winched as Void Lancer's spear pierced through my monster and _**Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz**_ cried out before fading away.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1400/DEF: 600**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned while your LP is lower than your opponent's: You can target 1 "Ancient Artifact" Equip Spell in your Graveyard; equip it to an appropriate target on the field. Once per turn: If an Equip Spell is activated while this card is face-up on the field; you can destroy 1 card.**

* * *

"A low defense monster? So you were trusting your back row for protection, weren't you?" I didn't respond to my brother's question. He already fell into my trap. "I'm going to take a page from your back and set two cards before calling it a turn."

"No one else was able to defeat you in this world." I muttered and looked over my brother. "Your strategies, they always follow the same basic ideas and become predictable, yet that was never a hindrance for you." I put my fist against my chest. "I saw them all. Although I never fought a strong opponent in this world, I saw all of the pain that you went through in order to protect me. To protect Avice. I'll never forget your plays, the monsters that you summoned, the cards that you activated, the combos that you pulled out."

"Hmm, so it's a complete opposite to our relationship, huh?" I looked at my brother on confusion when he said that. "I was able to understand your feelings, Eli. I knew when you were sad, when you were happy. Even if there were times when I couldn't understand your reactions, I believed that they were justified. I know that if you are hating me right now, it's probably justified."

"Brother…" Why? If he understood how I feel watching him doing all those things, why did he never try to stop himself? "If you understand my heart, why do you keep hurting it this way!?"

"Because you and I are completely different." That explanation made no sense! "There's just one thing I couldn't understand. Back in our world, you were always so competitive, trying to get first place on every school project, always having good marks and training all sort of sports. Yet here, you just gave up on that, you gave up on a part of yourself for what? To become friend with You Show?"

"For me, this world is nothing but fake." I admitted. "That's why I'm willing to give up on my past habits. What I did in our world, in the world that matters to me, they are there, not here. There's no point wasting my energy, in fact, ever since we came here and I met with Yuya and Yuzu, I learned that being surrounded by friends and people you care and love is much more important."

My brother just chuckled at my answer. "Your answer to my question is also the answer to your previous question. The reason I keep hurting your heart is because our understandings and personal believes are far too different to be able to coexist with one another. For you this world was a fake one so there was no point in putting effort into your actions, but for me, it's the humans that are the fake ones!"

"You…" I put a hand over my mouth. Did my brother really hate humanity that much? "Does that make us fake as well? Do you think that I'm a fake that could easily be replaced? No, don't answer my question! I will find the answer myself through this duel! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Elizabeth] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

I looked at the card that I just drew and then back to the field. It was just as I predicted, my brother used his Rank 3 to seal away my set cards. The cards that he put facedown are probably both trap cards, most likely Critical Overload and Time Shift. If I avoided attacking into ChronoDevil Void Lancer I should be fine!

"First off, I'm going to activate the Spell Card, _**Mana Recharge**_! With it, I destroy my two set cards to draw a number of cards from my deck equal to the number that got destroyed plus one!" My two set cards shattered while I added three new cards to my hand.

* * *

 **Mana Recharge (Spell) Normal**

 **Destroy any number of other Spell/Trap Cards you control; draw a number of cards from your Deck up to the number of cards destroyed by this effect +1. During your Standby Phase, you can banish this card from your Graveyard: Both player must send the top five cards of their deck to the Graveyard, then they can draw 1 card.**

* * *

"I Normal Summon _Oracle Sister of Spirits – Ein (Lv.4, ATK: 1000)_!" the green-haired spellcaster flew down onto my field and winked. "Next, Ein's effect lets me Special Summon another spellcaster straight from my deck, but its effects are going to be negated! Show yourself, _Oracle Sister of Heart – Jade (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_!"

Ein aimed her sword forward and pulled the trigger, firing a magical bullet that transformed into a huge gate through which my second magician flew and landed next to the first, smiling at her.

"Now I overlay my two monsters!" I continued and the portal appeared above my head, absorbing my two monsters inside of itself.

" _Magicians with various tricks! Gather right here and bring the flames of life! Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Magician dancing through the flames! Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda (RANK.4, ATK: 2000)!_ "

The portal exploded and through the flames flew my new magician. She swung her swords, cutting through the flames that surrounded her and then glared at my brother and his own monster. If I was correct and one of his set cards was Time Shift, I would need to find a way to attack my brother without attacking his monster first, which is exactly what Miranda was best suited for!

"I activate Miranda's effect! I use one of her Xyz Materials to let my monster attack you directly this turn! Miranda's Ritual!" One of my monster's overlay units flew in front of her and she cut it with her swords, absorbing its essence.

"So you plan to use Miranda's effect to avoid dealing with my set cards?" My brother asked me.

"Attack my brother directly!" I ordered Miranda and she crossed her swords, a flame lit up between the blades and then flew toward my brother. I got him!

"In order for a Duelist to improve, their deck must evolve as well." Evan said and clicked his fingers, causing both of his set cards to flip. Those cards, they are… "I activate my trap, _Magic Cylinder_ to negate your attack and inflict damage to you equal to Miranda's attack points. Then, I chain my second trap - _Enchanted Javelin_ \- to gain Life Points equal to Miranda's attack power!"

Two cylinders appeared in front of my brother and the one on the left absorbed my fireball. At the same time a strange looking spear appeared above his head and created a green aura that raised Evan's Life Points. At the same time, the cylinder on the right fired the fireball and it fell in front of me, blowing up. I covered my face with both hands and coughed from the smoke.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 + 2000** → **6000** **』**

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 4000 - 2000** → **2000** **』**

"You should never expect that your opponent will play the exact same way in all of their duels." My brother put a hand on his hips. "I might not know your deck as good as you know mine, but I figured out that you would be wary of Time Shift and use Miranda to deal damage while avoiding attacks against my ChronoDevils. If you were more careful, you weren't going to fall for this obvious bait."

"You always think two steps ahead, don't you?" I looked down at the ground and clenched my fist. I couldn't make plans as far into the future as him, but I didn't need to. "Truth is, I already knew that you weren't going to use the same cards all the time. Since you are someone who always tries to improve, you weren't going to keep using the exact same cards all the time. That's why I let you waste Void Lancer's effect while I set up my Graveyard for this counter attack! I activate the effect of _**Blessed Mirror of Oracle Sister**_ from my Graveyard! By banishing it, I can revive an Oracle Sister whose attack is less than the damage I just took!"

"The card that you destroyed!?" My brother exclaimed.

* * *

 **Blessed Mirror of Oracle Sister (Trap) Normal**

 **When your opponent declares a direct attack, you can target that monster: Negate the attack, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Mirror Fragment Token" (Spellcaster-Type/LIGHT/Level ?/ATK ?/DEF ?). (When Summoned, its Level, ATK and DEF become equal to the original Level, ATK and DEF of that target.) If you take battle or effect damage while this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish this card to target 1 "Oracle Sister" in your Graveyard with ATK that is less or equal to the damage you took: Special Summon that target, and if you do, gain LP equal to its original ATK.**

* * *

A large golden mirror appeared on the field showing a reflection of _Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz_. The new spellcaster had a tanned skin with short blonde hair and aqua eyes. She was wearing a dark brown magician robe over light black armor that covered her chest and shoulders. Simple baggy shorts covered the lower side of her body and boots made of the same black metal served as her footwear. The spellcaster had several yellow tattoos covering her cheeks, neck, arm and legs and in her right hand she held a black battle hammer with golden wings printed on its left side.

Suddenly, the image inside the mirror began to move and then it stepped out of it before turning around to point her hammer at me. I felt a warm sensation through my body and my strength returned a little bit along with my Life Points.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 4000 + 1400** → **3400** **』**

"Next, I activate Aiz's effect!" I continued and pointed at the ground. "When she is Special Summoned while my Life Points are less than yours, I can activate one Ancient Artifact Equip Spell directly from my Graveyard! I activate _**Ancient Artifact – Terra Justice**_!"

Aiz smiled at me and raised her hammer before slamming it down onto the ground, opening a portal toward the Graveyard. A small wooden wand with yellow, orange and red leaves covering the top. The swords held by Miranda disappeared and she grabbed the new magical weapon.

* * *

 **Ancient Artifact – Terra Justice (Spell) Equip**

 **Equip only to a Spellcaster-type monster. It gains 600 ATK and can attack twice during each Battle Phase. Once per turn: If the monster equipped with this card inflicts damage to your opponent, you can add 1 "Ancient Artifact" from your deck to the hand, except for "Ancient Artifact – Terra Justice". If your LP are less than your opponent, you can add 1 Level 6 or lower Spellcaster-type monster instead.**

* * *

"You predicted this, didn't you?" My brother asked and his lips raised a little to form a smile. "I was played for a fool."

"When an Ancient Artifact equip spell is activated while Aiz's on my field, I can destroy a card that you control. Disappear, ChronoDevil Void Lancer!" My monster swung her hammer and then threw it at Void Lancer, smashing the monster's head.

"Even if you do this, due to Miranda's effect, monsters only than her can't attack on the turn you tried to land a direct attack." My brother pointed out. So at least he has been paying attention to my early duels, huh?

"Terra Justice's effect, increases the equipped monster's attack power by six hundred and lets her attack again." My monster positioned the wand in front of herself and mana floated out of the artifact, boosting her flames.

 **Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda, ATK: 2000 + 600** → **2600**

"Now go, attack my brother directly!" My monster swung her wand and several fireballs formed above her head, after which they all launched forward and landed in front of my brother, throwing him back.

"Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh!" My brother screamed, momentarily burying his foots into the dirt to remain standing.

 **『** **Evan LP: 6000 - 2600** → **3400** **』**

" _Your Life Points are now even!"_ Yuki exclaimed. _"Although you weren't able to gain the lead this turn, you equalized the odds and clear out his field while keeping yours full."_

" _That's her determination to win."_ Hema commented as well and looked at me. _"You were right that it should be you to duel him and not one of us because even if our skills are superior, your knowledge and determination are much more important for this duel."_

"I activate Terra Justice's effect. When the monster equipped with it inflicts damage to you, I can add another Ancient Artifact from my deck to the hand" I said and took a card from my hand before showing it to my brother. "I add _**Ancient Artifact – Crown of Herbs**_."

* * *

 **Ancient Artifact – Crown of Herbs (Spell) Equip**

 **Activate this card by targeting 1 Spellcaster-type monster in your GY; Special Summon it and equip it with this card. When this card leaves the field, destroy the equipped monster. All damage you take is halved. Once per turn: If you gained LP while this card was on the field; draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Finally, I'm going to activate the Continuous Spell: _**Natural Harmony of Oracle Sisters**_!" I played a card that showed several your magician girls walking through a forest while laughing and smiling. In that instant, the trees that were around us suddenly began to move and their branches formed a tower behind us.

* * *

 **Natural Harmony of Oracle Sisters (Spell) Continuous**

 **Once per turn: You can gain 400 LP for each Spellcaster-Type monster you control. Once per turn: You can target 1 face-up monster on the field and declare 1 Attribute (EARTH, WATER, FIRE, or WIND); the targeted monster becomes the declared Attribute until the end of this turn. If your LP is higher than your opponent, you can pay 1000 LP: Add 1 "Oracle Sister" card, or 1 Level 6 Spellcaster-Type monster from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"I activate Natural Harmony's effect." I gestured forward and my monsters waved. "Once per turn, I can gain four hundred Life Points for each of my spellcasters that are on the field."

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 3400 + 800** → **4200** **』**

"Next, I activate Natural Harmony's second effect to pay a thousand Life Points and add one Oracle Sister card to my hand."

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 4200 - 1000** → **3200** **』**

Making a comeback from his current position would be easy for my brother, I had to act carefully. I looked through the cards that I could choose from and picked one. "I add _Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein_ and end my turn!"

"Preparing for the next turn, are we?" My brother rubbed his shoulder. "Taking damage, healing and then repeat. This is the natural circle of life that your deck represents, sis. But how long could live exist compared to the destructive force of time? How long would the memory remain until it crumbles into dust?"

"I… got no idea what you are talking about." I admitted.

"I will show you then." Evan replied and put a hand on top of his deck. "It's my turn!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 3400, Hand: 5** **』**

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"I won't take any more of this foolishness!" the Yuzu lookalike cried out and drew her next card. "My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Serena] LP: 1800, Hand: 4** **』**

"First, I'm going to activate the Spell: _Fusion Recovery_ to add _Lunalight Purple Butterfly_ and _Polymerization_ back to my hand!" the two cards slide out of the copy's deck and she took them. "I won't a Xyz Remnant to best me! Come out, _Lunalight Kaleido Chick (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_."

A girl in yellow clothes jumped onto the field and bowed.

"Kaleido Chick's effect activates! Once per turn, I can send a Lunalight monster from my Deck or Extra Deck to the Graveyard and give Kaleido Chick its name! I choose to send _Lunalight Panther Dancer_ from my Extra Deck." The yellow girl's body suddenly changed and she transformed into a grown up woman with tanned skin, wearing a dark blue and pink dancer dress. "Next, I activate Polymerization to fuse together Lunalight Panther Dancer on my field with the Lunalight Purple Butterfly and Lunalight Black Sheep!"

Two more girls, the one in the purple butterfly outfit and another one wearing a butler outfit appeared beside Panther Dancer and all three of then fell into a vortex of multiple colors while the Yuzu lookalike cupped her hands together and began to chant.

" _Elegant beast dancing on the moonlit wilderness! The beast lurking in jet-black dress! The butterfly that wields violet poison! Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! The king of beasts dancing atop the summit of the moonlight wilderness! Lunalight Leo Dancer (Lv.10, ATK: 3500)!_ "

A rather viciously looking woman with purple skin, a wild light grey hair and a huge sword appeared out of the Fusion portal and landed on the field.

"When Kaleido Chick is send to the Graveyard by a card effect, I can return Polymerization back to my hand!" That annoying card again, huh? "I will finish the duel this turn! Go, Leo Dancer! Destroy Astral Angel Dragolight!"

A spark appeared within the Fusion's eyes for a moment after which it charged straight for my dragon. Was she for real? Only a brute would do that!

"In the end you are just a brute that charges without a plan, huh?" I shook my head. "I activate Dragolight's effect! I detach one Xyz Material from it to negate the destruction and then inflict all of the damage I would have taken to you instead! _Illusion Barrier Stone_!"

My dragon absorbed one of its Overlay units and spread its wings, the gems on the tips of them glowing as a multi-colored barrier ready to absorb the attack.

"Your monster has such effect!?" The lookalike exclaimed shocked.

"You… really don't read the card text of cards, do you?" What a joke!

"I won't let it end this way!" the girl exclaimed and then jumped onto a column of ice after which she leaped toward a building. What now? Trying to run away, or-! Ah, she is going for an Action Card! "I activate the Action Card – _**Natural**_ _**Camouflage**_!"

* * *

 **Natural Camouflage (Spell)**

 **If a monster on the field battles: Target that monster; its ATK becomes the same as the monster it battles until the end of the Damage Step, and it cannot be destroyed by that battle.**

* * *

As Lunalight Leo Dancer charged toward my dragon, her skin and clothes suddenly changed color, turning white. The monster was almost indistinguishable from the frozen world around us, but I was sure that this effect did more than change the fashion sense of her ace.

"With Natural Camouflage's effect, my monster's attack will become the same as the monster it battles, but Lunalight Leo Dancer won't be destroyed by the battle!" the copy explained as her monster's sword crashed against mine's barrier.

 **Lunalight Leo Dancer, ATK: 3500** → **1000**

"It seems that you are going to lose because of the advice that you gave me." The girl said.

"Due to Dragolight's own effect, my monster won't be destroyed in that battle either." The barrier burst and my monster flew away from Leo Dancer, who returned to the lookalike's field. "This battle ends in a draw!"

 **Lunalight Leo Dancer, ATK: 1000** → **3500**

"That's when Lunalight Leo Dancer's effect activates!" the lookalike raised her hand toward the Fusion. "Leo Dancer can attack twice per turn and after her first attack all of your monsters will be destroyed!"

"What!?" The Fusion suddenly swung its sword and a snowstorm engulfed my two monsters, freezing their bodies and, worse than that, their cores, which blew up and left my field covered in dust.

"Now attack directly!" The Leo Dancer swung its sword toward me again. I gritted my teeth and raised my Duel Disk to block the attack with my blade, but the Fusion's slash just slammed against me.

"Kkkyyyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" I slammed against a building and fell down onto my knees.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 3500** → **500** **』**

"I set a card and end my turn." I glared up at the doppelganger. "Are you going to beg for mercy now? No matter how many Summoning methods you Xyz Remnants learn, I'll still defeat you!"

"Let's see about that." I stood backup and grinned. "You showed that you are a worthy opponent, so I will go out against you for a bit, ok? My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Avice] LP: 500, Hand: 3** **』**

I looked at my cards and then back at my opponent. "Usually, I could use the effect of Astral Angel Digital in my Graveyard to banish all copies of it and draw a card for each, but there's no need to do that against you."

"You're not going to take me serious?" the girl clenched her fist in anger. "I will make you regret those words!"

"Let's see about that." I smirked and took two cards from my hand before playing them. "I activate the Continuous Spells, _Astral Angel Der Erste_ and _Astral Angel Das Letzte_! Now, let me show you their effects! First, Das Letzte lets me target a number of cards you control up to the number of Continuous Spell I control and negate their effects! I choose your Lunalight Leo Dancer!"

My spell fired an electric charge at the Fusion Monster, when it suddenly raised its sword and blocked the attack.

"Leo Dancer can't be targeted and is unaffected by your effects!" my opponent pointed out.

"Heh, I already knew that! I just wanted to show you that despite your monster's abilities, it's still too weak to face my brightest star." I explained to her. "Oh, and before I forget, Des Erste's effect lets me add one Astral Angel from my deck to the hand when it's activated. I choose _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion_."

I added the card to my hand. Now, it was time for the last act.

"Here comes and the last act! I activate the second effect of both Der Erste and Das Letzte to move them into my Pendulum Zones!" My two cards turned into masks and flew into the air where they were suspended by two columns of green light.

"Pendulum Zones?" the girl tilted her head to the side. "What's that?"

"When Der Erste and Das Letzte are in the Pendulum Zones, they have the Pendulum Scales of one and nine, therefore, I can Pendulum Summon any monster whose Level is between two and eight! " The green pendulum appeared in the air above me. "Swing, pendulum of balance, arise within my soul and become a path of light! Pendulum Summon! Arise before me, my monsters! From my hand, choose _Astral Angel Magnificus Lion (Lv.6, ATK: 2100)_ and holy warrior of light and dreams, the light of my soul, _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

"Pendulum Summon?" the copy looked at my monsters in confusion. "Is that the Xyz Dimension's new weapon?"

"It's Standard's new weapon." I corrected her. "Pendulum Summoning is the new power that the Duelists of Standard have gained to fight against you."

"Is that so?" the girl narrowed her eyes. "Then that would mean that Standard is an enemy as well. But, now you have two Level Six monsters, so you're going to bright out another Xyz, right?"

"Incorrect." I waved my finger. "Dragolight was the only Xyz Monster in my deck, but I'm going to show you something much better. I activate the effect of Astral Angel Einplus in my Graveyard. I increase Sola's level by one in order to revive it."

The triangle rotated around my Sola and she raised her fists over her head.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, Lv: 6** → **Lv: 7**

"For you to bring back the Tuner monster…" the Yuzu lookalike finally realized what I was going to do. "Another Synchro Summon?"

"That's right! I tune my Level Seven Sola Starlit the Pendulum Slayer to my Level One Astral Angel Einplus!" Einplus flew forward and turned into a ring that Sola passed through.

" _The supreme angel with the burning soul of a star. Spread your beautiful wings of destruction and erase our enemies with your blazing light! Synchro Summon! Level Eight! Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)!_ "

"Tch, I expected a Xyz Summon." The girl glared at me irritated. "What kind of Xyz Duelist are you to discard your own Summoning method?"

"Are you really that stupid?" I tilted my head to the side in confusion. "You still believe that I'm an Xyz Remnant? Idiot! This was just a lie to get your attention and beat your sorry ass. In reality, I'm from Standard!"

"You are trying to lie now?" I almost fell from that. Seriously? "I saw you Xyz Summoning."

"Whatever." I wasn't going to waste my words on this idiot. "I activate Astral Angel Das Letzte's Pendulum Effect. I release Astral Angel Magnificus Lion to give half of its attack power to Sola."

My monster roared and its body faded away with the spirit surrounding Sola's wings, turning their color from blue to yellow.

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 1050** → **4050**

"F-four thousand attack points!" My opponent exclaimed.

"Let's battle!" I cried out and Sola flew into the air, summoning her weapons. "Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, attack Lunalight Leo Dancer! _Photon Particle Stream_!"

My monster flew a beam toward Leo Dancer and the Fusion Monster put its sword in front of its body to try and block the attack.

"Trap activate! _**Lunalight Reaction Dance**_! This destroys your attacking monster and inflicts six hundred points of damage!" A barrier formed in front of Leo Dancer and blocked my attack. "That's for not taking me serious!"

* * *

 **Lunalight Reaction Dance (Trap) Normal**

 **Activate when a face-up "Lunalight" monster you control is targeted for an attack. Target the attacking monster: Destroy it, and if you do, inflict 600 damage to your opponent. You can banish this card from your Graveyard to target 3 "Lunalight" monsters in your Graveyard, including 1 Fusion Monster: Shuffle all targets into the deck, and if you do, draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Fool!" I grinned and threw my hand upward to point at Sola. "When an effect that targets Sola Electra is activated, I can banish one of my Pendulum Cards to destroy your card before it activated! _**Cipher Reflection**_!"

Sola Electra illuminated the trap card with her wings and the card turned completely white before shattering.

"And when Cipher Reflects destroys your card, I can bring back another Sola monster from my Extra Deck! I call you, _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

"N-no way!" the copy exclaimed. "You brought Sola from the Extra Deck despite it being used as Synchro Material?"

"Pendulum monsters go to the Extra Deck upon leaving the field." I pointed out. "But more importantly for you, with your trap destroyed, my Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph's attack will go through."

And indeed, as I said that the barrier that protected Leo Dancer broke and the beam incinerated the feline monster, and send the doppelganger flying backward.

 **『** **Serena LP: 1800 - 550** → **1250** **』**

"And for the finish, I attack you directly with Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph! _Linear Ray Artillery_!" my fairy flew over and put her palms together, firing a laser at the Academia Duelist.

"I activate the Action Card – _**Frost**_!" Huh? When did she managed to grab that one? "This spell negates the attack of one monster and then halves its attack points!"

* * *

 **Frost (Spell) Normal**

 **When a monster declares an attack: Target that monster; negate the attack, and if you do, halve its ATK until the end of the next turn.**

* * *

Sola Starlit's beam faded before it could reach its target and my monster cried out. I looked at her and saw her legs starting to freeze. She tried to fire another beam to free herself, but her hands and wings were frozen as well, leaving her unable to move.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2500** → **1250**

"I see that you were able to get the hang of Action Cards." I tch-ed. This interference in my plays was starting to get really annoying.

"There's nothing more you can do." The copy stated. "Of course you could enter your Main Phase two and use Digital's effect to draw new cards, but they will be useless."

"You still think that you got a chance, don't you?" I sighed. How could someone get this annoying, really? "Allow me to demonstrate to you why I'm the master of space. I enter Main Phase Two and activate Der Erste's Pendulum Effect! I target one LIGHT monster and use it to attack you again during the Main Phase!"

"What!?" Heh, the girl's eyes became as wide as dinner plates. The ice that covered Sola Starlit began to slowly crack and she broke through it before aiming her palms at the bitch once again.

"That's the final attack for real! _Linear Ray Artillery_!" Sola fired her beams and hit the lookalike in the chest. She screamed and was slammed against a column of ice before dropping down.

 **『** **Serena LP: 1250 - 1250** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

"And that's it." I had to admit, the duel wasn't too boring, but only if this barbarian knew how to do anything more than charging mindlessly into everything, the duel might have been a bit more challenging.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Levant walked carefully through the burning field. The Duelist glanced left and then right. Who knew where Reiji's security cameras could be hidden. Well, him of course. He didn't just join LDS for nothing, and while hacking in the cameras would be too obvious, he made sure to map their location, so he could avoid being detected.

Finding a nice blind spot in the city wasn't easy when there were duelists running around, searching for Pendulum Cards and what not. But he finally found himself a nice spot behind a rock and pulled out the card that Hikaru gave him. Without much of a thought, he dropped it on the ground and then stepped back. The strange card began to glow purple and a vortex formed above it. Levant put a hand over his eyes and tried to focus on what was in front of him.

After a few seconds, he saw several silhouettes coming toward him. So, with a triumphant smile, he greeted them.

"Welcome to Standard, Haou."

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

I prepared myself for my brother's turn. Managing to not lose to a One Turn Kill was much harder against him than any other opponent I ever had. Which weren't that many…

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 3400, Hand: 5** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card, _Gear Repair_ to discard the Level Three DARK monster, ChronoDevil Protector Golem, and Special Summon the Level Three _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lvl.3, ATK: 1300)_ from my deck." The little ghost flew in front of my brother and chuckled darkly.

"Next, I activate ChronoDevil Protector Golem's effect. Since all of my monsters are DARK, I can Special Summon it from the Graveyard." The monster made from rock raised in front of my brother with its 2000 defense and crossed its arms defensively. "Now I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lvl.4, ATK: 1800)_ and I believe you already know its effect."

"At the cost of reducing its attack to zero, you are going to Special Summon a Level three or lower DARK monster from your deck with its effects negated." I said. He had used this card so many times, that I remembered its effect like it was mine.

 **ChronoDevil Stream Supporter, ATK: 1800** → **0**

"Join the rest, _Dark Resonator (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_." That second tuner monster which looked a lot like Timefrozer Ghost flew out of Stream Supporter's robe and laughed. "Now I tune my level four Stream Supporter to my Level three Dark Resonator!"

A level 7 Synchro then. I knew what was going to show up. Dark Resonator turned into three rings and Stream Supporter flew through it.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)!_ "

'The strongest of my brother's ChronoDevil monsters.' I gulped watching the dragon. Mystic-Flare, it was another card that Evan used a lot, maybe even more than Phantomus. It was his to-go monster and now I was the one staring at its dangerous form.

"Now I activate Timefrozer Ghost's effect. Once per turn, I can negate the effects of one card that you control. I choose to negate your Equip Spell: Ancient Artifact – Terra Justice." The ghost fired its ectoplasm and covered the wand with it.

 **Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda, ATK: 2600 - 600** → **2000**

"Now your monster is weaker than his!" Hema cried out.

"He's not done yet." I whispered. There was still a tuner on his field, which meant that another Synchro Summon was on its way.

"Now I tune my Level Three _ChronoDevil Protector Golem_ to my Level Three _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_." And again, the ghost turned into three rings that flew around Protector Golem.

" _Malefic soul trapped in the cursed prison of metallic demise! Unleash your nightmarish aggressiveness! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Six! ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast (Lv.6, ATK: 2000)!_ "

" _Here he comes!"_ Hema warned me.

"Battle! I attack Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda with ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon!" The dragon leaned forward and pointed its cannons at my magician. "At this moment I activate ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon's effect! If it battles a monster with lower or equal attack I can automatically destroy that monster without damage calculation and inflict its attack as damage! _Time Nullify_!"

The dragon's weapons fired, enveloping Miranda in a green light. My monster cried out and then its body exploded, while I grunted in pain and my body leaned a little to the right. We were in an Action Field, so the damage was going to be real, although not as fatal as in other duels.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 3200 - 2000** → **1200** **』**

"When Miranda is destroyed, I can add one Ancient Artifact from my deck to the hand." A card popped from my deck and I took it. "I add _Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword_."

"Next, ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast destroy Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz! King's Cry!" Paradox-Claw Beast leaned forward and opened its mouth, unleashing an ultrasonic howl that destroyed my monster and knocked me back.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 1200 - 600** → **600** **』**

" _Form more than three thousand, or Life Points dropped to just six hundred in an instant!"_ Yuki said, worried.

" _Ah, those are some dangerous Synchro Monsters."_ Sunny rubbed the back of her head, silly. _"It's good thing that I'm not the one dueling right now."_

"I set a card and end my turn." Evan finished, then gestured toward me. "It's your move, Eli."

"My turn!" I exclaimed, drawing a new card. It wasn't like I didn't expect this to happen, I knew that there was a huge chance for my brother to wipe out my entire field, but I wasn't going to give up on this duel.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Elizabeth] LP: 600, Hand: 7** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my field, I can Special Summon _Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_!" The spellcaster appeared on my field holding her wand. "Next, I Normal Summon _Oracle Sister of Shades – Jane (Lv.2, ATK: 200)_ and use her effect to change her own attribute from LIGHT to FIRE!"

"A tuner monster that can change its own Attribute? No, you don't plan to Synchro Summon, do you?" So, he saw through me?

"I activate Jane's effect!" I continued. "I pay five hundred Life Points to add one Fusion card from the deck to my hand." I winched a little bit, feeling a burning in my chest while Jane pulled a card from my deck and gave it to me.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 600 - 500** → **100** **』**

"I add _**Oracle Sister -** **Energy** **Fusion**_." I showed the card to my brother.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister - Energy Fusion (Spell) Normal**

 **Fusion Summon 1 "Oracle Sister" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand and/or field as Fusion Materials. If your LP are lower than your opponent, you can use monsters from both sides of the field instead.**

* * *

"A fusion, huh?" My brother's eyes narrowed. "But I know what you plan to do next and it won't work. I activate my continuous trap, _Shadow Curtain_! With this card on my field, you can no longer target any DARK monsters with card or effects!"

A black mist came out of the card and surrounded Evan's side of the field, leaving both him and his monsters out of my view. Damn it, I was just planning to use Natural Harmony's effect to change one of their attributes!

"Then, I will activate the Equip Spell, _Ancient Artifact – Crown of Herbs_ to revive _Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda (RANK.4, ATK: 2000)_ and equip her with this spell." A crown made from various jewels in the form of flowers appeared on my field and a hand reached from the ground to grab it. This arm turned out to be Miranda's and the monster raised back onto the field before putting the artifact on top of her head. "And next, I activate Natural Harmony's first effect to gain four hundred Life Points for each of my monsters!"

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 100 + 1200** → **1300** **』**

"So you healed up again?" Evan rolled his eyes unimpressed. "Then I will just have to beat you harder next turn!"

"We'll see." I narrowed my eyes and looked down at my deck. "When I gain Life Points while Crown of Herbs is on the field, I get to draw a card." I looked at the card I got and nodded. "Using the Scale One, Oracle Sister of _Tranquility - Mimi_ , and the Scale Seven, _Oracle Sister of Lofty – Salome_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

"So you set the Pendulum Scale? Does that mean that she is coming?" my brother asked me.

"That's right!" I nodded. "I can Pendulum Summon monster from Level Two to Six! Swing Pendulum of Life, be the path of light for my soul and give beginning to a new deity! Pendulum Summon! Arise, the millennium goodness sleeping within the mortals' soul! _Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!" The spellcaster appeared beside her comrades.

"While Tempest Sina is on my field, all of my monsters are protected from card effect destruction once per turn." I pointed out. "Now, I activate Oracle Sister – Energy Fusion to fuse together Oracle Sister of Shades – Jane and Oracle Sister of Flames – Miranda!"

A vortex appeared between my two monsters and they turned into piles of rocks and flames respectively before falling into it. I crossed my hands over my chest and began to chant for my new monster.

" _The witches of earth and fire will combine their souls and minds to forge a devastating force of nature! Rise from your slumber and lay the foundations for a new life! Fusion Summon! The magician of flames and shatters!_ _ **Oracle Sister of Impregnability – Stora**_ _!_ "

Out of the portal flew a tall woman wearing heavy, light brown armor. The warrior had a helmet to cover her face with a black visor over her eyes and a single violet ponytail sticking out of the back of her head with a golden ring tied around it. Her armor had huge boots with spikes on the foot and two blades sticking out of her thighs. The armor that protected the main body had a lion emblem on the chest and the shoulder plates were two blocks of armor with orange energy flowing through several slam cracks that were found in her entire armor.

The woman's arms were covered by heavy gauntlets, which had a circular plate on the backs. Those plates were used to hold her shields, both of which were twice her size with the shape of a rectangle. The monster groaned and moved the shields in front of her, the locks that were placed on each of them, connecting with the other to create an impenetrable gate while the blades that were sticking from her thighs stuck themselves in the ground to give her more sturdiness.

* * *

 **Oracle Sister of Impregnability – Stora**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: EARTH FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 2800**

 **1 EARTH monster + 1 FIRE monster**

 **Effect: Your opponent cannot target monsters you control for attack or with card effects, except this one. Once per turn: If your opponent's LP is higher than yours with the difference being 1000 or more, you can inflict 1500 damage to your opponent. If a Spellcaster-Type monster(s) is Special Summoned on your side of the field while this card is in your Graveyard: Special Summon this card, but banish it when it leaves the field.**

* * *

"So, you build yourself a wall, huh?" Evan commented.

"While Stora is on my field, you can't target any of my other monsters with attacks or card effects." I explained. "And with her second effect, when my Life Points are lower than yours, I can inflict fifteen hundred damage to you!"

"What!?" My brother exclaimed. Stora aimed her shields toward him and a wave of meteors fell from the sky, knocking Evan off his feet.

"Aaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhhh!" He screamed and fell on his back, gasping.

 **『** **Evan LP: 3400 - 1500** → **1900** **』**

"Now let's finish this! I activate _Ancient Artifact – Thunder Sword_ and equip it to Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein, increasing her attack power by eight hundred!"

The sword appeared in front of my monster and she looked over it confused before taking the handle.

 **Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein, ATK: 1700 + 800** → **2500**

"Let's battle now. Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer attackParadox-Claw Beast! _Vortex Arrow_!" My monster fired a ball of magical energy that carved a hole in Evan's beast and destroyed it.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1900 - 400** → **1500** **』**

"Second attack! Lein destroy his Mystic-Flare Dragon!" Lein leaped forward and slashed Mystic-Flare Dragon in half. The monster took a step back and roared before its core exploded.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1500 - 100** → **1400** **』**

"When Mystic-Flare is destroyed, I can add one spell card from my deck to the hand." My brother said, picking a card from his deck before showing it to me. "I add _Tri-Atom Quantum_ to my hand!"

"You aren't the only one with an effect to add cards. When the monster equipped with Thunder Sword destroys a monster by battle, I can draw a card!" I looked over the card before grabbing another one from my hand. "I set two cards and end my turn!"

"During the End Phase of your turn, the second effect of Shadow Curtain activates." My brother looked up at me. "If there are no DARK monsters on my field, this card will destroy itself and my Life Points are going to be halved."

A dark aura surrounded him and my brother clenched his chest. Our Life Points were close and while mines were lower, I had the advantage in term of card effects. But I didn't take into account the negate effect of Shadow Curtain.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1400/2** → **700** **』**

"My turn, draw!" My brother roared and pulled a card from his deck. I don't know why, but I felt a chill go down my spine.

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 700, Hand: 3** **』**

" _Be vigilant!"_ Hema warned me. _"His Life Points are below one thousand, so it's most likely that he will try to finish the duel in this turn!"_

"I activate _Tri-Atom Quantum_!" The card that he added through Mystic-Flare's effect… "I banish ChronoDevil Paradox-Claw Beast from my Graveyard and Special Summon three DARK monsters from my deck whose combine level equals six, but their effects will be negated. I Special Summon _ChronoDevil Gear Tuner (Lv.1, DEF: 300)_ , _ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy (Lv.3, DEF: 1400)_ and _ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, DEF: 800)_."

'These monsters.' I looked carefully at the cards that my brother played. "They are all Tuner monsters. Why would he call out three tuners on his field?"

"Next is the effect of ChronoDevil Protector Golem. Since all of my monsters are DARK, I can Special Summon it from the Graveyard." The rock monster raised with a groan and kneeled next to the other monsters with its 2000 defense. "And then, I activate the Spell: _Chrono Reborn_ , to revive one DARK monster from my Graveyard, I choose _ChronoDevil Time Psycher (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_."

"That monster again!?" I knew all too well what Time Psycher was going to do.

"When Time Psycher is Special Summoned, I get to draw a card for every ChronoDevil on my field. There are five right now, so I draw five new cards." A-amazing! Not only did he gather five monsters, but he also still has six more cards inside his hand. "And then Time Psycher's second effect lets me change the level of a monster on the field to anything between one and six. I make my Gear Tuner a Level Four monster!"

 **ChronoDevil Gear Tuner, Lv: 1** → **Lv: 4**

"Then I activate Spell: _Star Changer_ , to increase Time Psycher's level from three to four!" Another level changing effect? And with two level fours he could summon _that_ monster.

 **ChronoDevil Time Psycher, Lv: 3** → **Lv: 4**

"I overlay my two level four monsters to bring out my newest addition!" The two ChronoDevil monsters looked at each other and then they both flew into the air, transforming into purple energies.

" _The dragon guardian of the space, hear my command! Let the foolish challengers know the wrath of thousand stars! Xyz Summon! Come, Beta Spike – Space Dragon (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

The huge pitch black dragon flew out of the galaxy portal and turned around in the air before landing behind Evan. The beast glared at me and then roared loudly.

"It's not over yet! Now I'm going to tune the Level Three Protector Golem to the Level Two Jolly Jester!" The jester put its hands in front of its face and transformed into two rings that flew around Protector Golem and transformed it into three orbs of light.

" _Within the timeless abyss, I call the android with unmoving gears. Open your metal heart and set forth its blazing black flames! Synchro Summon! Level Five, ChronoDevil Retro-Fractured Android (Lv.5, DEF: 1900)!_ "

" _Both a Xyz and a Synchro summon in one turn."_ Hema gulped and looked over at me. _"Will your set cards be enough to survive this turn?"_

I gulped. Hema appeared frightened and she was the calmest of my personalities, as well as the most experienced one. _'You can see his essence as a Duelist, can't you?'_

" _We all can."_ Sunny joined in. _"Your brother's will is like nothing I have seen before. It's a blazing pillar of rough strength that towers above all of us."_

"Don't forget that I still haven't Normal Summoned during this turn." Evan pointed out. "I release ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy to Advance Summon _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

A clock gear appeared before the Pendulum Monster and it jumped through it, with Phantomus landing on the other side. Phantomus, Beta Spike, he was summoning all of his strongest monsters to fight me.

"Once per turn, Phantomus can inherit the effect of a face-up Pendulum Monster in my Extra Deck. Lead us your strength Timefrozer Ghost. Cursed Void Absorb!" The spirit of Timefrozer Ghost flew around Phantomus and then into his chains. "Now Phantomus can negate the effects of a card once per turn! Let's go! Beta Spike, attack Oracle Sister of Impregnability – Stora! _Nova Spear_!"

Beta Spike roared and lifted itself in the air; wings glowing purple, it charged horn first toward my monster.

" _Huh? He attacks with a monster that has less attack points?"_ Sunny wondered.

"Beta Spike's ability!" I quickly realized. "But I won't let you, Trap Open – _**Xyz**_ **Providence**! With this card's effect, I detach all of Beta Spike's Xyz Materials and gain six hundred attack points for each!"

* * *

 **Xyz Providence (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 Xyz Monster on the field; detach all of its Xyz Materials, and if you do, gain 600 LP for each. For the rest of this turn, that monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.**

* * *

"I activate Timefrozer Ghost's effect that Phantomus absorbed in response!" My brother threw his fist forward. "Once per turn, I can negate the effects of one face-up card on the field and I choose _Xyz Providence_!"

"That's what I was hoping for!" I smirked. "Second trap open! _**Oracle Sister - Soul Exchange**_! With its effect, I tribute _Oracle Sister of Reinforcements – Lein_ to Special Summon _Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz (Lv.3, DEF: 600)_ from my Graveyard!"

* * *

 **Oracle Sister - Soul Exchange (Trap) Continuous**

 **Once per turn, you can Tribute 1 "Oracle Sister" monster you control: Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand or Graveyard whose Level/Rank is less than, or equal to that of the Tributed monster. If this card is in your Graveyard and you have 1000 or less LP, you ban banish this card from your Graveyard, to target 2 Spellcaster monsters in your Graveyard with the same Level: Special Summon these targets, and if you do, immediately after this effect resolves Xyz Summon using monsters on your side of the field, including those targets.**

* * *

"When Aiz is Special Summoned, you will be able to equip an Ancient Artifact directly from your Graveyard, however my attack will go through before that chain resolves." My eyes widened when I heard that. No way… "I activate Beta Spike's effect! Once per turn, when it battles, I can detach one Xyz material from it, so I take no damage from that battle, and my opponent takes twice the damage I would have received! _Power Punishment_!"

The dragon roared and swung its head, bringing the spear down onto Stora's shields. My spellcaster pushed back, trying to hold against the attack, but the shockwave passed through her and pushed me in the guts. My god… I gritted my teeth and took a step back to catch my breath after this hit.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 1300 - 800** → **500** **』**

"Aiz's effect will now resolve!" I cried out. "I equip Ancient Artifact – Terra Justice to Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer, increasing her attack by six hundred points!"

The usual long rod carried by Sina disappeared and the much smaller one appeared in its place. She grabbed it and her attack power boosted itself.

 **Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer, ATK: 2400 + 600** → **3000**

"And now the second part of Aiz's effect lets me destroy one monster on your field! I choose to destroy Beta Spike – Space Dragon!" My magician swung her hammer and threw it to Beta Spike, knocking the dragon backward.

"When a DARK monster I control would be destroyed, I can banish Chrono Reborn from my Graveyard instead." Suddenly a clock gear formed behind Beta Spike and levitated the dragon back onto its feet. "Next, from my hand I'm going to activate the Quick-Play Spell: _Timeline Fusion_ to fuse together Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and Beta Spike – Space Dragon!"

A huge clock gear appeared on the field with the multicolored portal swirling inside of it. My brother's two monsters looked at each other and then jumped through, their bodies merging into a single being.

" _Hollow soul of the demon king, take the sacrificed dragon of dark storms and unveil your true power! The demon king with unrivaled hatred, shatter the chains and raise through calamity! Fusion Summon! Embodiment of my burning soul! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer (Lv.9, ATK: 2900)!_ "

" _I think we are toast."_ Sunny muttered.

"Battle! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer, tear down Oracle Sister of Impregnability – Stora!" Evan's Fusion Monster threw its axes into the air and then grabbed them with two chains before swinging them toward Sora.

"I activate Kuriborn's effect! When a monster declares its attack I can equip this card from my hand to one monster and make it change its battle position!" The blue fluff ball appeared on the field and jumped on Phantomus, forcing the huge monster to kneel down and pull its axes in front of its body. "Furthermore, a monster equipped with Kuriborn cannot change its battle position, nor be destroyed by battle or card effects."

"Tch, then I will activate my Quick-Play Spell – _Twin Twisters_! I discard a card from my hand to target two Spell or Trap cards on your field and destroy them!" Two whirlwinds flew out of Evan's card and toward my field. "The cards I choose to destroy areOracle Sister - Soul Exchange and _Natural Harmony of Oracle Sisters_!"

My two cards shattered, leaving me with only my monsters and Pendulum Scales. At least Sina still had her boost from the equip spell.

"I'm going to set a card and end my turn!" Evan finished, laying his last card.

This was a bad situation for me right now. Even though his Berserk Phantomus was forced into defense position, due to Kuriborn's effect, I wouldn't be able to destroy him and with Retro-FracturedAndroid, he would be able to copy the effect of any Spell or Trap card in our Graveyards, including his own Magic Cylinder.

I had to bet it all on my next draw. If I didn't draw the right card on my next turn, it could be my last one.

" _You are not alone in this fight, original."_ Hema appeared in front of me. _"We are all fighting beside you, even if we aren't the ones dueling."_

" _Your desire to win is ours as well!"_ Yuki smiled at me. _"Take our combined strength and unlock the path,"_

" _Toward your brother's true heart!"_ Sunny exclaimed.

"You three," I smiled as well. They were so silly and their words were so melodramatic, but I could feel the strength of our bonds materializing in my hand. "This is going to be the last turn, brother! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Elizabeth] LP: 500, Hand: 1** **』**

I looked at the card that I drew and immediately realized what I had to do. "Hope answered my wishes! When there are two or more Spellcaster-Type monsters on my field, I can Special Summon _Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia (Lv.1, ATK: 200)_ from my hand." The little beast landed on my field and closed its wings. "Next, I activate Tunia's effect! By targeting a Spellcaster-type monster on my field, I can make the Level of all my monsters the same as it! I target, of course, the Level Six, Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer!"

 **Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz, Lv.3** → **Lv.6**

 **Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia, Lv.1** → **Lv.6**

"Using the Level Six, Oracle Sister of Blacksmith – Aiz, Oracle Sister of Synergy – Tunia and Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer, I overlay!" All three of my monsters transformed into beams of light, one orange, one green, and one blue. The portal appeared in front of me and all three of them flew into it, causing the vortex to collapse and explode.

" _Brilliant deity of this trembling world, give a smile that breaks darkness and bring forth an unyielding hope! Xyz Summon! Rank 6! Grand performed crossing space and time! Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer (RANK: 6, ATK: 3000)!_ "

"So you finally summoned Eden!" My brother smirked and threw his arms to the side. "Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer versus Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer! Who's going to win?"

"I won't fight your monster." I shook my head and then gestured up to Sina. "I activate Sina's effect! If she was Xyz Summoned using materials with three different Attributes, I can detach all Xyz Materials from her to return all cards in our hands, on the field and in our Graveyards back into the deck, then give her three hundred attack points for each card that I returned with this effect! World Triple!"

"You what!?" My brother cried out.

Sina flew into the air absorbing all of her Xyz Materials into her heart, then she swung her staff and a clock formed behind, glowing like a star that erased everything else that was on the field. The clock arrows began to move backward and waves of colorful energy was unleashed from my monster's wand and flew around us, making circles or taking the form of a smiling face as if it was alive. At the same time the whole field started to change its appearance, becoming orange, then pink, and then blue and so on while the flow of time began to move backward.

 **Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer, ATK: 3000 +12 900** → **15 900**

"This shouldn't be legal." My brother muttered while staring at my monster. There was no way he could survive this attack.

"It's over." I clenched my fist. "Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer, attack my brother directly! _Triple Void Ray_!"

My monster swung her staff which began glowing as she leaned into the air and fired a homing laser toward my brother. I sighed and lowered my Duel Disk. It was over.

"If that's your best then you really are pathetic as a duelist, sis." W-what?

I looked up and my brother reached out with his right hand, grabbing the beam. What the heck? He grabbed the attack and just reflected it aside casually like it was nothing.

"But how!?" He had no cards on his field, hand or Graveyard! When Eden Sina attacked, she also negated all Action Cards, which meant that he had no outs!

"The card that I discarded with Twin Twister was this one." A hologram appeared in front of my brother to show the card. I couldn't believe it… "Necro Gardna has the quick effect to negate one attack by banishing itself from the Graveyard. And this effect could be activated at any moment during your turn, so I banished it the moment you summoned this monster."

"N-no way!" Hema looked pale like a ghost. Well, she was technically a ghost but you get what I mean. "He found a weakness in our strongest monster!"

" _More than that._ " Yuki clenched her fist. " _He knew that we were going to summon it. He was able to predict that the duel would reach this point!_ "

"During the end of this turn, Sina's attack returns to normal." I couldn't believe it. To be played for a fool like this…

 **Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer, ATK: 15 900 - 12 900** → **3000**

"It's my turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 8 [Evan] LP: 700, Hand: 1** **』**

"I activate the Spell: _Magical Pendulum Box_! This spell lets me draw two cards and if they are Pendulum monsters, I get to keep them, but if I draw anything else, it gets send to the Graveyard." I watched Evan as he drew two cards and showed them to me. "The card that I drew are ChronoDevil Timescale Champion and ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon! I set the Pendulum Scale using these two monsters!"

The two ChronoDevils raised into the crimson red columns on each side of my brother and a single demonic pendulum began to swing between them.

"First off, Timescale Champion lets me draw a card when another ChronoDevil card is activated in the Pendulum Zone." My brother looked at the card and grinned. "With everything prepared, I can now Pendulum Summon monsters whose Level is Five or Six! Swing, Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servant! From the Extra Deck, _Supreme Devil King, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_!"

The single fiend descended onto the field and crossed its arms with a bored expression on its face.

"When Chrono Phantomus is Pendulum Summoned, I can reduces the attack and defense of all your monsters by five hundred! _Chain of Degrading Souls_!" A black mist formed under my monster's legs and several chains flew out, wrapping around her arms and legs.

 **Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer, ATK: 3000 - 500** → **2500, DEF: 2500 – 500** → **2000**

"And for the finish, I will activate this Spell Card: _Pendulum Fusion_!" P-pendulum Fusion!? "With it, I can Fusion Summon using monsters from both my field and my Pendulum Zones! Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ChronoDevil Clocklord Dragon, fuse into the strongest of all slayers!"

" _Hollow soul of the demon king, take the sacrificed dragon master of spears and unveil your true power! The demon king with unrivaled hatred, shatter the chains and raise through calamity! Fusion Summon! Embodiment of my burning soul! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer (Lv.9, ATK: 2900)!_ "

"This…" I just fell on my knees. I didn't feel anything, just… despair. Why? He was always better than me! No matter how much I tried, no matter how much I trained and studied, I could never surpass him. Was there nothing that I could best my brother at?

"Attack! Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer get rid of Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer! Calamity Void Slash!" The monster threw its axes and then grabbed them with the chains before swinging them down onto my Sina, cutting her in three pieces.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 500 - 400** → **100** **』**

"Berserk Phantomus' effect now activates. Since he destroyed a monster by battle, I can return him to my Extra Deck face-up and Special Summon Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer in its place. Rage Reload!" The larger Phantomus disappeared from the field and the original one flew through a portal, activating its arm blades. "Attack her directly! _Double Void Slash_!"

With nothing on my side, I could only take the complete strength of Phantomus' attack. I only screamed in pain as the blades' strength launched me into the air and slammed my body against a tree. Pain was throbbing in my back and head. My body couldn't even more and I just collapsed on the grass below me.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 100 - 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

"You lack the strength to challenge me." I couldn't even look up at my brother when he said that. "All I'm doing right now is for you, but you can't understand it."

His voice, was slowly starting to get quitter. Was I slowly losing my consciousness? No, it wasn't that. With much trouble, I looked up and saw my brother's back. He was walking away. Leaving me.

No…

Please no.

You and Avice are the only thing I got left in this world.

DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE!

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Yo! What are you doing?" Ventus asked.

"Kya!" Koharu screamed and threw her hand to slap the intruder, only for him to quickly duck and avoid the attack.

"That wasn't very nice." Ventus muttered. "You could have hit me."

"That was the point, stalker!" Koharu yelled at him. "Did you expect me to pat you on the head for showing out of nowhere?"

"Sorry, sorry." Ventus raised his hands defensively. "I didn't know that you are so easy to scare."

"Hmm, who said that you scared me?" Koharu crossed her arms.

' _Well, your scream and reaction kind of did._ ' Ventus thought, but choose that it was better not to say it out loud. "So, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you wait in hiding or something? Not be, you know, in the middle of the tournament."

"Don't worry about that, what you should…" Koharu suddenly stopped herself. Her eyes widened and fear became apparent in them. "Oh no."

Before Ventus could question her what she saw, the girl suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him with her behind a rock in the volcanic area.

"Hey! What's this abu-"

"Shhhh!" Koharu put a finger in front of her lips and then looked behind the rook. "They are here."

"They?" Ventus tilted his head. "Do you mean Academia?"

"Not just anyone from Academia." Koharu stuttered. Her fingers began to tremble a little while her eyes watched the group that was walking through the empty city. "The most dangerous of all, the ones that single handedly eliminated the most powerful Duelists in our Dimensions and their Numbers. They are the Armityle Purple Force."

* * *

T.M.Y.K. (Since the only two things that I could think about will be appearing in the next two chapters, there will be no new trivia this chapter, sorry.)

* * *

 **Avice: And back for more previews, are ya?**

 **Chapter** **38:** **Supreme Demon Awakens!**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale becomes more dangerous with a dangerous group known as the Obelisk Force starting to attack the other duelists. However, when Evan stumbles upon a few of them, suddenly a strong pain pierces his chest and a dark aura surrounds him, while Avice experiences some changes herself.

 **Chapter** **39:** **Copy of White**

 **Summary:** As the second day of the Battle Royale starts, the remaining duelists choose to separate and look for other survivors. While looking through the ice area, Yuya and Gongenzaka end up in a duel against Hikaru and a girl called Makioka respectively. Meanwhile, Avice and Elizabeth came across a girl that looks just like Avice herself.

 **Chapter** **40:** **Stages of Rebellion.**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale is at its end and most of the Obelisk Forces have been driven out, despite the heavy loses, the Standard Duelists keep pushing the enemy away. During that time, while Ventus is helping Koharu in searching for Fusion remnants, the two of them come across the strongest duelist that participated in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension – at the same time, Evan and Avice both begin a duel against Yuya's counterparts, Yuri and Yugo respectively.

 **Chapter 41:** **Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

* * *

 **A/N: So, I was going to end this with a joke about the ancient Greek philosopher** **Plato defining what's an asshole when Diogenes runs in dragging Evan, screaming "BEHOLD AN ASSHOLE!", but I found that joke too offensive for assholes of all kinds, so I choose to just give a basic summary of it.**

 **Avice : It might be out of character for me to say this, but Bro was really brutal against Sis. At least, he didn't turn her into a common rarity card. It's an improvement from last time.**

 **Last time?**

 **Avice : We... We don't talk about last time.**

 **I'm actually surprised by how fast this one came out. As I already warned you, it was pretty long (although not that big compared to my average chapter length). I wanted to add a few more duels in this one as I promised, but I choose to leave them out for next time.**

 **I have to say, I put a lot of my heart in the Evan vs Elizabeth duel. When it comes to these two dueling one another, I tend to have a track record of making the entire duel pretty underwhelming, so I wanted to make this one feel like a crash between titans with both of them throwing their strongest plays against one another. Hope you guys enjoyed it.**

 **Avice : The author ****also noticed that there wasn't a chant for Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph in chapter 35, when she debuts, but after getting beaten by yours truly, he fixed that gigantic mistake.**

 **Last thing for today that I want to say is... THERE IS NEW SUPPORT FOR AKI AND ANNA'S DECKS! SO WHOOHOOO!**

 **With that said, it's time we get over our lonely, but royal review!**

ScalchopWarrior **: To answer the question about why I choose Armityle Purple instead of Holactie... Well, I didn't think about it back then and I put Armityle because its card has a purple flame, just like how Slifer's Ra's and Obelisk's cards have a red, yellow and blue flame respectively. So, yeah. I'm just stupid.**

 **Well, thanks to everyone for reading. Hope you leave an review, as we always love having some reviews to read. Before we end though, I have to say that I didn't keep count on the amount of cards shuffled by** _Eden Sina the Xyz Sorcerer_ **. Although I was able to count 43 cards being shuffled, there's a chance that I missed a lot of them, so if you find a different result, I would like to hear it. Only keep in mind that Sina's effect doesn't shuffle banished cards.**

 **With this, we are done!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	38. Chapter 38

Supreme Demon Awakens!

"Who the heck is the Armityle Purple Force?" Ventus asked.

"Academia's most elite Duelists. Basically, they are the prodigies of the Fusion Dimension." Koharu explained. "I have only heard stories about them destroying entire cities in the matter of hours. There's no way that Academia would send its best units on a simple scouting operation, something more is going on."

"Then we should duel them!" Ventus exclaimed and clenched his fists. "We can't allow such a dangerous enemy to roam through Standard, it's our duty as Lancers to protect the world!"

"Shut it!" Koharu hissed and looked over the rock again.

There was only one duelist, a man dressed in a black knight armor with a helmet covered his face. They had the advantage in numbers, but she was still unsure about engaging against that 'knight'. She didn't know if it was just the fear, or her instincts as a duelist, but a voice inside her head was just screaming for her to run, to run as far away as her legs could carry her.

"It's too dangerous." Koharu shook her head and turned toward Ventus. "We should-" Just then she realized that she was alone. "Shit!"

Raising her head once again, she saw the ninja running toward the dark knight. With his movement almost too quick for a human eye to keep up with, Ventus activated his Duel Disk and leaped into the air, making a flip before bringing his Duel Disk down toward the unknown enemy. The knight, without raising his head, took a step back and let the ninja land in front of him.

"You got reflexes." Ventus commented and held out his Duel Disk in front of himself.

"An annoying this showed up." The knight puffed.

"I'm challenging you to a duel!" Ventus pointed at the duelist in front of him.

"Idiot!" Koharu yelled and ran over, activating her own Duel Disk in the process. The knight looked over both of them and their Duel Disks. The more familiar shape of Koharu's reminded him of the model used by the Xyz Dimension, not a very pretty design, but he had to admit that they were very sturdy against damage.

"I don't have time for that." The knight crossed his arms and turned his back to them. "But there's something we needed to test out, so I'll let my bodyguard take care of you two."

"Don't just turn your back to me!" Ventus snapped and reached to grab the knight's shoulder.

"Don't touch the Supreme King!" A voice yelled and Ventus momentarily jumped backward a yellow laser hit the ground where he stood a moment ago, carving a hole into it. Koharu looked toward the direction from where the attack came and an Obelisk Blue duelist jumped down, landing between them and the knight in black armor.

"I'll go now." The Supreme King told his soldier. "Take care of these… rogues."

"Yes sir!" The Obelisk Blue nodded and raised his Duel Disk.

The Supreme King then walked away, leaving the three Duelists on their own. Ventus clenched his fists in anger while Koharu sighed in relief that the Armityle Purple duelist choose to ignore them. Of course, there were still other problems in front of them.

"That's not right." Koharu muttered. "The Obelisk force always works in teams, so why is this one on his own?"

"I was sent here for a field test." The Obelisk Blue explained and raised his Duel Disk, tapping the top of it. "Now, if I beat you, The Supreme King will definitely recommend me to become a part of the Special Force. So don't waste my time, ok?"

"I was hoping to get a duel against that other guy, but it can't be helped." Ventus muttered and raised his Duel Disk. "I'll duel beside you, Koharu."

"I never asked you to duel alongside me." Koharu muttered, then shook her head. "Well, whatever! Let's do this already!"

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Ventus LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Obelisk Force LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" The Obelisk Force exclaimed and took two cards from his hand. "Now behold the new power of Academia! Using the Scale One, _Metalfoes Silverd_ and the Scale Eight, _Metalfoes Steelen_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Two columns appeared behind the Obelisk Force member and the monsters raised into them. Metalfoes Silverd was a woman with pink hair, wearing a black and red outfit and riding a jet while carrying a gun in her right hand. Metalfoes Steelen on the other side was a blue haired male riding a motorbike while also carrying a burning sword in his right hand.

"Say what now!?" Ventus' eyes widened.

"Academia has learned how to use Pendulum Summoning?" Koharu muttered in thought.

"With this I can Pendulum Summon monster whose level is from two to seven!" the Obelisk laughed and threw his arm upward as a portal appeared in the sky. "Pendulum Summon! _Metalfoes Volflame (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)_ and _Metalfoes Goldriver (Lv.4, ATK: 1900)_." Two monsters fell from the sky with the first one being a bulky red tank, while the second one was a green haired man, driving a buggy with a burning axe in his right hand. "Then, I'm also going to Normal Summon _Raremetalfoes Bismugear (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_."

A man with purple hair, driving a unicycle appeared in between the other two monsters. It was definitely the weakest, but also the most colorful vehicle.

"Now I activate Steelen's Pendulum effect! Once per turn, I can destroy a card on my field to set a Metalfoes Spell or Trap directly from my deck! I destroy Bismugear and set _Metalfoes Fusion_ on my field." The small monster shattered into pieces and a facedown card appeared behind the zone where it stood a moment ago. "Then, I activate Silverd's Pendulum effect to destroy Steelen and set _Metalfoes Counter_ on my field."

"This way he won't be able to Pendulum Summon again next turn." Koharu commented. "It was a mistake."

"I don't think so." Ventus shook his head. "If you trust only what you see before you, then you will be easily be deceived."

"Your friend is right, my strategy still isn't done." The Obelisk force said. "I activate my set Metalfoes Fusion to fuse together the Volflame and Goldriver on my field!"

Both monster raised into the air and then flew into a green and orange vortex. The Obelisk Force duelist put his hands together in front of his face and began to chant for his new Fusion Monster.

" _Wolfram and Gold, melt to your foundations and chemically molt a new body of flames! Fusion Summon! The alchemist to which no knowledge is hidden! Fullmetalfoes Alkahest (Lv.1, DEF: 0)!_ "

A monster wearing black and red robes appeared on the field. Its face and head were covered by a mask and a magician hat made of a multicolored element that also covered its shoulders and chest. The Fusion stretched its arm to the side and a large staff with a glowing red orb on top of it appeared.

"You traded your powerful monsters for this?" Koharu tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Do you even know how to play with this deck?"

"Shut up!" the Obelisk Force duelist snapped. "During the end of my turn, the effect ofRaremetalfoes Bismugear will activate and allow me to add another Metalfoes monster from my deck to the hand. I add another Metalfoes Volflame and end my turn there!"

"It's my turn!" Koharu announced. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Koharu] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First off, I'm going to Normal Summon _**Golem of Wishes**_!" A huge, circular monster made out of light with two skinny legs and giant arms appeared in front of the Xyz Duelist and clenched its fists.

* * *

 **Golem of Wishes**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Rock/Effect**

 **ATK: 1500/DEF: 1800**

 **Effect: This first time each "Wishes" monster(s) you control would be destroyed by battle, it's not destroyed. Once per turn: You can increase the Level of all "Wishes" monsters you control by 1 until the end of this turn.**

* * *

"Next I activate the Spell Card: _Xyz Reception_! By targeting Golem of Wishes, this card will allow me to Special Summon one monster with the same level from my hand, but as a cost that new monster will lose all of its attack, defense, and effects! Come up, _Magician of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_!"

The magician appeared next to the other monster holding one of its hands into its pocket.

 **Magician of Wishes, ATK: 1500** → **0, DEF: 1000** → **0**

"I guess this means that you are going to Xyz Summon your Utopia now, right?" Ventus guessed.

"Utopia?" Koharu raised an eyebrow to that name. "If you are talking about Hope, then I must disappoint because I got something better in store. I activate Golem of Wishes' effect to increase the level of all Wishes monsters I control by one!"

The Golem raised its arms and then slammed them into the ground, causing two stars to flew out of it and landed on top of both Golem's and Magician's heads.

 **Magician of Wishes, Lv.4** → **5**

 **Golem of Wishes, Lv.4** → **5**

"Now I'm going to overlay my two Level Five monsters!" Both of Koharu's monsters turned into yellow beams and shot toward the sky, before falling back down, landing into the galactic portal that appeared on the ground.

" _The warrior mastered the art of the blade. Become the brilliant light in the horizon and lead us to a new tomorrow! Xyz Summon!_ _ **Swordsman of Wishes**_ _!_ "

Out of the portal flew a warrior whose outfit appeared to be a crossover between a cowboy and a samurai. He was wearing a samurai robe, which was blue in color but with a cowboy hat and boots. His arms were covered by heavy black gauntlets that had blades sticking out of them.

* * *

 **Swordsman of Wishes**

 **Rank: 5/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Warrior/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2200/DEF: 1800**

 **2 Level 5 monsters**

 **Effect: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to activate one of the following effects:**

 **Target 1 "Wishes" monster you control; it can make a second attack during each Battle Phase this turn.**

 **If this card battles this turn it gains 1000 ATK during the Damage Step only.**

* * *

"First, I'm going to resolve the effect of Magician of Wishes!" Koharu exclaimed and the spirit of her monster appeared beside Swordsman of Wishes. "When Magician of Wishes is used as Xyz Material, I can inflict five hundred damage to you!"

Magician's spirit flew into the gauntlets of Swordsman and the Xyz Monster pointed them at the Obelisk Force Duelist. The front of the gauntlets opened up to reveal guns and Swordsman fired them, causing the Fusion Duelist to scream as the bullets hit his body.

 **『** **Obelisk Force LP: 4000 – 500** → **3500** **』**

"Ha! First blood is ours!" Ventus exclaimed.

"Don't cheer yet." Koharu warned. "I now activate Swordsman of Wishes' effect! I can detach one of its Xyz Materials to gain a one of two effects, so I'm going to detach both of his Xyz Materials to give Swordsman both of his effects! First, Swordsman of Wishes is able to attack twice during this turn, and second, it gains one thousand attack points during damage calculation!"

"Once thousand? Then that means…" Ventus' eyes widened in realization. Koharu was going to reduce the Obelisk's Life Points to just 300 in a single turn!

"As if I would let that happen!" The Obelisk Force laughed. "I activate Fullmetalfoes Alkahest's effect! Once during the opponent's turn, I can target a monster the opponent controls and equip it to Alkahest!"

"W-what?!" Koharu gasped and looked back at her monster. Fullmetalfoes Alkahest pointed its staff toward the Xyz monster and it shinned, absorbing Swordsman of Wishes into itself.

"And when a monster is equipped to Fullmetalfoes Alkahest by this effect, my monster will gain the defense points of whichever monster it absorbed!" The Obelisk Force grinned as his monster's defense rose.

 **Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, DEF: 0** → **1800**

"Then I'm going to set one card and end my turn." Koharu muttered. "Turn end."

"It's my turn then!" Ventus exclaimed and drew a card.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Ventus] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First off, I'm going to activate the Spell Card: _**Heroic Tribute**_!" Ventus played a card whose artwork depicted Heroic Challenger – Spartan with broken shield and armor handling its spear over to Heroic Challenger - Double Lance. "This Spell lets me discard one Heroic monster from my hand to add another one with the same level from my deck! I discard Heroic Challenger - Double Lance to add Heroic Challenger - Night Watchman to my hand."

* * *

 **Heroic Tribute (Spell) Normal**

 **Discard 1 "Heroic" monster from your hand: Add 1 "Heroic" monster with the same Level but different original name from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"Next, since there are no monsters on my field I can Special Summon _Heroic Challenger - Assault Halberd (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_." A warrior in a white and blue armor carrying a spear with an axe blade on the side of the spear's blade jumped in front of Ventus and swung its weapon. "Next, I Normal Summon _Heroic Challenger - Night Watchman (Lv.4, ATK: 1200)_!"

A second monster covered in dark armor with a blue cloak appeared holding a machete and a lantern in its hands.

"Battle!" Ventus exclaimed. "I attack Fullmetalfoes Alkahest withHeroic Challenger - Night Watchman!" The monster swung its blade and then charged toward the Fusion.

"You think I would fall for that?" The Obelisk Force duelist laughed. "I activate Fullmetalfoes Alkahest's effect to equip Night Watchman to it!"

Alkahest raised its staff to block Night Watchman's sword and then the magical item began to glow and absorbed the warrior into itself.

 **Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, DEF: 1800** → **2100**

"So it could absorb more than one monster at a time?" Ventus narrowed his eyes and took a card from his hand. "I set one card as well and end my turn there!"

"Then it's back to me!" The Obelisk Duelist laughed maliciously. "I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Obelisk Force] LP: 3500, Hand: 2** **』**

"Using the Scale Eight, Metalfoes Volflame I'm going to complete my Pendulum Scale!" The tank flew into the column and the number '8' appeared, glowing underneath the vehicle's body.

"Let's Pendulum Summon! Come out _Metalfoes Volflame (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)_ , _Metalfoes Steelen (Lv.3, DEF: 2100)_ and _Metalfoes Goldriver (Lv.4, ATK: 1900)_!" All three Metalfoes appeared next to one another on the field with Fullmetalfoes Alkahest leading the rest. "Next, I'm going to activate Metalfoes Fusion's effect in my Graveyard to shuffle it back into my deck and draw one more card!"

The Obelisk Duelist looked at the card that he got and his grin widened. "I activate Volflame's Pendulum Effect to destroyMetalfoes Steelen and set Metalfoes Fusion back onto my field!" The small Metalfoes monster shattered and a card appeared in front of the Fusion user. "Next, I activate my Trap, Metalfoes Counter! Since a card was just destroyed by a card effect, I can Special Summon a new copy of _Raremetalfoes Bismugear (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ from my deck!"

"He's not going to go easy on us?" Ventus muttered to himself. "Thanks nice! I needed a challenge!"

"I activate Silverd's Pendulum effect to destroyRaremetalfoes Bismugear and set _Metalfoes Combination_ from my deck on the field!" The little effect monster shattered into fragments and a new card appeared face-down in its place. "Now I activate my set Metalfoes Fusion to fuse together Metalfoes Goldriver along with the Swordsman of Wishes and Heroic Challenger - Night Watchman!"

"W-what!?" Koharu cried out.

"He can use the absorbed monsters as Fusion Materials?" Ventus muttered curious.

Fullmetalfoes Alkahest raised its wand and the two monsters that it absorbed appeared on the field right before falling into a vortex alongside Metalfoes Goldriver.

 _Gold, melt the bones of your sacrifice to their foundations and chemically molt a new body of flames! Fusion Summon! The armor beast crushing everything standing in its way! Metalfoes Crimsonite (Lv.9, ATK: 3000)!_ "

A giant robot made of red metal jumped onto the field and let out a loud roar. Upon taking a closer look however, one could see that the Fusion was, in fact, Volflame's tank in a mecha form.

"Let's see who I'm going to finish off first." The Fusion duelist looked at his choices carefully before pointing at Koharu. "You were the one who inflict damage to me, so I'm going to finish you off first! Go, Metalfoes Crimsonite!"

The Metalfoes fusion clenched its fist and pulled it back. Its eyes glowed setting off a spark after which the huge beast threw its fist toward. Gritting her teeth in anger, Koharu reached for a card in her hand and slid it onto the Graveyard.

"I activate the effect of _**Gardna of Wishes**_ from my hand!" Koharu exclaimed and a portal opened in front of her. "By discarding this card I can Special Summon one Wishes monster from my Graveyard and make it the new target of your attack! Come out, _Swordsman of Wishes (RANK: 5, DEF: 1800)_!"

* * *

 **Gardna of Wishes**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 1500/DEF: 2000**

 **Effect: When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can discard this card to target 1 "Wishes" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target, and if you do, it becomes the new attack target, also, it cannot be destroyed by that battle.**

* * *

The Xyz Monster flew out of the portal and landed in front of Koharu, putting its swords in front of its own body, Swordsman of Wishes took the attack instead. Metalfoes Crimsonite's fist slammed against Swordsman of Wishes' blades, but the Xyz monster didn't gave up and pushed back, knocking Crimsonite.

"Why wasn't your monster destroyed?" The Fusion Duelist demanded.

"A monster summoned by Gardna of Wishes can't be destroyed in the battle it was called to protect me from." Koharu explained.

"How annoying." The Obelisk Force Duelist fumed. "But I'm going to deal with that in a moment. First, I'll destroy Heroic Challenger - Assault Halberd with Metalfoes Volflame!"

The Metalfoes' tank aimed all of its weapons at Assault Halberd and then fired several missiles and lasers all at once. The warrior swung its blade and cut through the first wave of rockets, only for the lasers to pierce right through it. Ventus put a hand in front of his body and the shockwave pushed him backward, knocking the ninja duelist down onto his knees.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 4000 – 600** → **3400** **』**

"And now, I'm going to activate a card from my hand! _Fullmetalfoes Fusion_ lets me fuse together the Metalfoes Volflame with the Metalfoes Steelen in my hand!" A vortex made from red and green flames appeared behind the Obelisk Force member and his two monsters flew into it.

" _Wolfram and Steel, melt to your foundations and chemically molt a new body of flames! Fusion Summon! The huntress dominating the smoke-filled skies! Metalfoes Mithrilium (Lv.6, ATK: 2600)!_ "

A woman wearing the black and red suit with a light grey armor over it flew through the field. The monster had metal wings attached to its back and was carrying two blasters. Its face was hidden by a mask and a red visor, but its purple hair was left visible.

"When Mithrilium is Fusion Summoned, I can return two Metalfoes cards from my Graveyard into the deck and then return one of your cards back to the hand." The Obelisk Force explained. "I choose to return Metalfoes Steelen and Fullmetalfoes Fusion into my deck and Swordsman of Wishes to your hand."

"Xyz monsters can only exist in the Extra Deck, so…" Koharu gritted her teeth and return the card into her Extra Deck. Now she was left completely exposed and her opponent still had one more attack to launch.

"Now, Metalfoes Mithrilium attack the Xyz scum directly!" The monster flew into the air and then dived, firing its weapon at Koharu. The shots hit home, knocking the Xyz Duelist on the ground.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 – 2600** → **1400** **』**

"Hey. Are you ok?" Ventus asked.

"I'm… fine." Koharu muttered and stood back up, winching as she moved. The girl raised her left hand and touched her right shoulder, feeling something wet…

"As if you are fine! You are bleeding!" Ventus pointed out.

"It's nothing." Koharu muttered and pointed forward. "At this moment I activate my Trap Card: _**Convert of Wishes**_! When I take battle damage this card lets me revive one LIGHT monster directly from my Graveyard, so come back, _Golem of Wishes (Lv.4, DEF: 1800)_!"

* * *

 **Convert of Wishes (Trap) Normal**

 **When you take battle damage: You can target 1 LIGHT monster in your Graveyard whose DEF is equal or less to the damage you took; Special Summon that target. If a LIGHT XYZ Monster would activate its effect by detaching a Xyz Material(s) you banish this card from your Graveyard instead detaching any Xyz Materials.**

* * *

The ground in front of Koharu shook as a large arm tear through and then the body of her rock monster raised as well. Golem of Wishes but its arms in front of itself and a blue aura surrounded it. Even if it wasn't a Xyz, it was the best defense that the girl had at the moment.

"Now I'm going to end my turn." The Obelisk Force exclaimed. "But before that, the effect of Raremetalfoes Bismugear is going to let me add Metalfoes Goldriver from my deck to the hand"

A card slide out of the Obelisk Force's Duel Disk and he showed it to his opponents before adding it to his hand. With the effects of both his Pendulum Scales and the fast recovery of Pendulum monsters when used as Fusion Materials, both Ventus and Koharu understood that they had to deal as much damage to his formation as possible or they might not have another turn to do so.

"It's my turn." Koharu announced. "I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Koharu] LP: 1400, Hand: 2** **』**

"That should do." Koharu commented. "I Normal Summon **Apprentice of Wishes**!"

A teenager girl with long red hair and crystal clear blue eyes appeared on Koharu's field holding a cellphone in her left hand. The monster was wearing a white magician outfit with light silver armor and a witch's hand on top of her head.

* * *

 **Apprentice of Wishes**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 800**

 **Effect: If this card is Summoned: You can target 1 other monster on the field; Reduce its Level by 1. A LIGHT Xyz Monster summoned using this card as Xyz Material gains this effect.**

 **When it is Xyz Summoned: You can target 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls; its ATK becomes 0, also negate its effects. Your opponent cannot activate the targeted monster's effects in response to this effect's activation.**

* * *

"And now I activate Apprentice of Wishes' effect to reduce Golem's Level by one!" The girl took a photo of Golem with her cellphone and then changed a few things before showing the result to the monster in question. The picture now showed Golem with three stars floating above it.

 **Golem of Wishes, Lv.4** → **3**

"Oh, are you going for a Rank Three now?" Ventus asked. "Although after your Rank Five didn't help, I'm not very helpful…"

"Don't be silly." Koharu glared at the ninja. "I activate Golem of Wishes' effect to increase the level of all Wishes monsters I control by one!" The Golem raised its arms again, and then slammed them into the ground, causing two stars to flew out of it and landed on top of both Golem's and Apprentice's heads.

 **Apprentice of Wishes, Lv.3** → **4**

 **Golem of Wishes, Lv.3** → **4**

"Now, I Xyz Summon using these two monsters as materials!" Golem and Apprentice both turned into beams of yellow light that flew into a galaxy portal that formed above Koharu's head.

" _Hope, the enigmatic force that unites us, come as the courageous protector of dreams! Xyz Summon! Heavenly warrior of light! Rank Four, King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

"So you brought out your ace?" The Obelisk member asked. "It doesn't matter a bit because thanks to Fullmetalfoes Alkahest it's going to become another Fusion folder!"

"I won't let you!" Koharu shouted and pointed at her monster. "I activate Apprentice's second effect! When she is used as Xyz Material for the summoning of a LIGHT Xyz Monster, I can target a monster you control and reduce its attack points to zero! I choose Fullmetalfoes Alkahest!"

"Huh?" The Obelisk Force tilted his head. "But Alkahest has exactly zero attack anyways, so I'm not going to lose anything from this!"

"In addition to the attack reduction, Apprentice's effect will also negate that monster's effects." Koharu continued. "And you can't chain Alkahest to that effect either, so it's going through!"

Hope raised both of its swords and then put them to form a cross in front of it and fired a lightning that stuck Alkahest, paralyzing the Fusion Monster. The Obelisk member clenched his fists tightly.

"Battle!" Koharu exclaimed. "Hope attack Alkahest! Raising Sun Blade!"

The Xyz monster spread its angelic wings and flew into the sky before swinging its swords down onto the Metalfoes monster, cutting it into pieces. Alkahest screamed out and its body burst to pieces.

"Now I'm going to set one card and end my turn!" Koharu finished and looked over to Ventus. "Your move ninja, make it count!"

"Yes, miss!" Ventus nodded enthusiastically and put two fingers on the top card of his deck. "I will go beyond plus ultra this turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Ventus] LP: 3400, Hand: 3** **』**

"Here it is!" Ventus exclaimed and slapped a card on his Duel Disk. "I Normal Summon _Heroic Challenger - Double Lance (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_ and activate its effect to revive the second copy of Heroic Challenger - Double Lance from my Graveyard!"

A warrior covered in white armor with two spears that had golden blades appeared in front of Ventus and threw its spears on the ground, opening a portal through which a second copy of that monster appeared next to the first. The two warriors grabbed each other's arm and had a handshake before each of them grabbed one of the spears.

"Next, I'm going to Xyz Summon using my two Double Lance as Xyz Materials!" Both monsters turned into orange light and flew into the portal.

" _Come forth, sheathed in light! Shining lord who slashes through the dark! Heroic Champion – Excalibur (RANK: 4, ATK: 2000)!_ "

The warrior covered in red armor descended on the field carrying a sword and landed beside Hope. Both monsters raised their blades and then crossed them in front of their duelists, a sight that meant they would go down before letting any harm come to the duelists they served under.

"Let's bring it to them, Excalibur!" Ventus exclaimed. "I activate Excalibur's effect to detach both of its Xyz Materials and double its attack until the end of next turn!" The monster raised its sword and absorbed both of its Xyz Materials into it.

 **Heroic Champion – Excalibur, ATK: 2000 * 2** → **4000**

"Cut through Metalfoes Crimsonite!" The Xyz Monster swung its sword and shot a large wave of light that sliced a vertical line through the middle of the Metalfoes Fusion, destroying it.

 **『** **Obelisk Force LP: 3500 – 1000** → **2500** **』**

"Hmm, if you aimed for his weaker monster we would have dealt more damage." Koharu pointed out. "His Crimsonite didn't have an effect anyways, so it wouldn't be too tough to beat."

"However his other Fusion has an effect to recycle cards when it's destroyed, so it would be more trouble for us next turn if I went for it instead." Ventus explained, surprising Koharu. "Heh, didn't expect that, did you? I'm a guy that thinks ahead after all. Anyway, I set a card and end my turn!"

"Hmm, I'm going to make you both pay for this!" The Obelisk member yelled. "Your destruction will start this turn! I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Obelisk Force] LP: 2500, Hand: 2** **』**

"First, I banish Metalfoes Counter from my Graveyard to add Raremetalfoes Bismugear from my Extra Deck to the hand and then I activate Metalfoes Fusion's effect to shuffle it into my deck and draw a new card!"

"Here it comes!" Ventus warned.

"Pendulum Summon!" The Obelisk Force duelist cried out. "Come out, _Metalfoes Volflame (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)_ , _Metalfoes Steelen (Lv.3, DEF: 2100)_ and _Metalfoes Goldriver (Lv.4, ATK: 1900)_!" The three Metalfoes raised once again surrounding their owner. "I Normal Summon _Raremetalfoes Bismugear (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_ and activate Silverd's Pendulum effect to destroy it in order to set Metalfoes Fusion back onto my field."

"Geez, if he keeps searching and recycling cards like this our decks will end before he gets to draw the twentieth card of his deck." Ventus grumped.

"I activate my Continuous Trap, _Metalfoes Combination_ and then I activate Metalfoes Fusion to fuse together Metalfoes Steelen and Metalfoes Goldriver!" The green and red whirlwind appeared once again and the two monsters fell into it.

" _Gold and Steel, melt to your foundations and chemically molt a new body of flames! Fusion Summon! The hunter demolishing everything in his sight! Metalfoes Orichalc (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)!_ "

A man wearing golden armor appeared on the field holding two flame axes into his hands. The monster had a large attachment on his back that appeared to serve as a jetpack. His face was covered by a mask and a red visor, leaving only his green hair exposed.

"At this moment the effect of my Continuous Trap - Metalfoes Combination activates! When a monster is Fusion Summoned, I can revive a Metalfoes with a lower level from my Graveyard! Return to me, _Fullmetalfoes Alkahest (Lv.1, DEF: 0)_!"

"After everything I went through to finish off this one, he brought it back in an instant." Koharu muttered.

"Next, I activate the Spell Card: _Monster Reborn_ to revive _Metalfoes Crimsonite (Lv.9, ATK: 3000)_!" A portal leading to the Graveyard appeared and Metalfoes Crimsonite walked through it with an angry groan. "And now to finish this lineup I activate _Metalfoes Volflame_ 's Pendulum effect to destroy Silverd and set a second Metalfoes Fusion on my field! Next I activate it to fuse together the Metalfoes Volflame on my field with Metalfoes Goldriver in my hand!"

" _Wolfram and Gold, melt to your foundations and chemically molt a new body of flames! Fusion Summon! I call upon the flame controlling swordsmaster! Metalfoes Adamante (Lv.5, ATK: 2500)!_ "

A warrior in a black and red suit wearing a silver set of armor with wings on its back and holding a set of burning swords in his arms landed next to the other fusions. Like all others, its face was hidden but its light blue hair was visible.

"And finally, a favorite of mine! I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Xyz N-Vain**_!" A card that showed Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King and Photon Strike Bounzer being tied down by chains, appeared on the field. "This card changes all Xyz Monsters currently on the field to Defense position and negates their effects! Also, while this card is face-up on the field the effects of all Xyz monsters are going to be negated!"

* * *

 **Xyz N-Vain (Spell) Continuous**

 **When this card activates, change all face-up Xyz Monsters to Defense Position. Xyz monsters on the field cannot activate their effects while this card is face-up on the field. During the Standby Phase of your turn, if there is no face-up Xyz Monster on the field, destroy this card.**

* * *

"What!?" Koharu gasped.

"A card specially designed to fight Xyz?" Ventus muttered.

"This is the end! I attack King of Dreams, Hope with Metalfoes Orichalc and when a Metalfoes battles a Defense Position monster while Orichalc is on my field, my Metalfoes are going to inflict double piercing damage!"

'I can't use Hope's effect to protect myself.' Koharu thought. "Then you leave me no choice! I activate my Trap Card, _**Final Wish**_! This halves battle damage than I take by battle, and lets me draw a card!"

* * *

 **Final Wish (Trap) Normal**

 **Activate this card when you would take battle damage: Halve that damage, then draw 1 card. If a Xyz Monster was destroyed by battle this turn, you can pay half your Life Points and banish this card from your Graveyard: For the rest of this turn, you take no more battle damage.**

* * *

A barrier formed around Hope, but Metalfoes Orichalc cut right through it and sliced the warrior in half, destroying it. The explosion that followed threw Koharu on the ground and she groaned in pain.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 1400 – 800** → **600** **』**

"I activate… Final Wish's… last effect." Koharu bit her lip. Her entire body was hurting like hell, she was beaten way too much, but she couldn't rest now. Not while there were soldiers of Academia running around. "I pay half my Life Points and banish Final Wish from my Graveyard, so for the rest of this turn I'm going to take no more damage."

 **『** **Koharu LP: 600/2** → **300** **』**

"So you will live this turn?" The Obelisk Force member sneered. "I will just destroy you next turn! For now, I'm going to finish off your partner! Go, Metalfoes Crimsonite!" The huge monster roared and send a punch flying toward Ventus.

"I discard _Heroic Challenger – Swordshield_ to activate its effect, making Excalibur indestructible by battle, as well as negating all battle damage I take for the rest of this turn" A knight appeared in front of Excalibur and blocked the incoming attack.

"Then, I'm going to do something else." The Fusion Duelist looked around and then grabbed an Action Card lying next to a rock. "I'm going to use the Action Spell - _**Castle Storm**_! When I fail to destroy a monster by battle, this will inflict the attack of my battling monster as damage to you!"

* * *

 **Castle Storm (Spell) Normal**

 **During the Battle Phase: If a monster you controls attacks, but fails to destroy the monster it battled, target that monster you control; You cannot declare another attack for the rest of this turn, also inflict damage to your opponent equal to that target's original ATK.**

* * *

"Academia students actually use Action Cards?" Ventus looked at Koharu who shrugged in response.

"Victory is victory no matter what kind of tactics one uses!" The Obelisk Force duelist exclaimed. "But that's, of course, the least of your worries right now as by Castle Storm's effect you are going to take three thousand effect damage!"

Metalfoes Crimsonite threw its arm forward and a green flame formed into it. The beast then fired it toward Ventus, hitting the ground in front of him, setting it on fire. The ninja jumped backward and made a flip in midair to try and get some space between himself and the flames, but suddenly the green fire exploded and send the duelist crashing against a wall.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 3400 – 3000** → **400** **』**

"Can you stand up?" Koharu asked her companion.

"Yes…" Ventus groaned. "But I'm happy that you care how I feel."

"Why would I?" Koharu asked him coldly. "This is a battlefield, if you don't fight with your all, only death's embrace will await you."

"Ok, that sent chills down my back." Ventus admitted.

"I think that's enough punishment for one day." The Obelisk Force member commented. "I end my turn here!"

"It's my turn then!" Koharu exclaimed and drew a card.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Koharu] LP: 300, Hand: 2** **』**

Koharu looked down at the card that she drew in thought. Even if she Xyz Summoned a monster its effects would be negated because of her opponent's Continuous Spell. With this card she could get rid of hit, however such a victory would come at the cost of making her monster basically useless for more than a turn. The Xyz Duelist glanced at Ventus for a moment. The next turn was going to be his anyways, but could she entrust all of her hope on him? What choice did she really have?

"I activate the Spell: _**Xyz Wishes**_!" Koharu exclaimed as she activated a card that showed yellow and white light shining down with a warrior cloaking themselves into the light itself. "I pay half of my Life Points to activate this card!"

 **『** **Koharu LP: 300/2** → **150** **』**

"And in return, I can target one LIGHT Xyz monster in my Graveyard and Xyz Summon it once again by using monsters in my Graveyard as materials! Spread your wings once again, _King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)_!"

* * *

 **Xyz Wishes (Spell) Normal**

 **Activate this card by paying half of your LP: Target 1 Xyz Monster in your Graveyard; Xyz Summon by using the appropriate Xyz Materials in your Graveyard. The monster summoned by this effect cannot be targeted by card effects until the end of next turn.**

* * *

The Xyz Monster flew through the sky and landed in front of Koharu with its wing spread out.

"So you brought that one back?" The Obelisk Force noted. "But without its effects it's just another trash monster!"

"There are no trash monsters!" Koharu yelled. "Battle! Hope attacks Alkahest! Raising Sun Blade!"

"Stupid! I activate Alkahest's effect to equip a monster to it! And who else would be a better target than your Hope!" The Fusion monster pointed its staff at the charging monster.

"You think so?" Koharu smirked. "A monster summoned through Xyz Wishes can't be targeted by card effects till the end of next turn!"

"Then I'm going to absorb Heroic Champion – Excalibur instead!" Alkahest quickly moved it staff to point at the other monster and the magical item began to glow, its power sucking in the warrior that desperately tried to pull back by stabbing his sword in the ground.

"I activate the Counter Trap: Xyz Reflect!" Ventus pointed at his left set card. "When my opponent targets a Xyz Monster I control with a card effect, this trap negates the effect and destroy that card. Then the opponent takes eight hundred points of damage!"

"What!?" The Obelisk Force duelist gasped and looked at his monster. Alkahest grabbed his chest in pain and cried out as red flames burst out of his body and exploded, knocking the Fusion Duelist on the ground.

 **『** **Obelisk Force LP: 2500 – 800** → **1700** **』**

Koharu looked at Ventus again and sighed. "Since my attack target was destroyed, I'm going to go to Main Phase Two and activate my second Spell Card! _**Xyz Cosmic Ray**_! By detaching all of Hope's Xyz Materials this card lets me destroy one Spell or Trap card on the field for each Xyz Material detached. Hope was two Xyz Materials, therefore I'm going to destroy Xyz N-Vain and Metalfoes Volflame!"

* * *

 **Xyz Cosmic Ray (Spell) Normal**

 **Detach all Xyz Materials from a Xyz Monster you control: Destroy 1 Spell/Trap card on the field for each Xyz Material detached by this effect.**

* * *

The two Xyz Materials flew into Hope's swords, making them glow. The Xyz monster then flew backward and swung its blades, sending waves of energy that cut through the Continuous Spell and the Pendulum Scale, destroying them both at once.

"Damn you…" The Fusion Duelist cursed. "But even if you do this, your Hope is now useless without its Xyz Materials, isn't it?"

"Hope's role is to bring hope into a fight." Koharu replied and turned toward Ventus. "This is all I was able to do. From here on, the rest is up to you. If you don't beat Academia this turn, it'll be over for us, do you understand that?"

"So it's finally time to reveal a bit of my power level?" Ventus smirked and put his hand on top of his deck. "Here it goes! The all deciding last draw! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 9 [Ventus] LP: 400, Hand: 1** **』**

"Perfect draw!" Ventus pumped his fist toward the sky. "I activate Excalibur's effect! By detaching two Xyz Materials, I can double its attack power until the end of this turn!"

"But your Excalibur doesn't have any Xyz Materials attached to it!" The Obelisk Force member laughed. "You can't activate the effect."

"Is that so?" Ventus asked. "Koharu, will you explain it to him?"

"When a LIGHT Xyz Monster would activate its effects by detaching Xyz Materials, I can banish Convert of Wishes from my Graveyard instead." Koharu's Trap Card shout out of the Graveyard and flew to Excalibur's sword, infusing with it. The blade began golden in color and the Xyz Monster swung it in front of itself.

 **Heroic Champion – Excalibur, ATK: 2000 * 2** → **4000**

"From my hand I activate the Spell Card: _Heroic Chance_ to double Excalibur's attack points once again!" Ventus raised his arm and the card that he held began to shine. A second sword appeared in the Xyz Monster's other arm and it pulled it forward, crossing the two blades together.

 **Heroic Champion – Excalibur, ATK: 4000 * 2** → **8000**

"E-Eight thousand attack!?" The Obelisk Force member gulped and ran off to find any other Action Cards.

"Battle!" Ventus ordered his monster. "Excalibur, slice through Metalfoes Crimsonite and bring us victory!"

"Action Spell activate!" The Obelisk Force duelist jumped on the side of a building and grabbed a card hanging from the window. "Evasion negates your attack!"

"Activate, Counter Trap! _**Heroic Charge**_!" Ventus' second set card flipped face-up showing Excalibur, Gandiva and Kusanagi all charging forward together. "This trap negates the activation of a Spell or Trap Card and banishes it! Then if I control a Heroic Xyz Monster when it resolves, the opponent cannot activate any other Spell or Trap Cards for the rest of this turn!"

* * *

 **Heroic Charge (Trap) Counter**

 **When an opponent's Spell/Trap Card is activated during the Battle Phase: Negate the activation, and if you do, banish that card, and if you do that while you control a "Heroic" Xyz Monster, until the end of this turn, your opponent cannot activate Spell/Trap Cards or their effects.**

* * *

"N-no way!" The Obelisk Force duelist looked on in horror.

Excalibur raised both of his swords and brought them down together, firing a beam of solid light that tore through the ground and slammed into Metalfoes Crimsonite. The Fusion Monster roared and tried to push the attack, but it then cried out and its body was completely vaporized, with the attack passing through and hitting the Obelisk duelist himself.

 **『** **Obelisk Force LP: 1700 – 5000** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Ventus & Koharu** **』**

"Heh, we do a nice team, don't we?" Ventus asked.

"You could have used Heroic Charge during his Battle Phase to negate the first Action Card." Koharu pointed out.

"I figured out that it would be more useful to save it for once you find a weak point in his strategy." Ventus stated matter-of-factly. "Since we are a team, I put my trust in you like how you put yours in mine for the last turn."

"Oh…" Koharu looked forward and chuckled. "Maybe I could try to get along with this team then."

"On, please." The two Lancers turned their attention toward the defeated Obelisk Force member who was desperately trying to remove his Duel Disk, which was glowing bright purple. "Please! Give me another chance! I won't fa-"

Before the Obelisk could finish, his Duel Disk released a blinding purple light that made Ventus and Koharu cover their eyes. After a few moments, the light died down and a single card was lying on the spot where the Academia duelist was standing a moment ago.

"What just happened?" Ventus asked.

"Academia has made Pendulum Cards, so they probably put an emergency measure in his Duel Disk to make sure that the deck won't be stolen if he gets beaten." Koharu sighed and walked over to the card, picking it up. "There's no mercy, not even for Academia's own soldiers."

"That's so cruel." Ventus shook his head.

"It's nothing new for Academia." Koharu commented. She put the card into one of her pockets that was filled with other such cards and then turned back to Ventus. "Let's keep going. There must be many other Academia soldiers around the city."

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

What was I supposed to do now? Yes, it was my fault for not holding back, but it was soo boring to hold back and give your opponent gets a fair chance to fight you. And now, there was an unconscious girl lying at my feet. She looked a lot like Yuzu, probably was one of these Dimensional counterparts that she talked about. Her Slifer Red uniform and hostility toward Xyz meant that she was definitely someone from Academia, which put me in a dilemma. Should I just let her lie here and freeze to death, or should I drag her to somewhere safer? Maybe I could also give her mouth to mouth if it's necessary. Hopefully she has some useful information or else all of this trouble would be for nothing.

"Ngh." Oh nevermind. She was regaining consciousness while I thought what to do with the body. "W-what happened?"

The girl rubbed her head and looked at the snow around herself. Apparently, she hasn't noticed me yet or else she would have almost definitely going to jump back up and start yelling. Which changed my problem to: How can I get out of here without alerting her of my presence?

"Where am I?" She asked and her eyes landed on me. Oh no, I knew what this look meant all too well. "You are the Xyz Remnant!"

"And you are the girl who just got her ass handed to her on a silver plate by a 'Xyz Remnant'." I retorted. "So congratulation, you won the award for 'Big Loser'."

"I-I couldn't have lost!" Come on, are going to go through the five stages of grief right now? "I want a rematch! There's no way for a mere Xyz Duelist like you to beat me!"

"My Duel history says otherwise." I turned my Duel Disk to show her all of my recent Duels and the one against here showed that I have won. "See? It's right here." I tapped the screen with my finger. "You can also look at your own Duel Disk, loser!"

"Duel me again!" The girl suddenly jumped forward and… "Oh, whoah!" She slipped onto the ice and fell toward me, pushed my body with her own. I haven't taken into account that she might try to physically assault me, so when she did this, I quickly lost balance and fell on the snow with the girl on top of me.

"Damn it!" I cursed, but I couldn't waste any time growling in pain. Instead, I grabbed my Duel Disk and slammed it into the side of her head so strong that her body went limp again.

Did I just knock her unconscious again?

"Hey, cat lover?" I shouted into her head. No reaction. "Hey! Get off me!" I began to push against her, but she still didn't react to anything I did. "This is going to be my whole day, isn't it?"

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

" _Where are we going, master?"_ Foxy asked while she walked beside me.

"I'm going to tell you when I have an idea." I replied. Why did this damn fox have to appear every time I was able to find myself a peaceful spot without anyone to trouble me?

After dealing with my stubborn sister, I left to look around the city for any Academia Duelists that could show up. There were none in the forest and I have already gone through a not small part of the ruins, but not a single suspicious guy came in sight. Just when were they going to show up? I knew that Reiji's plan couldn't be wrong because this was an anime after all. Who would put so much build up for an invasion of Standard, just to have not even a single Academia Duelist show up during the third round?

" _Hey, isn't this the Standard piece?"_ Foxy asked me.

"The Standard what?" What was she talking abo- My thoughts on that quickly ended once I looked toward where the damn fox was pointing. I saw Yuya dueling against three guys in blue uniforms. I couldn't tell from the distance, but, was the tomato surrounded by a dark aura?

"It seems that our tomato finally accepted his dark side, huh?" I smirked a little. He had Dark Rebellion out on his field again, did this meant that the dragon was what caused him to go brutal? Whatever the reason was, it didn't concern me. Still, for some reason I felt something stinging in my chest.

" _We aren't alone."_ Foxy warned me.

"It seems we found another participant." I turned toward the voice and saw three guys in blue uniforms with masks covering their heads. All of them had annoying smirks on their face.

"Do you know where we could find a Duelist named Serena?" The one with a yellow orb on his helmet asked me.

Instead of giving them an answer – which would be no – I just activated my Duel Disk. No point wasting any of my time trying to talk sense to these people. They were all just nameless and faceless grunts to beat over, so that's what I was going to do with them.

"Immediately jumping on the gun? You know what we're talking about, don't you?" The one with a green orb asked me and in an instant, all three of them activated their own Duel Disks. All of them were shaped like shields with sword-like energy blades, almost the same as,

"We'll beat any information that you may have right out of you." the Red one added.

"Duel!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Obelisk Force Green, Red, and Yellow LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" the green one stepped forward and took three cards from their hand. "I activate Polymerization to fuse together my two Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!"

Wait, wait, wait! These people are playing Ancient Gear, na no ne? Why do I feel that a certain Academia professor must be rolling in their grave right about now?

" _Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, flock together and become one with new power! Fusion Summon! Appear now! Level Five! Double Ancient Gear Hound Dog (Lv.5, ATK: 1400)!_ "

A large green robot dog with two heads jumped on the Obelisk Force's field and roared at me. Yep, now I'm sure that Crowler must be embarrassed seeing that his archetype was reduced to a bunch of robot dogs.

"I set a card and end my turn!" The green guy finished and took a step back. Good, now I can take my turn.

"My turn!" The red suddenly drew a card before I had the chance to object. Wait, what? It was supposed to me my turn, right?

 **『** **Turn 2 [Red] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"First I pay a thousand Life Points to activate the Spell Card: Instant Fusion!" The bastard didn't even bulge as the card sucked away 1000 of his Life Points.

 **『** **Red LP: 4000 – 1000** → **3000** **』**

"Now by Instant Fusion's effect, I Special Summon a Level Five or lower Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck! Come out, _Double Ancient Gear Hound Dog (Lv.5, ATK: 1400)_!" That monster again? So I was right that they were nothing more than faceless grunts. "Next I Normal Summon _Ancient Gear Hunting Hound (Lv.3, ATK: 1000)_ and use its effect to my Ancient Gear Hunting Hound together with Double Ancient Gear Hound Dog."

I get it now. So that was their strategy, not to win through skill, but through sheer number? What a disgusting way to duel.

" _Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, flock together and become one with new power! Fusion Summon! Appear now! Level Seven! Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound (Lv.7, ATK: 1800)!_ "

A blue dog with three heads jumped out this time and I clapped slowly. What else was I supposed to do, it looked almost the same as the last two damn dogs, only the amount of heads it had changed. Well, maybe the color as well…

"Next I activate _Ancient Gear Explosive_ to destroy Triple Bite Hound Dog and inflict half of its attack points as damage to you!" The dog exploded and shrapnel flew at me, hitting my shoulders and chest. I yelped and fell on my back, with a hand over my chest. If it wasn't for this new jacket, those things were going to get through my flesh like bullets!

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 900** → **3100** **』**

"Next, I activate the Spell: _Ancient Gear Double Imitation_ to revive both _Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound (Lv.7, ATK: 1800)_ and _Double Ancient Gear Hound Dog (Lv.5, ATK: 1400)_ from my Graveyard with their effects negated." The two Fusion Dogs appeared again and glared at me. "Now I activate the Spell Card: Polymerization to fuse my two hound dogs together!"

The two monsters flew into the whirlwind while I struggled to get back onto my feet. These bastards, how many Fusion Summons were they going to be doing in just one turn?

" _Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, flock together and become one with new power! Fusion Summon! Appear now! Level Nine! Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound (Lv.9, ATK: 2800)!_ "

This time a more reddish-brown hound landed on the field. Its design was much different than that of the other hunting hounds with a mouth attached to its chest and other such weird things placed all over it.

"When Ultimate Hunting Hound is summoned, it halves the Life Points of our opponent!" The beast looked down at me and fired blasts from all of its mouths at the same time.

"Aaarrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!" There was no defending against this attack. All I could do was hold my hands in front of my face as the blasts hit me and launched me back until I hit a column.

 **『** **Evan LP: 3100/2** → **1550** **』**

"Now battle!Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound attack him directly!" W-what?! The creature opened its mouth and fired several blasts at me once again. In a Battle Royale no one was allowed to attack on their first turn, so what was going on here?

"I activate Kurigear's effect from my hand!" I shouted and slid the card into my Duel Disk. "When my opponent declares a direct attack I can place this little guy in my Spell and Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell and deny you the ability to declare an attack for three turns!"

The little Kuriboh monster appeared before me and nodded before splitting apart to form several clock gears that blocked all of the blasts launched toward me. Afterward, those gears returned back to me and the little monster reformed itself with a happy expression on its face.

"Damn it!" Red cursed and looked toward his partners. "I end my turn!"

"My turn!" Ah right, the yellow one was going to steal my turn as well, wasn't he?

 **『** **Turn 3 [Yellow] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate Polymerization to fuse together the King of the Swamp, treating it as Ancient Gear Golem with two Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!" The three monsters flew into the vortex which was much larger than the previous ones.

" _Ancient Giant! Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits! Become one now and demonstrate your tremendous power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Level Ten! Ancient Gear Ultimate Golem (Lv.10, ATK: 4400)!_ "

The giant behemoth of a monster raised on the field with a loud sound that sounded almost like the war scream of an ancient warrior. I gulped and stepped back to get some distance between that monster and myself. Ok, now I might be a little screwed.

"And I activate the Spell Card: _**Fusion Blast**_! For every Fusion Monster on the field, I can inflict five hundred points of damage to you." All three of the Ancient Gear monsters that were on the field fired a beam toward me.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1550 - 1500** → **50** **』**

* * *

 **Fusion Blast (Spell) Normal**

 **Inflict 500 damage to your opponent for each face-up Fusion Monster on the field. You cannot enter your Battle Phase the turn you activated this card.**

* * *

I felt the full force of those attacks against my body with some even managing to tear through my unprotected shirt. The complete strength of the impact traveled through my body and I felt my nerves just giving up while the strange burning in my chest increased more and more with each passing second. My eyelids became heavy and there was a bit of blood dripping from my body, but I couldn't tell where exactly the wound was located. Everything felt so pointless, the world… it was so strange. My entire world was empty, with nothing but shadows wandering through the fading corners.

I tried to focus on the three bastards that I was dueling, but they weren't there. I… I couldn't see anything before me, around me. But, I felt a presence, someone was standing right in front of me. It had wings, burning crimson eyes and horns, a spreading image of the devil himself, yet I couldn't really see anything standing in front of me. He was before me, my soul, not before my eyes.

" _ **Are you angry at them for what they did, my old friend?"**_ What was this voice? No, there was no voice connected to these words, they simply existed inside my head.

" _ **They turned your kind into merciless monsters and used them to destroy cities like they did before! Fourteen years ago, twenty years ago, a hundred years ago! Break my chains and seem the Devil free!"**_

Break the chains? I felt the pain in my chest increase and put a hand over it. What was this? Why was I hurting this much? No, this wasn't pain, was it? Strength, power, all of these were surging into my body but I couldn't control any of them because none of them belonged to me.

" _ **Phantomus, Supreme Devils! Your pitch black darkness should cover the sky and bring despair to everyone's hearts! Your rightful owner is going to set you free right now!"**_

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!" I began to scream again and grabbed my chest. It hurt, it hurt so much! My body was feeling like it was being torn apart and my insides were being rearranged by something. Everything before my eyes turned black and the sound of my own screams became unreachable for my ears.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Kkkyyyyaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Serena's eyes suddenly widened as the loud screamed woke her up. The girl looked underneath herself and yelped before quickly moving away. Avice buried her arms into the snow, desperate to grab onto something and her body twisted while her screams increased in volume. Tears began to run down her cheeks and her slowly white hair began to slowly turn a light shade of blue. Forgetting everything about the duel and her own mission, Serena couldn't do anything but stare in both shock and horror as Avice's skin began to slowly fall off with a slowly white replacing it.

"Avice!"

Twisting her head to the side, Serena saw someone running toward me. She raised her hand ready to duel the intruder, but the girl didn't even glance toward her. Elizabeth kneeled down next to her fallen sibling and caught her in her arms, holding tightly even though Avice's body was violently shaking. Her green orbs rolled to the back of her head, leaving an empty white sclera which slowly began to turn blue as well.

"What the." Serena gulped. From the way that Elizabeth was holding her sister, the Academia warrior could see Avice's back and the snow white feathers that were forming through her clothes.

"Avice!" Elizabeth kept screaming her sister's name, but to no avid. Avice's body kept shaking violently and the strange anomalies that happened on her body only increased.

At the same time, Serena's bracelet began to suddenly glow, something that it hasn't done before. The girl looked down at it and then back to the two sisters in front of her. Until now dueling Xyz Duelists and proving her worth to the professor was her biggest worry, but now she was too scared, shocked and confused to remember any of it.

* * *

"W-what are you?!" Red screamed.

Very slowly, Evan's body began to stand back up on its own with a dark aura surrounding it. The ChronoDevil Duelist raised completely and clenched his fists. His skin had turned into a dark shade of grey with the red parts of his hair sticking upward. The dark aura flew over the boy and a black crown formed on his forehead. It expanded to the sides and then formed two large horns. Several shadowy gears formed behind him, spinning in harmony while the shadows that flew through them began to form bat-like wings. Four black blades stuck out of Evan's lower back and then began to expand downward, forming two tails made of dark metal.

" _ **You destroy."**_ Evan's crimson eyes slowly turned purple with the sclera turning a very dark shade of red. _**"You cause people to suffer, just like them. I'm going to destroy you all!"**_

Evan held out his right hand and all of the darkness began to focus into it. At the same time, both the Main Deck and Extra Deck began to leak the same dark presence, feeding the demonic aura, making it bigger, they strengthened its hold over Evan's body.

" _ **Pain, sadness, suffering, this darkness is our essence, the string that connected our fates into one. I call toward you, awake the ancient warriors that fought by my side!**_ _ **Dark Draw**_ _ **!"**_

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 50, Hand: 5** **』**

Evan glanced at the card that he drew and then took another one from his hand. "Using the Scale Seven, ChronoDevil Timescale Champion and the Scale One, _**Supreme Devil Alchemist – Elardr**_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

A skinny monster with grey skin raised in the Pendulum Scale. It was wearing a black and purple robe with a red sash wrapped around its waist and several chains coming out of its chest, wrapping tightly around its shoulders and upper arms. The monster's boots were large with several screws sticking out of them. It wore a brown leather glove on its left arm while the right had its flesh almost completely rotten away, leaving just the bones that here holding a large black staff that ended with a purple orb in the shape of the sun, that wasn't connected to the staff and had three golden rings rotate around it. Last, the creature raised its head, making visible the sews that covered the left side of its face and have sewed its eye, as well as half of its mouth, shut.

* * *

 **Supreme Devil Alchemist – Elardr**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: DARK/Type: Zombie/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 2**

 **ATK: 700/DEF: 700**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn: You can target two face-up DARK monsters on the field: Treat them as being the same level for the rest of this turn.**

 **Effect: You can target 1 face-up DARK monster you control: Special Summon this card from your hand, and if you do, this card's Level becomes the same as the Level of the targeted monster.**

* * *

"Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants!" Three beams fell from the sky and landed in front of Evan, transforming into his monsters. _"ChronoDevil Time Psycher (Lv.3, ATK: 300), ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ and the embodiment of my soul, _the Supreme Devil King – Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)!"_

Three beams shot down onto Evan's field and the ChronoDevils all landed in front of him with Phantomus in the middle. The same dark aura came out of their bodies and joined the one above Evan, connecting all four of them together.

"When Stream Supporter is Summoned, I can reduce its attack points to zero and Special Summon one Level Three or lower ChronoDevil directly from my deck." The ghoul hissed and lowered its arms.

 **ChronoDevil Stream Supporter, ATK: 1800** → **0**

"Join my side, _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, DEF: 2000)_." The giant wall monster made of rock raised from the ground and kneeled in front of Evan. "Then, Time Psycher's effect also resolves, letting me draw a card for each ChronoDevil on my field. Therefore, I draw three cards!"

"I got no idea what you are planning to do, but I'm going to activate my Continuous Trap right now! Fusion Trench!" The only set card on the Obelisk Force's side of the field turned face-up and formed a barrier around the three Duelists. "While this card is face-up on the field, non-Fusion monsters cannot declare an attack."

"Pointless trick!" Evan yelled and took two cards from his hand. "I activate Timeline Fusion to fuse together the ChronoDevil Stream Supporter on my field, with the Dark Resonator in my hand!"

A red and purple whirlwind formed behind Evan and his two monsters grabbed jumped into it. Lightning flew out and zapped the ground around the Duelist with two eyes opening inside the darkness.

" _Supporter of travelers from the abyss! Cross your future with the resonating demon of immunity to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight, ChronoDevil Grey Reaper (Lv.8, ATK: 1700)!_ "

"Then I will activate Double Hound Dog's effect!" Green exclaimed. "Once per turn, if you summon a monster I can put a Gear Counter on it. Then, if an Ancient Gear monster battles the monster with a Gear Counter, it will automatically be destroyed."

"So you try to lock away my Fusion Monsters?" Evan sighed in disappointment. "Silly things! I overlay the Level Three Time Psycher and Protector Golem!"

The two monsters turned into different shades of purple energy and swirled into the air before falling into the galactic portal underneath then. A column of purple light shot out of the portal and the new monster began to raise toward the land.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)!_ "

"Xyz as well?" Blue gasped.

"And now, for the last act." Evan gestured toward the column where Supreme Devil Alchemist – Elardr was located. "Once per turn, Elardr can change the Level of two monsters to match each other. I choose to make both Grey Reaper and Void Lancer into Level Eight monsters!"

Supreme Devil Alchemist – Elardr pointed its staff toward the two monsters and the rings rotating around the orb all stopped moving. Two clock arms then appeared within the orb and two shadowy clocks, with one clock arm, appeared over each of the monsters. Void Lancer's clock was pointing at 3, Grey Reaper's pointed at 8 and the clock in Elardr's staff pointed at both of those numbers. The Alchemist raised its staff and the clock arms began to spin rapidly with the shadows doing the same until all of them ended on the number 8.

 **ChronoDevil Void Lancer, RANK: 3** → **Lv.8**

"And now, for the last time!" Evan raised his hand toward the sky. "I overlay Grey Reaper and Void Lancer!"

"You're overlaying a Fusion with a Xyz monster?!" Green yelled.

Void Lancer and Grey Reaper turned into purple energies that flew into the air. Supreme Devil Alchemist – Elardr's staff returned to its normal functions again with the rings starting to rotate again and the creature pointed at the ground. A black vortex appeared in front of Evan's feet and a ring made of white particles flew out of it, with a yellow orb standing in the center. The purple energies flew into this new orb and the ring collapsed into itself, exploding in multiple colors.

" _Kin whose entity is mysterious as time itself. Past down your divine knowledge and become the bridge between two worlds! Xyz Summon!_ _ **Supreme Devil Mage – Evocus**_ _!_ "

A male human with dark skin appeared out of the explosion holding a magical staff, a shield with four black gems was attached in the center to protect the hand of its wielder, and two blades sticking out of the top for offensive purposes. The monster was wearing a black robe with heavy armor on his chest, metal gauntlets covering his arms and sandals made of black leather his feet. The monster's shoulders, elbows back and knees were covered by white fur while a large hood covered his neck. The magician had flaming blue hair and was wearing a viking-esque helmet with large, black horns.

* * *

 **Supreme Devil Mage – Evocus**

 **RANK: 8/Attribute: DARK/Type: Spellcaster/Xyz/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2700/DEF: 2600**

 **2 Level 8 DARK monsters, including 1 Xyz Monster and 1 Fusion Monster**

 **(This card is treated as a Level 8 monster while it's Fusion Summoned.)**

 **Xyz Effect: Once per turn: You can detach one Xyz Material from this card: Negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent currently controls, and if you do, the ATK of all Special Summoned monsters whose effects were negated by this effect become 0. You can detach all Xyz Materials from this card: Fusion Summon this card to give it its Fusion Effect. You can only Xyz Summon "Supreme Devil Mage – Evocus" once per turn.**

 **Fusion Effect: Once per turn: You can destroy all cards your opponent controls with negated effects, and if you do, inflict damage equal to the original ATK of the monster(s) your opponent controls that were destroyed by this effect. You can target 1 Level 8 DARK Fusion Monster and 1 DARK Xyz Monster in your Graveyard: Xyz Summon this card to give it its Xyz Effect, and if you do, attach those targets to it. You can only Fusion Summon "Supreme Devil Mage – Evocus" once per turn.**

* * *

"A Fusion-Xyz hybrid?" Red looked at his comrades. "Does such a monster exist?"

"It shouldn't!" Yellow shouted, equally confused.

"But it does! And my old friend holds the best of two worlds in himself!" Evan exclaimed and threw his fist forward. "Once per turn, Evocus can detach one of its Xyz Materials to negate the effects of all face-up cards you control! _**Quantum Force – Negative**_!"

Evocus raised his staff and one of the Xyz Materials flew into it. The gears began to move and then exploded with negative energy that drained away the color of the world, leaving behind only the empty shells of the monsters affected by it. The sparks inside the Ancient Gear monsters' eyes faded away completely.

"When Quantum Force is applied, all of the monsters affected by it have their attack points reduced to zero." Evan explained.

 **Double Ancient Gear Hound Dog, ATK: 1400** → **0**

 **Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, ATK: 2800** → **0**

 **Ancient Gear Ultimate Golem, ATK: 4400** → **0**

"And now for Evocus' second effect! Once per turn, he can change his own origins. I detach the last Xyz Material from Evocus to turn him into a Fusion Monster and give him his fusion effect! _**Timeline Replace**_!" The magician raised his staff and the shield began to rotate with the gems attached to it changing their colors from black to purple. A wave of energy floated throughout the spellcaster's body, turning his robe purple and the white fur becoming ashed grey.

"A monster that can freely change between being a Fusion and a Xyz…" All three Obelisk Force members looked at Evan. "Is this Standard's strength, or?"

"I activate Evocus' fusion effect!" Evan declared. "Once per turn, I can destroy all cards on the opponent's field whose effects are negated and inflict damage equal to the original attack points of their controller! _**Quantum Force – Positive**_!"

Evocus raised his staff once again and absorbed all negative energy into it. A ring of energy appeared around the staff and Evocus aimed it at the Ancient Gera monsters before unleashing a blast of darkness that turned the monsters into dust. All the Obelisk Duelist screamed as the darkness engulfed them along with their monsters and threw all of them into walls, columns, and whatever was near enough to 'save' their lives.

 **『** **Green LP: 4000 – 1400** → **2600** **』**

 **『** **Red LP: 3000 – 2800** → **200** **』**

 **『** **Yellow LP: 4000 – 4400** → **0** **』**

"And now for the finish!" The darkness looming over Evan gained two crimson eyes and its ends swirled upward to create claws, allowing it to miming the Duelist's actions. "Supreme Devil Emperor Mage – Evocus, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, end this duel!"

The two monsters' eyes glowed and then flew forward. Evocus raised his staff and fired several beams of dark energy that hit the Green one, carving a hole in his shoulder. Phantomus activated its arm blades and flew over to Red, slashing through the duelist's body with both blades at once. Screams echoed through the ruins for a moment, and silence returned. Spilled blood covered the ground and the wounded bodies.

 **『** **Green LP: 2600 – 2700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Red LP: 200 – 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

"D-damn it!" Yellow cursed, before erupting into violent coughing.

"It's not over yet." Evan walked over to the trio. His purple eyes that stared down at the Obelisk Force were cold, unsympathetic, just like the eyes of a predator that has cornered its preys. Without another word, the duelist raised his left hand and pointed his Duel Disk at them. Begging and screaming was heard, but one flash of purple light later, it all died in the wind.

Evan looked over the cards of the three Obelisk Force Duelists. There was something he hated about heroes in media, although they could easily beat the grunts, none of them dared to finish the job, which gives those weaklings the chance to escape and just come back again and again, creating an infinity loop of the hero defeating the villains. He had no way to be sure that carding someone was a permanent solution of the problem either, so, he had to make sure. Putting the cards together, Evan tore them all in half and threw the remains into the wind.

"Problem solved."

Evan looked over to how Yuya's duel was going. He saw a bulky black dragon with dichromatic eyes slashing through the Obelisk Force duelists, sending their limp bodies flying like paper caught by the wind. But, this wasn't going to be fun for long. Evan's purple eyes caught a glimpse of two other duelists that were running toward Yuya. One was a bulky man who wore the same jacket as the entertainer and the other one was a little girl. Evan frowned, those were his friends, they were going to try and bring Yuya back to his senses, but he couldn't have that, at least not yet. Letting this 'berserk' form of the entertainer run rampage for a bit longer might help him to better understand its motives.

He took a step. And another. Evan began to run toward the two before they could interfere. They were far, maybe too far for a human to reach them in time, but he had an advantage that others didn't. The shadowy wings on his back suddenly bust like flames and gave him a push, allowing the half-demon to jump onto a column that was standing three feet above his head and from then leap onto the bridge, after which he drove toward the duelists standing underneath him.

"Greyson!?" Gongenzaka said surprised to see the boy. This Battle Royale was for the Junior Youth only, so why was a Senior there? But, he could tell that Evan wasn't acting completely like himself either, there was a dark force around his body just like with Yuya.

"I can sense a dark presence." Mieru raised her crystal apple to look through it. "I…I see…" Mieru gulped and her hands began to tremble. "I see multiple souls staring back at me!"

"Multiple souls?" Gongenzaka asked.

"Yes. I see five, no, ten, there are too much for me to count." Mieru told him.

"Don't waste your fortune telling tricks on me." Evan chuckled and threw his arms to the side. "I'm an enigma! You can't read through me or my intentions!"

"I don't know what's going on here, but you must let us go!" Gongenzaka stepped forward. "You isn't controlling himself and if he tries to duel Kurosaki in this state he would get hurt badly!"

"Kurosaki?" Evan tilted his head to the side and then grinned as wide as his lips could make it. "I see now… So Yuto didn't completely disappear after all, did he? But today, I'm going to be your opponent!"

"So there's no talking you down, is there?" Gongenzaka closed his eyes for a moment before raising his Duel Disk. "Fine, I will be your opponent!"

"Great!" Evan clapped his hands in excitement. "Let's have an entertaining duel, no? Oh, also could you make me a favor?" The wide grin disappeared from Evan's face and a much more serious and cold expression replaced it, matching his icy eyes. "I would like if you try to not break too quickly, 'kay?"

Gongenzaka didn't respond to this threat and just activated his Duel Disk. Evan did the same, a red blade in the shape of a crystal appearing before him.

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Gongenzaka LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" Gongenzaka declared. "I Normal Summon _Superheavy Samurai Kabuto (Lv.4, ATK: 1000)_ and end my turn!"

A large robot covered in brown armor appeared on the field wielding a hammer. Although it looked like a tough monster, its actual attack points made Evan chuckle a little.

"That's it? No set cards or anything?" Evan shook his head. "I guess beggars can't be choosers, can they? I will be sure to make quick work of you! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

Evan glanced at the card that he drew before putting it with the others ones in his hand. "I drew a good card, but it's still too early for me to use it. Instead, I will do this. With the Scale Seven, ChronoDevil Timescale Champion and the Scale One, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, I set the Pendulum Scale!"

The crimson scales raised behind Evan with his monsters floating inside of them. Foxy looked down at her master and smirked noticing how the size of the dark aura kept increasing the longer he dueled. The Numbers '7' and '1' appeared as purple lights below the ChronoDevils and the demonic pendulum began to swing between them.

"First off, Timescale Champion's effect lets me draw one more card." Evan explained adding another card to his hand. "Then, with my current scales I can Pendulum Summon monsters whose Level is between two and six. So come out! _ChronoDevil Wild Timer Wolfy (Lv.3, ATK: 700)_ and _ChronoDevil Marauder (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_!"

Two beams fell on the field and Evan's most trustful companions landed on the field. Marauder stood on the left side while Wolfy grabbed onto Evan's right shoulder and winked.

"He can Pendulum Summon just like darling!?" Mieru gasped.

Gongenzaka ignored the girl and instead focused on the duel. "At this moment the effect of Superheavy Samurai Kabuto activates! When my opponent Special Summons a monster, I can change it to Defense Position and increase its Defense by five hundred points."

The machine's eyes glowed and it moved its hammer in front of its body, while a blue aura surrounded it to show that it was now in Defense mode.

 **Superheavy Samurai Kabuto, DEF: 2000 + 500** → **2500**

"Of course, I expected you to do that." Evan told him. "I have seen your previous duels and know that your monsters are defensive in nature, so by changing Kabuto's position, you did me more good than harm."

"What do you mean?" Gongenzaka asked. "None of your current monster is strong enough to get past Kabuto's defense."

"Wrong." Evan shook his finger. "Let's me show you just how capable my monsters are. Marauder, attack his Superheavy Samurai."

ChronoDevil Marauder leaped forward and swung its sword-arms toward Kabuto, while the machine raised its hammer to protect from the incoming attack.

"And now I activate Wolfy's effect!" Evan exclaimed and Wolfy swung her whip at Kabuto, grabbing its hammer. "When one of my DARK monsters declares an attack, I can switch the attack and defense of the opponent's monster!"

Wolfy pulled her whip, tearing the hammer right out of Kabuto's arms, allowing Marauder to cut the machine in half and destroy it.

 **Superheavy Samurai Kabuto, ATK: 1000** → **2500, DEF: 2500** → **1000**

"Argh!" Gongenzaka gritted his teeth in pain and looked down at his Duel Disk. "My Life Points are…"

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 4000 - 600** → **3400** **』**

"Furthermore, Marauder inflicts piercing battle damage when it battles a defense position monster and it can also attack twice per turn." Evan explained. "So let's go for the second attack."

The monster nodded and swung its blades toward Gongenzaka again. The Duelist instinctively raised his Duel Disk and blocked the blades with it, but the sheer strength was enough to push him back.

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 3400 - 1600** → **1800** **』**

"You lost a lot of Life Points!" Mieru warned him.

"I'm not done yet!" Evan smirked viciously. "Next, I'll let Wolfy have some fun as well by attacking you directly!"

"That won't happen!" Gongenzaka shouted and took a card from his hand. "When I take damage from a direct attack while having no Spell or Trap cards in my Graveyard, I'm able to Special Summon _Superheavy Samurai Prepped Defense (Lv.3, DEF: 2100)_ from my hand!"

A green robot appeared in front of Gongenzaka wielding a spear-like weapon with a blue aura surrounding its body.

"So you did have something after all, huh?" Evan chuckled and slid a card from his hand into the Duel Disk. "I'm setting one card and end my turn. Now, come and show me one of your stronger monsters, ok?"

"He will be a hard opponent to beat." Gongenzaka commented and turned toward Mieru. "Go ahead and try to slow down Yuya while I'm dueling!"

"What?" Mieru was taken aback, but nodded. "I will go save darling!"

Evan rolled his eyes. Watching the little girl running away made him wonder if she would be lucky enough to survive an encounter with Yuya while he's in his current state. It might be troublesome if Yuya tore her apart and then Reiji orders Evan to clear the remains.

"I don't know what happened to you, but I'm going to put an end to this madness!" Gongenzaka declared. "It's my turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Gongenzaka] LP: 1800, Hand: 4** **』**

"When my opponent controls two or more monsters, I can Special Summon _Superheavy Samurai Big Waraji (Lv.5, DEF: 1800)_ from my hand!" A yellow mechanical robot with four pointy legs and claws for arms appeared on Gongenzaka's field. "And then. I Normal Summon _Superheavy Samurai Drum (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_!"

Evan's eyes widened a little when the little black drum-shaped monster with two red rings at its ends appeared on Gongenzaka's field.

"Now, I tune my Level FiveSuperheavy Samurai Big Waraji and my Level Three Superheavy Samurai Prepped Defense to my Level One Superheavy Samurai Drum!" The little turned tuner into a single green ring that flew into the sky and the other two monsters jumped through it, turning into eight orbs of white light.

" _Unyielding as the mountains ranges. The soul that resides in the great rock! Now, become the towering fortress! Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level Nine, Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi (Lv.9, DEF: 2500)_!"

A huge white robot with four legs appeared on the field wielding a black staff in his arms. The monster's shoulders and tail burst in flames as it swung its weapon over its own head.

"Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi's defense increases by nine hundred for each Special Summoned monster on the opponent's field!" Gongenzaka exclaimed.

"That means…" Evan's widened. 900 times 2 meant an increase of 1800, which including its current attack points would be…

 **Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, DEF: 2500 + 1800** → **4300**

"When I Synchro Summon, I can Special Summon _Superheavy Samurai Soulclaw (Lv.2, DEF: 500)_ from my hand." A red metal claw appeared on the field and then flew over to Kyubi. "I equipSuperheavy Samurai Soulclaw to Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, increasing its attack and defense by five hundred!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, ATK: 1900 + 500** → **2400, DEF: 4300 + 500** → **4800**

"And of course, your monster can probably attack while in Defense Position, right?" Evan raised an eyebrow. "You will choose the easy way out and attack Wolfy, aren't you?"

"Unfortunately, Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi must first attack the monster with the highest attack, so I won't be able to end it this turn." Gongenzaka admitted. "Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi attack ChronoDevil Marauder."

The monster's staff began to charge with electricity and it fired a laser that stuck Evan's monster, enveloping it in an explosion. Evan stepped out of the cloud of smoke and ran a hand through his hair before smiling.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 - 1600** → **2400** **』**

"The damage was halved." Gongenzaka noticed. "But how?"

"Well, since that was going to be a lot of damage I activated Foxy's Pendulum Effect." Evan gestured toward the monster in the Pendulum Zone and she bowed. "Once per turn, Foxy can make a monster indestructible and halve all damage I take from battles involving it."

Marauder sliced through the smoke and landed next to Evan, kneeling down in front of his master, like a warrior begging for forgiveness.

"Ah, don't worry, Marauder." Evan put a hand on the warrior's shoulder. "I took this damage because I wanted to, it's not your fault that this happened."

"It seems that I don't have a choice but to end my turn." Gongenzaka closed his eyes and lowered his Duel Disk.

"Then it's going to be my turn." Evan stated. "Here I go, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 2400, Hand: 3** **』**

"This card…" Evan's eyes widened at the sight before him. He pulled it closer and traced his fingers over its front. "It seems that destiny has given its judgment." Evan's dark red sclera turned completely black and the card in his hand began to emit dark mist. "Destiny is telling me to bring despair to your miserable life! I activate the Spell Card: Pendulum Shift! With this Spell, I can change the Pendulum Scale of one card in my Pendulum Zones to anything between one and ten! I'm going to give ChronoDevil Timescale Champion the Pendulum Scale of Eight!"

 **ChronoDevil Timescale Champion, P.S: 7** → **8**

"With this, I can Pendulum Summon Level Seven monsters as well! Come out!" A black pendulum fell from the sky and crashed in front of Evan. "The dark origins of the dragon kings! _**Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon**_!"

A bipedal dragon broke through its pendulum cage and let out a roar that shook the ground. Its skin was pink with black scales made from rough metal covering most of it. Like normal Odd-Eyes, this one had a red circular gem on its chest encased in a silver cage. The monster's legs had a duller and robotic appearance to them, being square shaped with four spikes coming out of them. Its knees had two spikes coming out of them, a large dark purple pendulum sticked out of the right side of the monster's body while the left had two horns wrapped around each other like roots that encaged a blue and a yellow gem inside of them. Its tail was split into two around the middle, with each one having a blue mace covered in purple spikes on its end.

The beast's head was covered by a silver helmet with three spikes on the top and a black mask covered its face. Unlike the Odd-Eyes monster used by Yuya, this one had a more elongated face with two spikes coming out of the side of its face and a small metal spike on its chin. Its left eye was yellow while the right was orange.

* * *

 **Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: DARK/Type: Dragon/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 4**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 2100**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn: You can target 1 non-Pendulum monster your opponent controls; negate its effects, and if you do, its ATK and DEF return to their original values. If a face-up Pendulum Monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effects: You can Special Summon this card.**

 **Effect: When this card is Pendulum Summoned from the hand: Negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent currently controls. If this Pendulum Summoned card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can inflict damage equal to the DEF of the card(s) in your Pendulum Zone.**

* * *

"An Odd-Eyes monster!?" Gongenzaka gasped at the sight.

"When Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon is Pendulum Summoned from my hand its effect lets me negate the effects of all cards you currently control!" Evan laughed and leaned forward, his lips curving into a malicious smirk. "So now that huge wall of a monster you got there will become a simple irritating rock for me to kick aside! Spectral Roar!"

Several of the black scales that covered Odd-Eyes' neck split apart to show as purple energy began to build into its mouth. The dragon then opened its jaws and roared, unleashing sonic waves that caused all of Gongenzaka's cards to turn grey and lose their abilities.

 **Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, ATK: 2400** → **1900, DEF: 4300** → **2500**

"Now, let's battle!" Evan pointed toward Gongenzaka. "Odd-Eyes, turn his machine into scrap metal! _**Spiral Phantom Flare**_!"

The dragon threw its head back and charged a huge volt of energy before turning around, unleashing a black beam whose insides looked like a vortex. Gongenzaka knew what was about to happen next. When a DARK monster attacks, Wolfy will change the attack and defense values ofSuperheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, making it weaker than Odd-Eyes.

"And now I activate Wolfy's effect! When one of my DARK monsters declares an attack, I can switch the attack and defense of the opponent's monster!" As he expected, the Beast-Warrior jumped and wrapped her whip around Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi's legs, before pulling and knocking the machine on the ground.

 **Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, ATK: 1900** → **2500, DEF: 2500** → **1900**

"I activate _Superheavy Samurai Soulfire Suit_ 's effect from my hand!" Gongenzaka countered, by discarding this card, I can target one Superheavy monster on my field and negate its destruction this turn. However, every time this effect is used, that monster will lose eight hundred Defense Points!

A black, orange and red armor appeared in front of Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi and took the attack instead, exploding. The shockwave however, hit the Synchro and tore off a part of its armor plating.

 **Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, DEF: 1900 – 800** → **1100**

"Tch, because Wolfy's effect ends when the battle's finished, your monster will regain a part of its defense values." Evan muttered in annoyance.

 **Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, DEF: 1100** → **1700**

"Heh, you really did well to survive this turn, I applaud you." Evan clapped. "But next turn, I will make sure to get you, so try to do something more interesting until then. During the end of this turn, my Pendulum Scales are going to return back to how they were at the beginning of the turn."

 **ChronoDevil Timescale Champion, P.S: 8** → **7**

"It's my turn." Gongenzaka announced. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Gongenzaka] LP: 1800, Hand: 1** **』**

"It came." Gongenzaka stated. "I activate the Spell Card: _Sekka's Light_!" Evan's eyes bulged hearing those words. "When there are no Spell or Trap Cards in my Graveyard, this card allows me to draw two cards, but I cannot activate Spell Cards with a different name for the rest of this duel!"

"Y-you actually run a Spell Card in this deck?" Evan asked. "B-but won't that defeat the entire point of your deck?"

"This is my way of growing as a Duelist." Gongenzaka stated taking two cards from his deck. "Next, with Sekka's Light's second effect I'm going to banish it from my Graveyard and shuffle one monster in my hand back into the deck to draw a new card."

Evan remained responding. So that was why Gongenzaka would risk playing such a card in his deck? A spell that required no other spell or traps to have been used in order to activate and with the ability to immediately banish itself was basically the best support card for his type of deck.

"When my opponent controls two or more monsters, I can Special Summon _Superheavy Samurai Scales (Lv.4, DEF: 1800)_ and through its effect, I'm going to revive _Superheavy Samurai Drum (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_!"

A green robot holding balance scales on its appeared on the field and then Drum flew out of one scale and landed in front of Gongenzaka.

"Now I tune my Level Four Superheavy Samurai Scales to my Level One Superheavy Samurai Drum!" The little Drum turned into a green right and Scales flew through it, exploding into a beam of brilliant light.

" _Swords made of steel. Heart burning for battle. On the battlefield of fallen heroes the name of a new hero will go down history! Synchro Summon! Level Five! Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi (Lv.5, DEF: 2300)!_ "

A machine covered in yellow and red armor flew out of the light and smashed the ground with its swords.

"When Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi is Synchro Summoned, I can add one Superheavy Samurai monster from my Graveyard to the hand. I chooseSuperheavy Samurai Scales and then through its effect, I will Special Summon _Superheavy Samurai Scales (Lv.4, DEF: 1800)_ once again and through its effect I'm going to Special Summon a Superheavy Samurai monster from my Graveyard. Come back, _Superheavy Samurai Kabuto (Lv.4, ATK: 1000)_!"

"Those again?" Evan sighed in disappointment. "What are you going to do with two Level Four monsers? Xyz Summon?"

"I Normal Summon _Superheavy Samurai Battleball (Lv.2, ATK: 100)_." A little fat monster covered in yellow and brown armor with two red eyes and a small spear in its right hand jumped on the field. "Now I tune my Level Four Superheavy Samurai Scales and Superheavy Samurai Kabuto to my Level Two Superheavy Samurai Battleball!"

The little monster's body began to glow and turned into two rings that surrounded the other two monsters, each of which turned into four stars that aligned together to form a line of eight stars.

" _Raging deity, in unison with the roar of a thousand blades, come forth in a spiraling sandstorm! Synchro Summon! Now come before us, Level Ten!_ _Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo (Lv.10, DEF: 3800)!_ "

"Finally!" Evan shouted in excitement. "You summoned your strongest monster! Now come! Attack me to your heart's contest!" A trail of darkness came out of Evan's eyes. "Of course, you are still going to lose no matter what you do."

"I, the man Gongenzaka, will free you from the madness taken root into your heart!" Gongenzaka declared. "Battle! I attack ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy with Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi!"

Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi's eyes glowed red and it's swung its swords at ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy. The monster instinctively covered its body with both arms, only to be cut in half.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2400 - 1600** → **800** **』**

"You didn't use Foxy's Pendulum Effect to negate the destruction?" Gongenzaka said, puzzled by Evan's action.

"That's what you wanted me to do, right?" Evan smirked. "You wanted me waste that effect on Wolfy so your Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo could finish me off, didn't you?"

Gongenzaka gritted his teeth. "Even so, if you use your Pendulum Effect now the damage will still be great than your Life Points. Battle! Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo attack ChronoDevil Marauder! _Kusanagi Sword Slash_!"

The huge machine groaned and raised its weapon before swinging it around to smash it against Marauder's side. The monster cried out in pain before exploding, with the smoke covering Evan's field. Gongenzaka lowered his Duel Disk and breathed out. The difference between Marauder's attack and Susanowo's defense was 2200. If Evan used Foxy's effect to halve damage that would have still been 1100 damage, which was more than Evan's Life Points. Therefore, the match was over.

"Oi, what are you relaxing about?" Odd-Eyes swung its tail, cutting through the smoke to reveal Evan with his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his face.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1000** **』**

"H-how?" Gongenzaka asked.

"How I survived the attack?" Evan tilted his head in confusion and then clicked his finger, causing a card to appear next to him. "Thanks to my trap of course!"

Gongenzaka gasped. It was the card that Evan has set at the start of the duel. Although Gongenzaka knew that it was there, he had chosen to ignore it because Evan didn't use it last turn, but apparently, he was waiting for when it was going to be most useful.

"The moment your monster attacked I used the effect of Enchanted Javelin to increase my Life Points by the attack power of your Susanowo." Evan explained. "And since Susanowo has twenty-four hundred attack and the damage I took was only twenty-two hundred, I got two hundred Extra Life Points. Well, is there anything else that you are going to do now? Your hand is at zero, but don't let that stop you. Oh way, because of that Spell Card you activated earlier, you are no longer able to use Action Cards either, are you? How bad, so sad. Then let's end this! MY TURN!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 1000, Hand: 2** **』**

"Another good card came to me!" Evan licked his lips. "I activate the Spell Card: Pendulum Fusion! With it, I can Fusion Summon using monsters in my Pendulum Zones as materials!"

Wild Tamer Foxy and Timescale Champion both flew out of their columns and fell into a vortex made from red and purple energy.

" _The demon with cunning charm! Cross your future with the burning champion of the millennium to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight, ChronoDevil Grey Reaper (Lv.8, ATK: 1700)!_ "

The Grim Reaper-like monster flew out of the black vortex and swung its scythe before landing next to Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon.

"Next I'm going to activate Amazing Pendulum to return two Pendulum Cards in my Extra Deck back into my hand!" Evan's Extra Deck opened and he took the cards he needed before showing them. "With the Scale One, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and the Scale Eight, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy, I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Two of Evan's most trusted monsters raised into the crimson Pendulum columns and bowed to their master. All the preparations were now complete. It was time for the last act!

"Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Marauder (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_ and _ChronoDevil Timescale Champion (Lv.5, ATK: 1900)_!"

The two warriors swung their weapons and stepped next to one another in front of Odd-Eyes and Grey Reaper. Dark aura erupted from all four of the monsters and flew toward Evan, causing his horns to grow even more and his tails to split into four.

"I activate Grey Reaper's effect." Evan gestured toward his Fusion Monster. "Once per turn, I can equip it to a monster I control and increase that monster's attack points by its own! I choose to equip it to Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon!"

The hooded demon put its scythe in front of itself and infused its essence with the weapon. Odd-Eyes then wrapped its tail around the staff and swung it around.

 **Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon, ATK: 2500 + 1700** → **4200**

"Next, I activate Timescale Champion's effect! I target one Pendulum monster on my field and give it the ability to attack for every Pendulum monster I control, but in return none of my other pendulum monsters can attack on the same turn. I choose Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon."

Timescale Champion turned around and tapped Odd-Eyes' forehead with its sword, giving it a golden aura that then split creating two yellow copies of the dragon.

"Odd-Eyes now can attack three times in a row." Gongenzaka realized.

"Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon! Destroy Superheavy Samurai Beast Kyubi, Superheavy Samurai Swordmaster Musashi and Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo!" Odd-Eyes roared and charged at the three Synchro monsters on Gongenzaka's field, slicing through all of them with the scythe given to it by Grey Reaper.

"Such strength." Gongenzaka clenched his fists.

"Now Grey Reaper's last effect activates!" Evan stated with a malicious smirk. "When the equipped monster destroys a monster by battle, I can unequip and Special Summon Grey Reaper on my field." Odd-Eyes threw the scythe in the air and the demonic monster reappeared to grab it.

"But Grey Reaper's attack points are just seventeen hundred." Gongenzaka pointed out. "Even if you attack me,"

"Do you think I'm such a clumsy duelist?" Evan raised an eyebrow. "While my Life Points are at one thousand or less, Grey Reaper gains that much attack points. Currently I got exactly one thousand, so my monster gets a huge bonus."

 **ChronoDevil Grey Reaper, ATK: 1700 + 1000** → **2700**

"Exactly one thousand…" Gongenzaka muttered in realization. "You anticipated all of this?"

"If course I did." Evan replied. "What kind of a duelist would I be otherwise? Well, let's end this. Grey Reaper, attack the opponent directly."

Grey Reaper obeyed and swung its scythe, creating a wave of purple energy which it then launched at Gongenzaka. The attack hit its targeted and send the duelist flying backward before he hit the ground with his back and groaned in pain.

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 1800 – 2700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

"You lose, so you pay the price~" Evan said in a sing-song voice and pointed his Duel Disk at Gongenzaka.

"Kuri, kuri!"

"Huh?" Evan stopped and turned to his left. Kurigear was waving at him with both of his palms. "What is it?"

"Kuri, kuri, kuri!"

Evan lowered his Duel Disk and looked down at Gongenzaka once more. "You are right, he's not our enemy yet. There's no point in killing him now."

"G-greyson?" Gongenzaka groaned and looked up at the duelist standing above him.

Slowly, the dark aura around Evan began to fade away completely, his skin returned to normal with the horns and tails disappearing as well. His sclera returned to its white color and his icy purple eyes became a warm crimson once more. Evan looked down at his hand and then reached out toward Gongenzaka.

"I'm fine now. Come on big buy."

Gongenzaka looked at Evan cautiously, but eventually accepted the hand and got pulled back up. "What made you come back to your senses?"

"The words of a friend." Evan replied while Kurigear's spirit rubbed itself against the back of his head. "Where was Yuya going again?"

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

Just what in the love of every deity out there just happened? It seemed that Avice's pain has stopped, but she barely looked like herself with this white skin and blue hair. Then there was also that girl, I remembered her from when me and Koharu tried hunted down Nightshroud. He was after her back then and Reiji said that she was important for his plans as well. I think her name was Serena. She has been staring at us for a while now and I'm unsure what to do.

"Y-you are that Xyz Remnant!" She suddenly shouted and pointed at me. "I remember, from that time in the parking, but you changed your hair and clothes!"

"I'm not a Xyz Remnant!" I raised my voice. "I'm a duelist of Standard that just happens to be using Xyz, as well as I so happen to know both Synchro and Fusion."

"You really think that I'm so stupid?" Just to add here, I was one inch away from asking if this was a rhetorical question.

"Maybe, maybe not." I shrugged and turned my eyes to Avice, who was lying in my lap. "But Reiji wanted us to protect you from Nightshroud, so if you don't believe that I'm not a Xyz Remnant, could you at least believe that I'm working with him?"

Serena seemed to narrow her eyes. She then looked down at Avice and back to me. She must be thinking about something, hopefully not about challenging me to a duel because I definitely wasn't in the mood to deal with another one of those after what happened with my brother just two hours ago. My back was still arching from that brutal slam against the tree.

"I don't need anyone to protect me!" So that's what she was thinking about?

"Umh." Avice muttered something and I looked down to her again. She opened her eyes and they were back to their green color with the hair and skin slowly starting to change to normal as well. Just what caused her to change like this?

"How about we make a deal?" I turned back to the Serena.

"I don't make deals with Xyz Remnant!" She clenched her fist.

"For the last time I-" Ok, I just can't take any more of this nonsense! "How about we do it like this? I'm going to tell you the name of the strongest Xyz Remnant that Reiji's working with and you will go bother them instead of us? Does that sound good enough for you?"

"And you think that I'll just trust you?" Wow, even my siblings aren't as stubborn as her.

"Will you think for a bit, Fusion?" Avice spoke up. "If we were Xyz Remnants, the people whose home was destroyed by your kind, would either of us have stopped ourselves from killing you the moment we beat you? Just the fact that you are here to annoy both of shows that we aren't Xyz, since we don't have any hatred toward you and the rest of your stupid dimension."

The girl remained silent this time around! She just began to stare at us dumbfound about the entire thing. Avice sat up in my lap and stretched out her arms before leaning back. Wait, was she going to use me as a chair? She even crossed her legs like when she sits on a chair! This is just… so usual that I'm not even going to get mad about it.

"I guess there's no helping it." My sister stood up and walked over to Serena, offering her a hand. "We will take you to someone that knows more about all of this than us. I'm sure that she could help you with the Xyz hunting and all that good stuff more than yelling at random bystanders. Are you coming?"

"And you expect me to believe that this isn't a desperate try to ambush me?" Can I just slap her across the face right now? My hand is just itching for it.

"You can believe that if you want. But since you want to hunt Xyz Remnants so badly, wouldn't that be more beneficial for you? To get all of us in one place instead of running around aimlessly?"

Really? Avice's not even trying to debunk her, but is instead telling her what would be the 'benefits' of getting ambushed. I would have just face palmed against a wall from how stupid all of this was, but the realization that such an action would hurt me more than either of them was the one thing that kept the last bit of remaining sanity inside my head.

"Very well then." Selena took my sister's hand. "I'm going to trust you for the moment."

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"So, you finally showed up, huh?" Hikaru crossed his arms. "Where are the others?"

The girl that was accompanying him just glanced at whoever he was talking to from the corner of her eyes. She had dark skin, short green hair and light blue eyes. The girl wore a simple outfit consisting of a greenish-blue shirt with black borders, and dark green pads on the elbows, black shorts, and green and blue boots.

"Marufuji is looking for opponents and Yuri's following the Professor's orders like always." Haou replied.

"Ah, I see." Hikaru nodded in understanding. "I was sent here on a recon mission, but it's starting to get a little boring, so isn't there anything fun to do?"

"I'm just following the orders I'm given, no more, no else." Haou replied. "But you could help me out in my own mission then."

"Ho? And what great mission was Haou sent for? To defeat an entire army of duelists or something?"

"Actually, it's quite the unusual mission." Haou replied and pulled a small needle out of nowhere. "I was sent to collect a blood sample from someone living in this dimension. According to Doctor Polk that would,"

"Increase the speed at which that second clone will be ready for function." Hikaru rolled his eyes. "I already heard that before, but I recall that he wanted us to test out the donors, see how good they actually are, so I might help you out with that. What will you say, Ritsuko?"

"First: Only call me Makioka. Second: As long as I get to go somewhere that's now covered in lava, you can count me in."

"Good and, um…" Hikaru paused for a moment and looked around. "Um, did you bring Evice with yourself or…?"

"You shall not worry about that one." Haou told him. "She's learning how to hunt."

* * *

"My turn!" Sora cried out, drawing a card. He looked it over and grinned before turning toward Kurosaki. "Hey, do you think you have won already? You're naïve! I activate Fluffal Mouse's effect! When I control this Attack Position monster, I can Special Summon two copies of Fluffal Mouse from my deck."

The little mouse's eyes began to glow a sinister red color and then its body split apart, creating two more copies of itself. All of them had 100 attack points.

"All right, let's do this! The fun has just begun!" Sora shouted and threw his arms forward. "I fuse Edge Imp Sabres and my three copies of Fluffal Mouse!"

The first monster turned into blue energy while the other three turned yellow and all of them merged together to create a vortex.

" _Demonic claws, sharp fangs! Become one in the mystic vortex and show us a new form and power! Fusion summon! Show yourself! Mystical jungle beast that rips everything to shreds! Frightfur Tiger (Lv.6, ATK: 1900)_!"

A large aqua blue Frigtfur monster with two scissors coming out of its belly flew through the vortex and landed on Sora's field with a quiet demonic laugh.

"Next, I activateFrightfur Tiger's effect!" Sora declared. "I can destroy one card my opponent controls for each Fusion Material used to summon this monster!"

"What?!" Kurosaki gasped. The Frightfur monster stretched out its scissors and cut through his Raid Raptor monsters, leaving only Raidraptor - Force Strix, whose ATK dropped from 2100 to just 100.

"Frightfur Tiger's attack points increase by three hundred for each Frightfur monster I control!" Sora pointed at his monster as its ATK increases to 2200. With Kurosaki controlling just the 100 ATK Force Strix and having only 2100 Life Points remaining, the outcome was obvious. "This is the end! Go, battle! Frightfur Tiger attack Force Strix! Send Kurosaki… This Xyz Remnant to his grave!"

The green tiger's eyes glowed red for a moment and it charged toward Force Strix, grabbing one of its wings and tearing it off. The Xyz's body manufactured and it exploded as a result with the smoke engulfing Kurosaki.

"Intrusion Penalty."

Sora's smirk suddenly dropped upon hearing those words. The smoke cleared and revealed Kurosaki standing there with his Life Points still at 2100. Both duelists looked at each for a moment and then they heard footsteps coming from behind Kurosaki.

"T-this can't be…" Sora muttered.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 – 2000** → **2000** **』**

"Sakaki?" Kurosaki asked. "What are you doing here?"

"By discarding Performapal Inflater Tapir I reduced the damage inflicted to a player to zero." Yuya said, ignoring the Xyz Duelist's question. "Now it's my turn, draw! I Normal Summon Performapal Whip Snake (Lv.4, ATK: 1700) and then, since I summoned a Performapal monster this turn, I Special Summon Performapal Secondonkey (Lv.4, ATK: 1000) from my hand!"

"What are you going on about, Yuya?" Sora put his hands on his hips and looked at the performer. "Are you going to fight me? Without your Pendulum Summoning you stand no chance against me."

"I overlay me two Level Four monsters!" Yuya announced and the galaxy portal opened above his head.

" _Formed from pitch-black darkness, to fight those foolish enough to oppose it with its treacherous fangs! Now, descend! Xyz Summon! Appear! Rank Four! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

"This monster-!" Sora gasped.

"Yuto…" Kurosaki clenched his fist in anger.

"Darling, don't!" Mieru cried out.

"Battle!" Yuya cried out and pointed toward Frightfur Tiger. "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon attack Frightfur Tiger! Lightning Disobey of Rebellion!" The dragon's chin glowed and it flew toward, stabbing the Fusion monster in the belly, destroying it.

"Aaaarrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!" Sora cried out and his body was knocked back, hitting his head against the ground, knocking him unconscious.

 **『** **Sora LP: 300 – 300** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Yuya & Kurosaki** **』**

"What are you doing?" Kurosaki demanded. "This is my duel! You shouldn't have gotten involved!"

"This isn't enough." Yuya muttered and turned back to Kurosaki. "Not enough… The crowd want's more… I must duel, more and mo-"

Yuya stopped once a rock hit him on the head. The Duelist lost balance and then fell on the ground causing Mieru to quickly run over to check how he was.

"Darling!"

"GREYSON!"

"What? You said that we had to stop him somehow and this was the quickest way."

Kurosaki looked down at the fallen entertainer and then narrowed his eyes and turned toward the entrance. Evan and Gongenzaka walked into the temple with the former holding a rock with the size of his fist. The Xyz Remnant and the Tracer's eyes met and both of them stopped on the spot where they were standing to look at each other. After a moment, Evan's lips curved into a smirk.

"So, did Sakaki Yuya just saved your ass, or was I seeing things?"

"Shut up." Kurosaki hissed at him.

"Keep it together big guy." Evan raised a hand defensively. "So, what are we going to do with Sora now that he's out of order? I vote we get rid of him entirely, or he might become a pain in the ass later one."

"For the first time I agree with you." Kurosaki nodded and raised his Duel Disk to card the Fusion user.

" _Don't even think of it."_ Reiji's voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere. Kurosaki and Evan both looked down at the screen on Kurosaki's Duel Disk and sure enough the screen showed a transmission from Reiji himself. _"Anyone we managed to defeat from Fusion would be far more useful as a prisoner than a card."_

"So, we just got to tie him up and leave him for your people to collect later?" Evan asked. "Or do you want us to give your Sora as a present personally? 'Cause if it's the later, I should probably go look for some nice ribbons. What color would you prefer? Also, do you want us to wrap Sora in ribbons with his clothes on or off?"

Kurosaki blinked a few times and then pointed toward the exit of the temple. "Wait there and don't say a word. Understood?"

"Nah, I'm better of as a lone wolf." Evan waved off the 'suggestion' and turned around to leave. "Actually, now that I think about it, doesn't then name Lowell means a lone wolf in English? Wouldn't it have made more sense for my parents to give me that name instead of using an anglicized form of the Welsh word for John?"

"Wait!" Gongenzaka called out. "Won't you help out to carry Yuya?"

"Sorry Rock, but I've got other things to take care of first." Evan waved. "Of course Kurosaki is free, so I'm sure that he will like to help you out."

"No, I won't!" Kurosaki shouted.

"Do I need to remind you how important Yuya's existence is for Reiji?"

Kurosaki rolled his eyes and turned his back to the boy.

"Ok, I will do it."

"See? That's a good Xyz boi~"

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"I know that we promised to get, um, Serene was the name, right?" I looked over to the Fusion user and she just nodded to the question. "Ok. We promised Serena to lead her to Yuzu, but where exactly are we going to find her?"

"There are several screens around the city that showed the ongoing matches." Eliz told me. "I saw her going to the volcano area while I was looking for you. It's most likely that she hasn't gotten too far away from that area yet."

"That's actually pretty smart thing to do, sis." I admitted.

"I thought that it was the obvious thing to do." She shot back. And just after I made her a compliment as well, how rude.

"So, did you have any plan to recognize Xyz Remnants, or did you just go in the flow and carded everyone that you saw using Xyz?" I turned back to Serena and asked her.

The girl didn't answer to me, but she hung her head. Wait, don't tell me… I hit right on the spot, didn't I?

"There she is!" Eli pointed at the distance.

Yes, I could see her. That pink hair was unmistakable, but there was someone else with her as well, I think I have seen them before. Ah, yes, it was Dennis! That was nice, at least we were going to be surrounded by a much more enjoyable company that the gullible fool I had to escort right now.

"Elizabeth, Avice!" Yuzu noticed us first and waved at us.

"And… your twin sister?" Dennis asked.

"You aren't completely wrong there." Eliz sighed and looked over me.

"It's a complicated story actually." I told me. "For, you see…"

And so I began to explain to everyone what happened. I told them about Serena, that she was from Academia and wanted to hunt down Xyz Duelists and all that good stuff. Of course I didn't tell them that this entire Battle Royale was made to combat the incoming army from Academia since that would change far too much. Reiji's plan was, after all, to select the best duelists for the Lancers, so telling Yuzu and Dennis what to get prepared for would kind of defeat the point of this tournament. And of course Yuzu was the most shocked out of everyone to hear what was going on.

"They told me that you know where I could find the remaining duelists from the Xyz Dimension." Serena turned toward Yuzu. "Give me their names."

"Do you even know what Academia did to the Xyz Dimension?" Yuzu asked. Oh no! Not another one of these sad stories about the peaceful utopia destroyed by the evil Academia! Yuzu, I warn you!

"The Xyz Dimension was a peaceful place, until that day came…" Please, just throw me off a rock right now…

"I really don't understand any of this." Dennis scratched the back of his head. "Dimensions and stuff like this, I came to the Miami Tournament to show my entertainment dueling, yet I got involved in stuff like this…"

"It makes your heat hurt, doesn't it?" I smirked a little. Even if Yuzu was going to get all melodramatic again, at least Dennis was there to keep me company.

"But you knew all of this, so are you from the Xyz Dimension as well or something?" I chuckled a little bit to Dennis' question. I barely had any Xyz Monsters yet everyone keeps confuse me for one of them, seriously…

"No, I'm not from another Dimension." I replied. "But I've been working with Akaba Reiji for a while and learned about all of this from him." Technically this was a lie, but… "He was the one who solved the mystery with the missing people if you have heard of it and also saved the Xyz Duelists. In fact, he has been preparing for a fight with Academia for a while now."

"Ah, I see." Dennis stroke his chin, almost like he was in thought. "So he really is as much of a smart guy as people are saying huh? But to think that he would also be the one to learn that there are other dimensions and about the conflicts in them, it's a little crazy I must say."

"I can second that." I nodded and looked at the sky. Damn, it was starting to get dark now, I should return to duty then. "Well, it's starting to get late now, so I must be going. Are you coming with me, sis?"

"Where are we going?" I pouted to her question.

"To find and kick some Academia ass of course!" I pumped my fist. "Or would you rather have these bastards running amok through the city all night?"

"You are going to fight my comrades?" Oh, Serena didn't seem very happy to hear that.

"You're the ones who invaded this world, so it can't he helped." I shrugged. "But don't worry, we won't hurt your friends, just make sure that they won't get near their objective. In other words, we're going to save your ass for free."

"I don't need anyone to protect me!" She protested, but I didn't quite catch what else she told me. I simply waved goodbye and moved on along with my sister.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

I have spent the last few hours going through the forest area, but no other Academia duelists showed up. The only people I found were a few of the participants in the tournament, but none of them were important for me. At best they could serve as bait for Academia, so I was going to let them be as loud as they pleased, but even then no one showed up. Did Academia go only after a few selected targets or something?

" _So, what are our plans now, master?"_ Foxy asked me.

"I'm just going to set a small camp and sleep for tonight. It's not very likely that Academia would keep scouting during the night as well, but if they show up, make sure to wake me up." I told her.

" _I've been thinking about something master."_ Foxy tapped her chin. _"Until now, we didn't saw any group that's made out of more than three duelists, so could they have dispatched only a small party and not the entire army of Academia to this Dimension?"_

"If they are at war with one dimension it would be disadvantageous to start a war with another dimension at the same time." War wasn't as simple as it looked from the side. Soldiers needed to be given supplies and treated when injured. Fighting on two fronts would mean that Academia will run out of resources twice as fast, so it made sense if they only send a small group on a special mission instead of an entire army.

" _Exactly! If it's just a scouting party Standard would have a harder time justifying going on an all-out war against the Fusion Dimension."_ Foxy did have a point there. The threat right now wasn't as big as to justify a war with another dimension. Reiji isn't a careless leader so he wouldn't want to combat aggression with more aggression unless he had a very good reason to do that.

"If we want to start an all-out war between Standard and Fusion then we'll have to justify it first." How did you justify a war against a side that hasn't harmed you? Of course! Through propaganda, through isolated incidents that make the enemy look like monsters!

"I don't know if master will like this suggestion, but why don't be help increase the casualties?" Foxy suggested to me.

This damn fox! She really was smarter than she let out. Yes, let's increase the casualties of this little fight. And I think that I just got an idea how to do it exactly. Sorry Reiji, but your desire to keep this world mostly out of the conflict will have to be ignored.

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K. (So, back in Chapter 20, when Evan first "Awakened" and summoned Berserk Phantomus, I said that explanation would come later, then in Chapter 29 I revealed the power's real name and here I'm going to put a bit of explanation behind Evan's "darkness".)**

 **True Darkness : One of the first two forces of nature that appeared when the universe was created. As time went by, True Darkness and True Light turned into the original, neutral celestial entities from which were later born several other sub-entities known to the human kind.**

 **As one of the first entities to ever exist, True Darkness represents half of the power that keeps the universe's balance. It's a force of nature that has both the power to make life to flourish, but also to corrupt and destroy it.**

 **The first time both humankind and the Duel Spirits came into direct contact with True Darkness happened around 3000 years when after a battle for the fate in the world caused a wormhole to appear in Ancient Egypt and a part of the celestial was transported to the human world.**

* * *

 **Avice: Four more till next arc!**

 **Chapter** **39:** **Copy of White**

 **Summary:** As the second day of the Battle Royale starts, the remaining duelists choose to separate and look for other survivors. While looking through the ice area, Yuya and Gongenzaka end up in a duel against Hikaru and a girl called Makioka respectively. Meanwhile, Avice and Elizabeth came across a girl that looks just like Avice herself.

 **Chapter** **40:** **Stages of Rebellion.**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale is at its end and most of the Obelisk Forces have been driven out, despite the heavy loses, the Standard Duelists keep pushing the enemy away. During that time, while Ventus is helping Koharu in searching for Fusion remnants, the two of them come across the strongest duelist that participated in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension – at the same time, Evan and Avice both begin a duel against Yuya's counterparts, Yuri and Yugo respectively.

 **Chapter 41:** **Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

* * *

 **A/N: And that's it. Welp, now that the part that's most important for Evan and Avice has come, we can begin to see how his actions are starting to alter the canon reality. Some of you might wonder why Serena didn't challenge Dennis to a duel, but in canon she didn't know that he was a Xyz user until she saw him Xyz Summon in one of his duel and here she was knocked out for most of the day, so... Yeah, she doesn't know that he uses Xyz yet.**

 **I can go on and explain a lot more things, but they aren't as important so I'll just move to the main even of this chapter, which was (at least I hope it was) the appearance of a Xyz-Fusion hybrid. I'll admit that this is an idea I got from Arc-VOC, but I was disappointed how there the monsters were just hybrids by name for the most part.**

 **Avice : The biggest inspiration for these new hybrid monsters however came from the Gemini Monsters mechanic and Battle Beast's **Gladiator Beast's Assault Fort **which was the effects of TWO cards in one, for Ra's sake.**

 **That's all for today. Thanks for rading and I'll see you next time!**

 **Avice : ****Just kidding!**

 **Before respond to the reviews however, I want to first say that I was amazed how well received the Evan vs Elizabeth duel from last chapter was. I was actually surprised by how well it was received.**

 **Anyway, onto the reviews now.**

ScalchopWarrior **: I believe that I fixed those spelling mistakes, thanks for saying and I was originally going to use the name** **Oracle Sister Fusion, but then I choose to use Oracle Sister - Energy Fusion right before posting the chapter - apparently I didn't change the original name in every place where it was used, but I fixed that now.** **Also it might be spoilers, but I've made plans for the rematch already...**

AdrianDracoheart **: Thanks for the review and I'm happy to hear that you liked the duel as well. As for the question... Well, I can't answer it right now, can I? Sorry about that, but I'm going to say that Elizabeth's reasons are going to be very... understandable.**

 **That's it for today, really. Thanks to everyone for reading and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	39. Chapter 39

Copy of White

"Ngh." Yuya's eyes opened slowly.

The rounded form of the moon and the brilliant starts were the first thing that the entertainer saw and his mind quickly processed that it was already night. But, he couldn't understand how it became so late, nor what happened after he saw those three Obelisk Force… carding people. Yuya closed his eyes and turned to the side. No, he didn't want to think about it, about that sudden urge for revenge that burned inside his chest at the moment, about those memories of the Xyz Dimension being invaded that played in front of his eyes just before he lost himself.

How did he even have those memories of Heartland's destruction? Or how did he knew that the city he saw was called Heartland? Yuya felt that he was losing his ability to think straight. His head was hurting so much that he barely noticed everything else that was in his surroundings. The warm fire behind his back and the smell of… soup? Even slowly, Yuya turned around and saw Gongenzaka along with Mieru, Michio and the fisherman guy.

"Darling?" Mieru was the first one to notice that the entertainer has woken up with everyone else quickly turning their attention toward him.

Yuya blinked. He was unsure what to say. Should he thank them, or just greet them? During the last thing he remembered he was along, so he had no idea how everyone else suddenly appeared around him. Not just that, but they were now in the Forest area as well. Multiple questions ran through Yuya's head and he was unsure which one should he ask them first, nor did he know if it was proper to start the conversation with a question. Actually, Mieru wasn't even supposed to be in the Battle Royale, so how was she there with the rest of them?

"How do you feel, Yuya?" Gongenzaka asked the first question.

"My head hurts like someone hit me with a hammer." Yuya replied and rubbed the spot that hurt. He could feel a light bump on the side of his head and that only served to raise even more questions inside the entertainer's head.

"It's because of that vulgar boy that hit darling with a rock!" Mieru yelled angrily. "To think that he would hurt darling like this, but my crystal apple didn't lie. He really must be possessed by evil spirits to do such a vile act. If darling's safety wasn't my top priority I would have given him a lesson!"

"Um, could you please start from the beginning?" Yuya pleaded. "I don't think I remember much from what happened."

"What's the last thing that you remember?" Gongenzaka asked again.

Yuya felt as if somebody pressed a large cube of ice against his back. His eyes turned to look at the ground and he began to explain to everyone about the things he remembered. He told them about the Obelisk Force and how he saw them carding people upon defeating them. In return, Gongenzaka and Mieru told him what happened after he challenged the Obelisk Force to a duel. From how he defeated the group using Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, to his following short fight against Sora and the end of his rampage after getting knocked out by Evan. But most shocking of all, for Yuya, were Mieru's words about the existence of a second soul inside Yuya's body.

Hearing that, Yuya quickly pulled out the card of Dark Rebellion and looked at it. If there was a second soul inside of him, it definitely belonged to Yuto. That explained the deep anger that he felt upon seeing the Obelisk Force and the memories from Heartland that he saw despite never visiting the city itself. But, did Yuto want to do that? If he wanted revenge, to destroy Academia, why did he tell Yuya to use his dueling in order to bring smiles to everyone? Why would Yuto entrust him with Dark Rebellion with those words if his motives were driven by anger?

"You said that Kurosaki helped to carry me here, but where is he now?" Yuya asked. The Xyz Duelist wasn't anywhere nearby, so was he patrolling or…?

"He left right after helping us." Gongenzaka looked down. "He also took Sora with himself, I wanted to stop him, but after my duel with Evan my body was too weak to challenge him. I, the man Gongenzaka, am ashamed of my inability to help out our friend."

"It's not your fault." Yuya tried to reassure him. "But there's so much that I need to ask Sora myself. He was the one leading that group of Obelisk Force duelists that I fought. He was the one who gave them orders to card these knights. I must learn why he did it."

"You should focus on resting for now and eat a lot." Michio replied and handled him a cup of soup.

"He's right." Gongenzaka nodded. "It's too dark to go search for Kurosaki or Sora at this hour. It's best if we do it tomorrow."

"You are right." Yuya agreed and looked at the fire. "But there's a possibility that more of Academia's duelists are moving around the city. What if they come across Yuzu? Gongenzaka, tomorrow morning we should go look for Yuzu first and then try to locate Kurosaki and Sora, is that ok with you?"

"Yes!" Gongenzaka nodded. "Me, the man Gongenzaka, will go with you anywhere to find Yuzu. This'll be the first thing we do tomorrow morning."

"I'll help darling as well!" Mieru exclaimed.

"Of course, I'm going to help Yuya as well." Michio nodded.

"I didn't sign in for this!" Teppei protested. "That's as much help as you're getting from me."

Yuya smiled. None of them was forced to join him, but they were going to help him find Yuzu anyways. "Very well then, we'll depart tomorrow morning!"

* * *

The second day of the Battle Royale quickly came. Yuya and the rest all separated early in the morning to find any of the remaining Duelists before Academia would. At the same time, in the Ruins, a single Obelisk Force duelist was running for dear life. He wasn't sure where he was going, nor whom he would bump into, but he hoped that it would be one of his allies that would come into his view first. And sure enough he could see them in the distance. As usually, they were a team of three, one with a purple gem on his helmet, another with an orange one and the third having an aqua green gem.

The trained Academia duelists stopped at the sound of footsteps and turned around, noticing the single Obelisk Blue that was running toward them. They were unsure how to interpret it. Did the Duelist lost his team, or did he run away like a coward? He seemed to be running toward them, which meant that it probably wasn't the second, because if it was, he should know well enough that punishment for running away from the battlefield was to be carded.

"Stop there!" Orange raised his hand, quickly stopping the incoming duelist. "Where are you going? What's your patrol number?"

"O.B. Six, Nine, Three, Four." The sole Obelisk replied and looked around. "The head of my squad send me to warn you that Standard has found about our presence and is sending their entire army of duelists toward us. The enemy cut our communications within a certain range, so we're unable to communicate using our Duel Disk. My officer said that he and rest would try to hold the line until I'm able to give you this message. We found out that the enemy is using a stadium in the city as their base so we need a group to open artillery fire on them."

"Artillery fire?" Purple asked. "The Professor sent us on a recon mission and told us to not use more force than necessary. If we open fire on Standard it would mean that we are declaring war to them, right?"

"He's right." Orange nodded. "Tell your officer to retreat and wait for backup. However, we can't open fire on Standard."

"There are several high profile Xyz Duelists within Standard's forces." The Obelisk duelist explained. "The Standard Dimension has already picked a side and their duelists were all already armed and prepared to fight us with Pendulum Cards."

"Xyz Duelists, huh?" Purple tapped his chin in thought. "I think I remember Sora saying something about getting a rematch against a Xyz Duelist in Standard, so it must be true."

"If so, then Standard has already allied itself with our enemy." Aqua Green commented. "It's likely that they would go after Serena as well. Our forces are already focused in the Xyz Dimension so a surprising attack from Standard would be crippling!"

"If we cripple Standard's forces and stop them from invading for the time being, the Professor could promote us in rank for protecting Academia." Orange smirked. "We could even become Armityle Purple for this alone!"

"So it's decided then." Purple turned toward the solo Obelisk Force. "We'll go take the high ground and fired upon the stadium from there. You should go back to your team and warn them to move out of the way, understood?"

"Yes sir!" The Obelisk Force saluted and ran back off toward the jungle. Little did the others knew, his lips raised into a malicious smirk as he ran back to where he came from.

* * *

Oni looked through her deck one last time. All the screens that showed the Battle Royale have turned off for reason that the Nico was unable to explain and because of that a decision was made to have the final match of the Youth Division happen now, while the staff tried to fix the problem with the cameras. Of course Oni wasn't as naïve as to believe those words. She had a gut feeling that something serious was happening and the staff of the tournament didn't want people to learn about it. Evan was right when he told her that the Youth Division's finale was going to be a distraction.

The young girl gulped and looked around. Another thing that Evan told her was to stay away from the rest of the audience during the Battle Royale, at a more secure and well hidden spot where she wouldn't be in danger. If only she could warn the others, but that would cause panic and might put them in more danger than they already were, so she had to remain silent and go along with Reiji's plans.

"Today in LDS' Center Court we have the Junior Class grand finals!" Nico announced. "Our competitors are LDS, Reira and You Show Duel School's Oni! Both of you, do your best and aim for first place!"

Oni looked at Reira. She could hear her friends from You Show shouting at her from the benches about her opponent's skills. The ability to use both Fusion and Synchro made him a fearsome enemy, but she was sure that with her Ritual monsters and the gift of Pendulum, she would be able to match her opponent's strength.

"And the field spell for this duel will be… THIS! Ring of Trials!" The ground under Oni and Reira's legs turned into sand. What appeared to be a circus ring appeared at the edges of the field and columns of rock began to raise from the ground around the two duelists.

"Let's have a happy duel, ok?" Oni smiled.

"…" Reira pulled his hat to cover his eyes and looked at the ground.

"T-that's a little depressing." Oni whispered to herself. "Then I'll just have to make you smile with my dueling! Let's go! Action…"

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Reira LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Oni LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'll take the first turn!" Oni announced. "I activate the Ritual Spell, _Night Parade of Souls_ , using the Performallusion Lone Digger in my hand as the tribute!"

A black portal opened in front of Oni. A large coffin locked with rusted chains raised upon the field with a spell circle glowing on the front of it. Six ghostly blue flames began to burn around the coffin while Oni crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes and chanted.

" _Mischievous specter seeking for a treat, peer through the tricks of the netherworld and raise as the new trickster of the living! Ritual Summon, Level Five!_ _ **Performallusion Gluttonjurer**_ _!_ "

A monster with bluish-grey skin stepped out of the coffin with a low moan. The monster's body was covered by dark purple trousers with white horizontal stripes and black braces that held the zombie's only piece of cloth. The monster had bulky hands filled with fat and a sticking out belly, which doubled as a mouth filled with sharp teeth. The monster's head had black tape covering the area where its mouth was supposed to be. Its left eye was yellow and snake-like, while the right one was missing, so the eye socket was sewed. Finally, the monster wore a tiny hat with a flopped flower on the top.

* * *

 **Performallusion Gluttonjurer**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: WATER/Type: Zombie/Ritual/Effect**

 **ATK: 2100/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: This card can be Ritual Summoned with "Night Parade of Souls". During the End Phase of the turn this card was Ritual Summoned, you can add 1 "Performallusion" monster from your deck or Graveyard to the hand. If this face-up Ritual Summoned card leaves the field because of a card's effect: You can target 1 Ritual Spell in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand.**

* * *

"And there it is! In the first turn of the duel Oni has already Ritual Summoned a monster!" Nico shouted and the crowd began to cheer.

"I'll set one card and end my turn here." Oni finished with two set cards appeared by her feet. "During the End Phase of the turn in which Gluttonjurer was Ritual Summoned, I can add a Performallusion monster from my deck to the hand! I choose to add Performallusion Pally Dolly!"

Oni looked at the card that she added to her hand; it wasn't going to be enough to make a dent in Reira's formation. She had watched his duels and was fairy familiar with his spells which copy other monsters.

"My turn." Reira stated with a monotone voice and drew.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Reira] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Film Magician (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_." A monster wearing dark and green robes with a film strip around its neck landed in front of Reira's field, surprising everyone.

"Reira just summoned a monster that isn't C/C Critical Eye!" Nico announced. "Could that mean that his strategy has changed for this duel?"

"Next, I activate the Equip Spell, _**Shutter Layer Prototype**_." A card that showed a mask with visible wires and a single blue optic in the center appeared before Reira and the mask flew off, landing on Film Magician's face.

* * *

 **Shutter Layer Prototype (Spell) Equip**

 **Target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; the equipped monster's name, Type, Attribute, Level, ATK, and DEF become that target's name, Type, Attribute, Level, original ATK, and original DEF, respectively. When that target leaves the field, destroy this card.**

* * *

"Due to Shutter Layer Prototype's effect, the equipped Film Magician will be treated as Performallusion Gluttonjurer." A layer of film strip tied around Film Magician's body and the monster transformed into a copy of Performallusion Gluttonjurer with Shutter Layer Prototype located on the left side of its face.

 **Film Magician/Spellcaster/LIGHT/Lv.1/ATK: 0/DEF: 0** → **Performallusion Gluttonjurer/Zombie/WATER/Lv.5/ATK: 2100/DEF: 0**

"Due to Film Magician's effect my monster can't be destroyed by battle." Reira explained. "I attack Performallusion Gluttonjurer with my monster."

The Performallusion Gluttonjurer duplicate leaned into the air and opened its mouth, firing red, blue, pink and yellow acid at the original Performallusion monster. As the attack came closer, Oni quickly pressed a button on her Duel Disk.

"I activate my Continuous Trap, _**Performallusion Dramatic Showdown**_!" The card flipped face-up showing Lone Digger with a horrified expression while Dagger Juggler is juggling with its weapons while wearing a blindfold. "Upon this card's activation, it becomes an equip spell to a Zombie on my field and while equipped, that monster cannot be destroyed by battle, but all damage that I take will be doubled!"

* * *

 **Performallusion Dramatic Showdown (Trap) Continuous**

 **Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up Attack Position Zombie-Type monster you control. It cannot be destroyed by battle but all damage you take from battles involving it is doubled. If the targeted monster leaves the field, destroy this card. If this card is send from the field to the Graveyard: Draw 1 card.**

* * *

The real Performallusion Gluttonjurer opened its mouth as well and fired acid at the doppelganger, with the two attacks cancelling each other out. Oni smirked, her plan to counter Reira's strategy was working as intended. Despite that, she looked around for any Action Cards to support herself with while dueling.

"It appears that Reira wasn't the only one who was thought of a new strategy!" Niko shouted out loud. "Through Dramatic Showdown's ability Oni can protect her monsters from battle destruction while making up for the trap's downside with that Reira's monsters will always have the same attack power as Oni's monsters!"

"I end my turn." Reira finished.

"Hehe, it seems that I was able to surprise the crowd with something after all." Oni smiled to her small success. "But now it's not time to praise myself. My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Oni] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"That's a good card." Oni whispered to herself. "First off, I activate Performallusion Lone Digger's effect from my Graveyard! I return Performallusion Gluttonjurer to my hand in order to revive it!"

The ritual monster waved at everyone and then leaped into the air, making a backflip, before landing into his card that Oni was holding. Right after that, a huge fat monster dragged itself from under the sand and slammed its pick in the ground before shaking its body from the sand that covered it.

"W-what?" Nico tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Oni returned her monster to the hand in order to revive Performallusion Lone Digger from her Graveyard, however, due to Dramatic Showdown's effect the trap will destroy itself, leaving Oni's monsters without any protection!"

"Well, that's true." Oni muttered as her trap turned to dust and she send the card to the Graveyard. "However, due to Performallusion Gluttonjurer's effect I add and a Ritual Spell from my Graveyard to the hand on the turn in which it leaves the field by a card effect, so I return Night Parade of Souls to my hand! Also due to Dramatic Showdown's second effect I draw a card when it leaves the field."

"Due to losing its target, Shutter Layer Prototype will destroy itself." Reira whispered. The replica of Performallusion Gluttonjurer shattered into pieces and Film Magician reappeared on the field looking left and right for its disguise.

 **Performallusion Gluttonjurer/Zombie/WATER/Lv.5/ATK: 2100/DEF: 0** → **Film Magician/Spellcaster/LIGHT/Lv.1/ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

"Now I'll activate Night Parade of Souls again to release Performallusion Lone Digger and Ritual Summon my monster once more!"

The coffin appeared before Oni once again and Performallusion Lone Digger waved at the audience before walking into it. The spell circle appeared on the front of the coffin and six blue flames began to rotate around it as Oni put a hand on her chest.

" _Mischievous specter seeking for a treat, peer through the tricks of the netherworld and raise as the new trickster of the living! Ritual Summon, Level Five! Performallusion Gluttonjurer (Lv.5, ATK: 2100)!_ "

Performallusion Gluttonjurer kicked its coffin open and jumped out of it moaning. Oni smiled and jumped on her monster's back before taking another card from her hand. Although Reira's Film Magician had 0 attack, it was better to be cautious that sorry.

"I activate the Continuous Spell _**Perform Refresher**_!" The spell that appeared next to Oni showed several Performallusion, Performapal and Performage monsters walking on cables with some of them jumping into a large pool underneath. Bubbles of different colors covered the air around them, reflecting the light to form a rainbow above the performers.

* * *

 _ **Perform Refresher (Spell) Continuous**_

 **Each turn, the first time a "Performa" monster(s) you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect it's not destroyed. When the destruction of a "Performa" monster you control is negated by this effect, put 1 Show Counter on this card. Monster you control gain 100 ATK for each Show Counter on this card.**

* * *

"With Perform Refresher, Performa monsters cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn!" Oni explained and gestured forward. "Go, Performallusion Gluttonjurer, attack Film Magician!"

The zombie moaned and opened its mouth firing acid at the magician who moved its staff in front of its body causing all of the film strips to change into pictures of Performallusion Gluttonjurer.

"I activate Film Magician's effect." Reira countered. "When it battles, Film Magician's attack becomes the same as the monster it battles, but it cannot be destroyed by that battle!"

 **Film Magician, ATK: 0** → **ATK: 2100**

Film Magician turned its staff and fired a white ray that pierced through Performallusion Gluttonjurer's acid and went straight for the zombie itself.

"I activate Perform Refresher's effect to negate the destruction of my Performa monster!" Oni cried out and a bubble flew out of her Spell Card, blocking Film Magician's attack. "And then I put one Show Counter on Perform Refresher, increasing Performallusion Gluttonjurer's attack by a hundred!"

 **Performallusion Gluttonjurer, ATK: 2100 + 100** → **ATK: 2200**

"And neither of the monsters was destroyed by this crash!" Nice exclaimed. "So far both of our young prodigies have been able to counter each other's moves perfectly!"

"At the end of this turn, the effect of Gluttonjurer lets me add another Performallusion monster to my hand." Oni explained and a card popped out of her Duel Disk that she the process to show to Reira. "I add Performallusion Wind Spirit and end my turn!"

"Oni's doing really great." Shuzo commented from the side.

"Huh?" Tatsuya, Ayu and Futoshi blinked in confusion.

"Reira's Shutter Layer cards need their targeted to be on the field or else they will self-destruct. Using her combo of Performallusion Lone Digger and Performallusion Gluttonjurer Oni can re-summons her monster every turn, destroying the Shutter Layer cards. What's more by summoning her monster over and over, Oni's also able to search another Performallusion monster on each of her End Phase, increasing her advantage with each passing turn."

"But then that means that Reira will have to use his Fusion and Synchro monsters." Tatsuya pointed out.

"Of course." Shuzo nodded in agreement. "That's what Oni's trying to force him to do. She must want to face him at full strength. I'm so fired up! Do your best, Oni!"

"My turn." Reira stated and drew.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Reira] LP: 4000, Hand: 5** **』**

Reira's eyes widened for a moment before he put the card that he drew into his Duel Disk. "I activate the Normal Spell – _**Critical Sensor**_. By releasing Film Magician, this card allows me to Special Summon _C/C Critical Eye (Lv.3, ATK: 1400)_ from my deck!"

* * *

 **Critical Sensor (Spell) Normal**

 **Tribute all monsters on your side of the field, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "C/C Critical Eye" from your hand or deck. The monster summoned by this effect cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects until the end of the next turn. Your opponent cannot target the monster Special Summoned by this card's effect with card effects.**

* * *

"And here it is!" Nico exclaimed. "The titular monster of Reira's deck with which he won all of his duels so far – C/C Critical Eye!"

"I activate the Continuous Spell Card – _Montage Fusion_!" Reira threw his arm forward and a spell appeared before him. "Using this Spell, I can target one of your monsters and use its picture as material for a Fusion Summon!"

A camera came out of Reira's spell and took a picture of Performallusion Gluttonjurer after which it flew into the air along with C/C Critical Eye, both of them turning into a vortex of light.

" _Supreme ruler of the river of shining scales! Dwell in this eye and give me your power! Fusion Summon! Appear now! The sword of water which slices through everything! C/C/C Water Sword of Battle (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)_!"

"That's…!" Oni gasped.

"The monster that Reira used to defeat me." Ayu gulped, remembering the strength of that monster and how it took her out of the tournament in a single turn.

"Battle." Reira said and pointed toward Oni. "I attack Performallusion Gluttonjurer with C/C/C Water Sword of Battle. At this moment, C/C/C Water Sword of Battle's effect will activate and increase my monster's attack by that of all WATER monsters currently on the field!"

 _ **C/C/C Water Sword of Battle**_ **, ATK: 2400 + 2200** → **ATK: 4800**

"I can't take this attack." Oni muttered and looked at her hand. "I activate the effect of Performallusion Pally Dolly from my hand! When a Performallusion monster I control is targeted for an attack I can negate that attack, then I return the attacked monster to my hand and Special Summon Performallusion Pally Dolly along with a friend that's still in my hand!"

"No way!" Reira gasped while his monster flew toward Oni's side of the field

Oni jumped off Performallusion Gluttonjurer's back just in time, as the monster turned into miss that Water Sword of Battle couldn't attack. The mist then split into two and out of it appeared a little doll with beautiful long red hair and bandage tied around her left eye, as well as, a ballerina with orange hair, hallow eyes, rosy red cheeks and matching lipstick.

"The monster I Special Summoned are _Performallusion Wind Spirit (Lv.8, ATK: 2000)_ and _Performallusion Pally Dolly (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_!" Oni introduced her monsters and they bowed to the audience which began to cheer for them.

"Oni negated Reira's attack!" Nico cried out. "This is the first time through this tournament that someone was able to, not only survive a turn against Reira's C/C/C monsters, but completely negate their attack."

"Also, due to the effect of my Continuous Spell, all of my monsters gain a boost." Oni winked.

 **Performallusion Wind Spirit, ATK: 2000 + 100** → **ATK: 2100**

 **Performallusion Pally Dolly, ATK: 600 + 100** → **ATK: 700**

"Also due to Performallusion Gluttonjurer's effect I return Night Parade of Souls back to my hand." Oni finished.

"I-I..." Reira looked down, the shadow of his hat covering his eyes. "I set a card face-down and end my turn. At this moment the effect of Montage Fusion will destroy the monster summoned by its effect."

C/C/C Water Sword of Battle shattered into pixels leaving Reira's field completely empty and open for a direct attack on the next turn. Oni eyed her opponent carefully. She has watched all of Reira's duels and studied his deck, but she never got to know about that glaring weakness of his Extra Deck monsters because he always won his duel on the turn he summoned them.

"Niichan, neechan." Oni whispered softly to herself. "Watching your dueling, your strength, I was able to become stronger as well. This draw is for you. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Oni] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

Oni's eyes beamed in delight at the sight of the card that she drew. "A card of destiny has showed up… I activate the Spell Card: _**Zombie Show Out!**_!" Oni's card showed a graveyard with a card falling into an empty grave while two greyish arms are reaching out from the ground. "By discarding a card, I can add two Zombie monsters from my deck to the hand at the restriction that they cannoned be summoned during this turn!"

* * *

 **Zombie Show Out! (Spell) Normal**

 **Discard 1 card; add 2 Zombie-Type monsters from your deck to your hand, also, for the rest of this turn you cannot Normal or Special Summon the monsters added to the hand by this effect.**

* * *

"I'm going to add discard Fulfillment of the Contract to add Performallusion Gate of Purgatory and Performallusion Gate of Bliss to my hand." Oni said. "Now, using the scale one, _Performallusion Gate of Purgatory_ and the scale seven, _Performallusion Gate of Bliss_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" The yellow columns of light raised behind Oni.

"Pendulum Monsters!?" Nico exclaimed, shocked to see those cards. "Apparently yet another student of You Show Duel School has already mastered this new summoning method and it's one of their junior participants as well!"

"I now activate Performallusion Gate of Purgatory's Pendulum Effect! Since I have Gate of Bliss in my other Pendulum Zone, I can add any Ritual Monster from my deck to the hand, and I know just which one to get myself." A card popped out of Oni's Duel Disk and she proudly showed it to everyone. "I add Horror Perla the Ritual Performer to my hand! Now I activate Performallusion Lone Digger's effect from my Graveyard! By returning Performallusion Pally Dolly to the hand I get to Special Summon Performallusion Lone Digger from my graveyard!"

The little doll waved bye-bye and then faded away as the fat digger sat down on the same spot.

"And now I activate Night Parade of Souls to release Performallusion Lone Digger and call out my strongest monster!"

A large black coffin with a pentagram appeared before Oni and her monster turned into six flames that flew over to the pentagram, one at each end, while the sixth floated above the center.

" _As the last curtain of thy performance falls, the restless spirit raises over the cloak of depravity! Step beyond the veil and shake the boundaries between life and death! Ritual Summon, Level Six! Horror Perla the Ritual Performer (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)!_ "

The coffin's lid fell off and blue flames burst out of the coffin with a young woman wearing a black hood and a blindfold stepped outside.

"There she is!" Nico cried out. "The amazing Pendulum Ritual hybrid that won Oni's match in the last round!"

"Due to Perform Refresher having one Show Counter my Horror Perla the Ritual Performer gains a hundred more attack points!" Oni exclaimed.

 **Horror Perla the Ritual Performer, ATK: 2400 + 100** → **ATK: 2500**

"Now battle!" Oni commanded. "Performallusion Wind Spirit attack Reira directly! _Piercing Typhoon_!"

The ballerina started to spin on place gathering the wind and transformed into a giant Typhoon before flying off toward Reira.

"I activate the Trap Card – _**Critical Revival**_." A camera appeared in front of Reira as the boy raised his head to look at Oni. "This trap revives one C/C in my Graveyard and makes so that it cannot be destroyed by battle for the rest of this turn. I target C/C/C Water Sword of Battle!"

The trap card's artwork began the exact same as that of C/C/C Water Sword of Battle.

* * *

 **Critical Revival (Trap) Normal**

 **Target 1 "C/C" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon it in Attack Position. It cannot be destroyed by battle this turn**.

* * *

"I knew that you would do that!" Oni grinned before moving her hand to gesture at Horror Perla the Ritual Performer. "I activate Perla's effect! Once per turn, she can let a monster in my deck activate its effect in response to yours! I activate the effect of _Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion_ directly from my deck, 'discarding' it to negate an effect that would Special Summon a monster! _Performer Sidekick_!"

Horror Perla the Ritual Performer raised her staff and slashed a red 'X' in the air, opening a portal before herself. A young girl in a black dress jumped through the portal and grabbed Reira's Trap Card before they both shattered into pixels. The young boy's eyes widened in shock and he didn't have time to react with anything else as Performallusion Wind Spirit flew past him and the wind from her attack send him flying backward.

 **『** **Reira LP: 4000 - 2100** → **1900** **』**

"And now for the second attack!" Oni announced as Perla moved in front of her. "Horror Perla the Ritual Performer attack Reira directly!"

The Performer moved her fists in circular motions in front of her own face before opening the palms of her hands. The monster fired a purple wave of energy at Reira who looked up. His mother was watching. He couldn't allow himself to lose this duel. The boy's hands began to shake uncontrollably and his eyes remained locked onto his mother, the frown on her face. She was disappointed.

His eyes quickly moved to look for any Action Cards. He didn't want to lose and anger his mother! He didn't want to return back to _that_ place!

As Reira stepped backward to run for an Action Card, six beams hit the stadium setting of a chain of explosions. Screams broke out and rubble began to fall onto the panicked audience. Oni gasped and Reira's entire body froze. Innocent were running or screaming from under the rubble, clouds of black smoke raised into the sky and the Solid Vision System glitched out, turning the monsters on the field into unrecognizable pile of pixels before the core exploded, shattering the monsters' images.

"…No" Oni put a hand over her mouth. "Everyone is… Reira?"

The girl turned toward the boy she was dueling a moment ago. His hands were squeezing tightly the edges of his hoodie, his eyes wide open and his body shaking uncontrollable. Oni took a step toward Reira and then the huge screen that displayed their duel to the audience exploded and shard pieces of glass rained down.

"Reira!" And screaming, Oni selflessly jumped toward the boy, who stood paralyzed from all the destruction that happened around him.

* * *

Inside the observation room of LDS, the staff was working hastily, restarting computers and checking the defense systems after their suffered an unexpected blackout that caused the backup systems to turn on. In the center of this chaos was Akaba Reiji who gave orders to the rest of the staff and called for status reports.

"Sir, there is an emergency call from the stadium!" One of the workers informed.

"We're getting reports for incoming artillery fire!" Another of the workers added.

"Artillery fire?" Reiji fell back into his chair.

Did he misjudge his father? He thought that his father's target was Serena and that he would have enough clemency to not get the regular citizens Standard involved in this war. For the first time in a while Reiji felt true anger. An attack like this against unarmed citizens; he didn't want to believe it, but his father was beyond salvation.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

" _It seems that the mortals are starting to get in trouble."_ Foxy commented while I put on my jacket.

Looking up, I could see the blasts flying above the forest, after which I could hear a faint explosion in the distance. Those Obelisk Force duelists really were something else. Too bad that their lack of duel skills was proportional to how well they could cause mayhem. And talking about destruction…

My small campfire was still burning albeit weakly. I pulled from my jacket the cards of the three Obelisk Force guys that spot me camping last night. I really didn't need to hold those cards on me, so let's just throw them into the fire. I wasn't sure how de-carding would work, but surely Academia won't be able to revive those fools if they have turned into ashes.

" _Aren't you going to go and defeat those idiots that keep firing?"_ Foxy floated beside me. _"I mean, it could put you under a better light in front of Reiji if you save the stadium, won't it?"_

"I already gave up on trying to appeal to that guy." I waved my hand to show the damn fox how uninterested I was. "Reiji doesn't believe and he's smart enough to recognize what my real goal is, so I'm going to let his other pets take this easy prey."

" _What are we going to do then?"_ The stupid fox asked me next.

"We'll work for someone more worth of our time." I told her. "There's no point wasting our time on these fifth rate duelists."

" _As you command, master!"_

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Yuzu! YUZU!"

Yuya bit his lips. The only response to his desperate cries was silence. He looked everywhere for her, the Ancient Ruins, at the Volcanoes, but she was nowhere to be found. The longer he was away from Yuzu, the more did his bad thoughts began to gain ground into his mind. The memory of the Obelisk Force flashed before his eyes. What if they found her before him? What if they dueled her and-

"Yuzu!" Yuya cried out again, his voice echoing through the icy mountain. The boy collapsed on his knees and clenched his fists. "Please, Yuzu…"

"Yuya!" Yuya wiped his eyes just to be sure that there were no visible tears and turned toward Gongenzaka.

Even though they choose to split apart in order to cover more ground, the entertainer could clearly see that, Gongenzaka as well, was unable to find their dearest friend.

"There's no sight of her in the forest either." Gongenzaka looked down, ashamed if his failure. "Did you find anything?"

"No." Yuya shook his head. There was nothing they could use to track her down, the only place that could have left footprints was the Iceberg Area, which they were searching through right now. But to find Yuzu's footsteps among those of everyone else who has passed through this area was too much of a challenge for anyone.

"Don't worry, we will find her." Gongenzaka tried to reassure his friend. "Also, Yuzu is a skilled duelist, she's able to handle herself. You shouldn't worry that much about her."

"I… I just can't help it." Yuya muttered and looked up toward his friend. "Yuzu was the first friend that I ever made. She was always there for me when I needed her, she didn't give up on our friendship even after my father disappeared and You Show lost its reputation. After all she did for me, the very least I could do for her is to keep her safe, yet I'm unable to do even this."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Yuya." Gongenzaka put a hand on his shoulder. "You are doing your best and that's everything that Yuzu could ask from you to do."

"Gongenzaka…" Yuya looked up.

"Aw, that's so heartbreaking!" the two duelists' eyes widened and they spun around to see two individuals standing behind them. One boy and one girl.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves." The boy began. "My name is Hikaru and this here is Makioka. We are your opponents today."

"Opponents?" Gongenzaka wondered. "You two aren't part of the participants. Could it be… Are you two from Academia?"

"Nah, nah." Hikaru raised a finger. "You don't get to ask questions. All you are allowed to do is duel. Actually, will you take the big guy, Makioka?"

"Leave it to me." Makioka nodded and stepped forward.

Leaning her body forward, the girl raised her right leg behind her and then, with all of her strength, she kicked a pill of snow right into Gongenzaka's face.

"Ah!" the tall duelist groaned and retreated back wiping the ice from his face.

"Gongenzaka, look out!" Hearing Yuya's warning, Gongenzaka removed his hand from his eyes, only to be greeted by the heel of a black boot striking straight into his face. Gongenzaka groaned and tried to keep his stance, but the frozen ground under his feet, made him slip and fall off the small mountain.

Not giving her opponent a second to recover, Makioka jumped down, making a flip in midair before landing a few feet away from the man.

"Gongenzaka!" Yuya shouted and ran toward the edge.

"Where do you think that you are going?" Hikaru shouted and jumped in front of the performer, swiping his Duel Disk in front of Yuya's face. The entertainer's eyes widened and he quickly leaned back, the height of his body pulling him back just in time for Hikaru's blade to miss his face by an inch.

"Makioka will be your friend's opponent while I'm going to be yours, understood?"

"You…" Yuya gritted his eyes before noticing something. "This Duel Disk… It's from the Xyz Dimension!"

"Hmm?" Hikaru tilted his head. He didn't think that anyone in this Dimension except for the Tracers would know about different dimensions, but of course Yuya wasn't a Tracer, so… "You're an interesting one boy. Your face, it reminds me of someone I used to know. But my boss has things to do and he doesn't want to get involved with people that are obviously below his level, so I got to keep you busy until he is done."

"Boss?" Yuya wondered. "Who're you talking about? What're you after?"

"Ahahah, no spoilers." Hikaru chuckled to himself. "But seriously, that face of yours is so annoying to look at. I'll tear it right off!"

Not having much of a choice, Yuya sighed and activated his own Duel Disk.

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Yuya LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first move!" Yuya exclaimed. "I Normal Summon _Performapal Skullcrobat Joker (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!" A spellcaster with long brown hair and a purple and black outfit appeared on Yuya's field and bowed, lowering its hat. "I activate Skullcrobat Joker's effect! When it's Normal Summoned I can add a Performapal, Magician or Odd-Eyes monster from my deck to my hand! I choose to add _Performapal Monkeyboard_ and then I'm going to set it in my Pendulum Scale!"

A single column raised on the left side of Yuya. Standing inside of it was a monkey riding a unicycle with a musical keyboard in place of teeth. The number 1 appeared under the monster to show its scale.

"With Monkeyboard's effect I can add a Level Four or lower Performapal from my deck to the hand!" Yuya explained. His monster's body began to glow and a card popped out of Yuya's deck. "I add Performapal Odd-Eyes Unicorn and then I set it in my other Pendulum Scale!"

A second column raised into the sky, this time holding a green unicorn with a left of the same color, and a red right eye. The beast had a smile on its face and it looked down at the field; the number 8 glowing underneath the unicorn.

"Now I can Pendulum Summon monsters with Level between two and seven!" Yuya declared. "Swing, pendulum of souls! Draw an arc of light across the ether! Pendulum Summon! Appear now! My monsters!"

Two streams of light flew from the portal and landed in front of Yuya creating a bright explosion that made Hikaru raised his hand in front of his face. Once the glow faded though, the Xyz Duelist noticed two, not very threatening in appearance, monsters standing next toPerformapal Skullcrobat Joker.

"The monsters I called are _Performapal Sellshell Crab (Lv.5, DEF: 2500)_ and _Performapal Lizardraw (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_." Yuya announced each of his monsters' names. "With this I end my turn."

"So you are a Pendulum user?" Hikaru asked. "I didn't expect to face one so early on in the timeline, but that could be a good warm up. My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Hikaru] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my field I can Special Summon _**Shiroi Akuma – Mobilize Rooster**_!" A bird with electric red feathers flew over Hikaru and landed before him. The monster's body had blue electricity coming out of its forehead, creating its crown while its eyes glowed yellow.

* * *

 **Shiroi Akuma – Mobilize Rooster**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF:1200**

 **Effect: If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card in Attack Position. If this card is detached from a Xyz Monster and send to the Graveyard to activate that monster's effect: You can add "Akuma" Spell/Trap Card from your deck to your hand.**

* * *

"Next I activate the Equip Spell – _**Trick Medallion of Akuma**_!" A golden jewelry appeared in front of Hikaru and tied itself around his monster's neck.

* * *

 **Trick Medallion of Akuma (Spell) Equip**

 **Equip only to a "Shiroi Akuma" monster. If the equipped monster is used as a Xyz Material for a Xyz Summon, you can treat this card as a Xyz Material for that Summon, with the same Level, Attribute and Name as the equipped monster.**

* * *

"Due to Trick Medallion of Akuma's effect, if I use the equipped monster as an Xyz Material I can treat the equip spell as a separate material with the same name as the equipped monster!" The medallion on Rooster's neck began to glow creating a projection of the monster right next to the original. "Now behold! Using Mobilize Rooster and Trick Medallion of Akuma as materials, I Xyz Summon!"

The two monsters turned into streams of yellow energy and shot up in the sky, where a galaxy-like portal appeared and the beams of light flew inside of, exploding.

" _Good, evil, before justice everything is grey! Light with demonic origins, choose the path of the destruction measuring balance! Xyz Summon! Rank Four! The neutral libra!_ _ **Shiroi Akuma – Balance Scales**_ _!_ "

Out of the portal appeared a set of golden scales with two Xyz Materials orbiting its body. The main body, which was used to hold the suspended plates had a woman face with closed eye on it, while the ends that held the chains had the appearance of hands.

* * *

 **Shiroi Akuma – Balance Scales**

 **Rank: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Thunder/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 1800/DEF: 1800**

 **2 Level 4 "Shiroi Akuma" monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; discard 1 card, then draw 1 card. If this card is in your Graveyard: When you Xyz Summon a "Shiroi Akuma" monster, you can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard, but banish it when it leaves the field.**

* * *

"Next I activate Balance Scales' effect! By using one Xyz Material I can discard a card from my hand and draw a new one!" Hikaru slide a card from his hand into the Graveyard Zone before drawing a new one to replace it. He didn't give the new card as much as a glance before raising his hand forward. "I now activate _**Shiroi Akuma – Snitch Rat**_ 's effect from my Graveyard! When it send to the Graveyard I can search my deck for a Rank-Up card!"

* * *

 **Shiroi Akuma – Snitch Rat**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 400**

 **Effect: If all monsters you control are LIGHT, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is send to your Graveyard, except from the field: You can add 1 "Rank-Up" card from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"Rank up!?" Yuya gasped. He remember what those cards could do from the duel between Kurosaki and Sora, and it was nothing good!

"It seems you are familiar with that concept as well?" Hikaru wondered. "Doesn't matter though! Give me the card, Snitch Rat!"

As the Xyz Duelist said that, the Graveyard portal opened up and a white rat with yellow eyes jumped out of it. The beast had a yellow X across its back and its legs were covered in golden armor with large claws made of electricity coming out of them. Its tail was made out of metal with two cables coming out of the end. The beast looked back at Hikaru and hissed before shooting a blast of electricity at the duelist's deck, pulling a card out of it.

"Thanks for that." Hikaru said as his monster disappeared once again. "Next I'm going to activate the effect of Mobilize Rooster that was detached as Xyz Material. When Rooster gets send to the grave in such fashion, its effect lets me add an Akuma Spell or Trap Card to the hand."

The spirit of Hikaru's other monster appeared out of the graveyard portal as well, its feathers cracking with electricity before it shot all of it into the Xyz Duelist's deck, pulling another card out of it.

"I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Akuma Storm**_!" A spell card that depicted two unfinished thunder monsters flying toward Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Leo who was on top of a half-destroyed wall with the thunder monsters transforming into a Xyz Material, like the ones that orbited around Berserk Leo.

* * *

 **Akuma Storm (Spell) Continuous**

 **Once per turn: If you Xyz Summon an "Akuma" monster, you can attach 1 "Shiroi Akuma" monster from your deck to that monster. If this card is destroyed and send to the Graveyard, you can target 1 "Akuma" monster in either your Graveyard or hand; Special Summon that target.**

* * *

"Now I activate the _**Rank-Up-Magic Akuma Corruption**_ to evolve my Scales!" The card showed Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Leo's armor breaking apart, releasing the lightning that possessed it, only for said lightning to ascend into the air, transforming into a new creature whose appearance was concealed by a glow.

* * *

 **Rank-Up-Magic Akuma Corruption (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 face-up Thunder-Type Xyz Monster you control; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Akuma" monster that's 1 Rank higher that the targeted, by using it as the Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to it also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.) If this Set card on your field is destroyed and send to the Graveyard, you can pick up 3 Thunder-Type Xyz Monsters in your Extra Deck: You opponent picks up one at random; Special Summon that monster on your field, and if you do, attach this card to it as Xyz Material. The other Xyz Monsters revealed by this effect are returned back to your Extra Deck face-down.**

* * *

" _Above the ground and beyond Hell, the prey will never hide! The hunter of death pierce the sinners with your cursed arrow of light and engrave your fearsome name in this world! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Rank Five! The wild marksman, Shiroi Akuma – Wild Archer (RANK: 5, ATK: 2800)!_ "

A large warrior appeared on the field covered in an orange armor with a large bow that had the appearance of outspreaded wings in its left arm.

"Unfortunately this monster isn't very useful except when facing against a Xyz user, but I don't need its effect when I have its superior attack." Hikaru pointed out. "Now let's battle! Wild Archer destroy Performapal Lizardraw!"

Orange electricity began to crack in the Xyz Monster's right hand and it transformed into an arrow that the archer then put onto its bow. Seeing this, Yuya quickly ran off to find an Action Card with his monsters following after him.

"Fire!" Hikaru ordered and Wild Archer released the string, sending the arrow lying straight toward Yuya and his monsters. The entertainer gulped and jumped into the snow, grabbing something just as the arrow exploded, covering his field in smoke.

"Due to Performapal Sellshell Crab his monster would have gotten a power buff, but that doesn't matter." Hikaru spoke to himself.

But, as the smoke from Yuya's side of the field faded, the Xyz Duelist was surprised to see Performapal Skullcrobat Jokerand Performapal Lizardraw coming out of the smoke with Yuya kneeling up, his right hand loaming over the Graveyard Zone of his Duel Disk.

"Your monster actually survived this attack?" Hikaru noted. "It was that one of those fishy tricks of your, wasn't it?"

"I did it thanks to the Action Spell - _Battle Change_!" Yuya explained. "That Action Spell allows me to change the attack target to be a different monster that I control and I choose to redirect your attack to the Defense Position Performapal Sellshell Crab, thus negating all damage that I would take!"

"So, relying on circus tricks, are we now?" Hikaru gave a grimace. "Standard Duelists must be the lowest of the low if you need to use cheating in order to stay in the game."

"Action Cards aren't cheating!" Yuya shot back. "Just like Rank-Up is something unique among Xyz Duelists, Action Cards are what represents the spirit of Standard's Action Duels!"

Hikaru lowered his head and clenched his fist. "That's so lame."

"What?" Yuya asked, surprised to hear his opponent say this.

"I said that it's lame!" Hikaru raised his head and yelled at Yuya. "The spirit of Standard's dueling and all this crap! Out of all four dimensions yours is the most pathetic one! While every single one of us is fighting for our lives, for our society, or for the glory of our dimension, all of you keep treating dueling like a fucking game! You… You would never understand the despair that any of us goes through." Hikaru looked down at his hand. "The comrades that we lost in our fight against Academia. The despair we felt from living in a society where if you aren't at the top you'll be another slave of the state. The fear of failure when you are raised in a world where all that matters is your strength as a soldier. Compared to me, to Makioka and to Academia, you, the Duelists of Standard fight for nothing more than your own inflated ego!"

Yuya took a step back, shocked by the anger with which Hikaru spoke to him. "I'm fighting to stop this suffering!" Yuya shouted back. "I don't know what's happening, why Academia is at war with you guys, but I once made a promise that I would bring smile to people with my dueling! So because of that…"

"What?" Hikaru asked him. "Are you telling me that you're going to fight in the war to save the Xyz Dimension?"

Yuya looked away. He… He didn't want to be a part of that war. Fighting, even for the right side, wouldn't bring anything but pain to more people. He wanted to bring smiles to everyone with his dueling, but how was he going to do it when there was a war being waged between two dimensions?

"I activate Performapal Lizardraw's effect." Yuya muttered. "When a Performapal is destroyed by Lizardraw is still on my field I can draw a card for each Performapal on my field and there are two at the moment."

"You don't have an answer, huh?" Hikaru noted Yuya's lack of response to the last question. "Pathetic, like everyone else in this world. I set a card and end my turn!"

Yuya gulped and looked at Hikaru. Just how was he supposed to win the heart of somebody who harbored such a hatred against Action Duels and Standard? The performer looked down and grabbed the pendulum swinging over his chest, clenching it tightly. To sway someone's heart wasn't an easy task, but, if he couldn't do it, if he couldn't bring smiles to the people during the darkest moments, he would never be able to live up to his father's legacy.

* * *

"Come on, get up." Makioka urged.

"Ngh." Gongenzaka groaned, barely managing to force himself to sit up.

He rubbed his neck and looked at Makioka. She was very fast and, her build didn't show it, but her kicks hurt a lot, even with the intense training that Gongenzaka Dojo put its students through, he was still able to feel a great deal of pain from Makioka's attacks.

"If you want to reunite with your friend you will have to beat me in a duel first." Makioka said and activated her Duel Disk, an icy blue one with a more circular shape and a light grey blade. "Of course that won't happen, but try your luck."

"You were two, so Yuya is most likely dueling right now." Gongenzaka guessed, activating his own Duel Disk. "If my friend is going with this, then I, the man Gongenzaka, can't back off from a challenge like this one!"

"You have a burning spirit." Makioka smirked. "That's what I like to see. Let's kick this into overdrive!"

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Makioka LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Gongenzaka LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"As challenger, I take the first turn." Makioka declared. "I Normal Summon _Strategist of the Ice Barrier (Lv4, ATK: 1600)_!"

An old man in dark robes with a blue hat covering his eyes appeared before Makioka, holding a closed map.

"Now I activate Strategist' effect to discard a card and draw a new one!" Makioka looked at the card that she got for a moment before putting it into her hand to take another one. "Next, when there is an Ice Barrier on my field, at the cost of being unable to summon any Level Five or higher monsters for the rest of this turn, I can Special Summon _Prior of the Ice Barrier (Lv.2, ATK: 1000)_!"

Next to Strategist appeared a man wearing white robes with a blue hood and a staff that had a mirror inside a snowflake frame attached to the top of it.

"And now I activate Prior of the Ice Barrier's effect!" Makioka pointed at her monster and it burst into sparks and pixels. "By releasing Prior of the Ice Barrier, I can Special Summon another Ice Barrier from my Graveyard! Come out, _Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier (Lv.2, ATK: 1200)_!"

The Graveyard portal appeared on the field and a monster that looked like a monk raised from it holding a small talisman in the form of a snowflake.

"Next I set a card on the field and end my turn." Makioka finished. "Your move. Show me the best you can do."

' _Two monsters with low attack and a single set card?_ ' Gongenzaka thought looking at his opponent's field, ' _This must definitely be a trap to lure me into attacking her monsters. I'll have to be careful._ '

"My turn, draw!" Gongenzaka declared, drawing another card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Gongenzaka] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"At this moment I'm going to activate my set card!" Makioka announced, her set card flipping face-up. "With the Continuous Trap _Eisbahn_ , all non-WATER monsters are turned to Defense Position the moment they are called to the field."

"Defense Position?" Gongenzaka wondered; for his deck this was very beneficial. "When there are no Spell or Trap cards in my Graveyard, I can activate the effect of the Tuner Monster, _Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter (Lv.2, DEF: 600)_ to discard a Superheavy Samurai from my hand and Special Summon it!"

Appeared in front of Gongenzaka was a tiny red robot with a grey face and a trumpet in its hands.

' _The requirement for the ability to summon a Tuner monster,_ ' Makioka thought to herself. ' _The possibility to not have any Spell or Trap cards in the Graveyard after turn one is close to zero, so this is a very situational effect, except if that man's deck doesn't focus around this kind of play style._ '

"Now I'm going to Normal Summon _Superheavy Samurai Scales (Lv.4, ATK: 800_ → _DEF: 1800)_." The green monster landed on Gongenzaka's field holding a set of scales onto its shoulders. "When Scales is Summoned, I can call another Superheavy monster from my Graveyard, so come out _Superheavy Samurai Daihachi (Lv.4, DEF: 1800)_!"

Raising from a portal in the ground, another green robot with wheels instead of legs appeared on Gongenzaka's field pushing a wagon filled with various weapons and armor pieces.

"Next, I activate Daihachi's effect!" Gongenzaka announced and the monster's body began to glow. "I change Daihachi to attack position in order to add a Superheavy Samurai Soul from my deck to the hand!" One of the armors, an armor with horns, flew out of the wagon and into Gongenzaka's hand, turning into a card. "I add _Superheavy Samurai Soulhorns_!"

"So you were able to get yourself a monster in attack position?" Makioka noted. "But it's useless, you won't be able to do anything with it."

"Dueling like this isn't what Steadfast taught me." Gongenzaka said before raising his hand upward. "Now I tune my Level Four Superheavy Samurai Scales and Superheavy Samurai Daihachito my Level Two Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter!"

The little monster played the trumpet it was carrying, turning into two rings that flew into the air. The other two monsters jumped through the rings, each of them turning into four stars that aligned together to form a line of eight stars.

" _Raging deity, in unison with the roar of a thousand blades, come forth in a spiraling sandstorm! Synchro Summon! Now come before us, Level Ten! Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo (Lv.10, DEF: 3800)_!"

"A Level Ten Synchro right out the gate!?" Makioka gasped, seeing the huge machine towering above her and her Ice Barrier monsters. "However, because it's in Defense Position, your monster can't declare an attack this turn."

"That's not true." Gongenzaka stated. "Susanowo can attack while it's in Defense Position by using its Defense for damage calculation!"

"It can what!?" Makioka's eyes widened. "Such monsters didn't exist where I come from… This is just amazing!"

"I'll end it this turn!" Gongenzaka clenched his fist confidently. "I equip Superheavy Samurai Soulhorns from my hand to Susanowo, giving my monster the ability to attack twice during the same Battle Phase!" The armor flew over to Susanowo, attaching itself to the Synchro's back, like a jetpack. "Now battle! Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo attack Strategist of the Ice Barrier!"

However, much to Gongenzaka's surprise nothing happened. His monster didn't move an inch, remaining frozen on the stop. The Steadfast Duelist looked at his monster in confusion and a disturbing realization set Samurai Warlord Susanowo's body was covered in ice, taking away the Synchro's ability to move completely.

"My monster…" Gongenzaka muttered, perplexed by what was going on. "Why isn't Susanowo attacking?"

"Hmm?" Makioka tilted her head to the side. "Ah, right! Maybe I should have warned you, but while Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier is on the field Level Four and higher monsters can't declare an attack."

"Say what?" Gongenzaka gritted his teeth in visible vexation.

"I knew that Standard's Duelists focus on high Level monsters, so I came prepared." Makioka explained. "However, I didn't expect my first opponent to be someone who uses such high Level Synchro monsters. Fate is really a funny thing, isn't it?"

"If I can't declare an attack, then I'm going to end my turn here." Gongenzaka said.

"It's going to be my turn then!" Makioka smirked and put her fingers on the top card of her deck. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Makioka] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"Hehe, nice catch." Makioka smirked. "But first, I'm going to activate Strategist's effect once again! I discard a card to draw a new one from my deck. And now for the fun part, I'm going to Normal Summon _Warlock of the Ice Barrier (Lv.3, ATK: 400)_!"

A male monster with long white hair and blue eyes appeared on the field wearing an orange jacket over a black uniform and a blue scarf tied around its mouth.

"Due to Warlock of the Ice Barrier, we both will have to set our Spell Cards before activating them." Makioka explained her monster's effect. "Pretty fair, don't you think?"

"Because of the nature of my deck I can't run Spell Cards." Gongenzaka pointed out. "Therefore this effect won't affect my side of the field."

"Hmm, that might be true." Makioka shrugged. "But I didn't summon Warlock for its ability. You see, in addition to being able to stop all Level Four or higher monsters from attacking, my Cryomancer is also a Tuner, which allows me to do the following; I tune my Level Four Strategist of the Ice Barrier and Level Three Warlock of the Ice Barrier to my Level Two Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier!"

As Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier turned into two rings, the other monsters flew through them together and turned into seven stars that lined up to form a straight line, through which a beam of light shot upward.

" _The strongest protector of the land of ice. Become the blizzard storm that annihilates the enemies of this frozen paradise! Synchro Summon! Level Nine! Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (Lv.9, ATK: 2700)!_ "

Flying through the beam, a large dragon roared before landing behind Makioka. The monster's body was mostly blue with heavy white scales covering its chest and wings. The monster had two additional heads, whose long necks were attached to the monster's back.

"You are a Synchro user as well?" Gongenzaka wondered. "That's an interesting match-up."

"Indeed, it's interesting that fate choose you to be my first opponent in this world." Makioka nodded. "But I can't say that it's a balanced duel. Your skills and deck are inferior to mine and I'm not saying it out of arrogance. To prove it, I'm going to activate Trishula's effect. When my dragon is Synchro Summoned, I can banish three cards you have. One from the field, one from the Graveyard and one from the hand."

"What?" Gongenzaka's eyes opened and he looked up at the Synchro's whose heads were charging beams.

"Go, Trishula!" Makioka cried out and her monster fired three beams, one piercing Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo, another flying into the Graveyard, hitting Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter, while the last hit the middle card in Gongenzaka's hand.

"And now you don't have much else to protect you, so I'm going to attack you directly withTrishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!" The dragon roared and fired the blue lasers at Gongenzaka, sending the duelist flying into the air with a scream before he fell into the snow below.

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 4000 - 2700** → **1300** **』**

"Now that this is done, I better get rid of Eisbahn before it starts help you out more than it helps me." Makioka said before putting a card from her hand into her Duel Disk. "I activate the Spell, _Magic Planter_ to destroy the Continuous Trap, Eisbahn, and draw two new cards. Now I set one and end my turn."

Gongenzaka stood back up. Just in an instance his strongest monster, his tuner, and even a card from his hand were already gone, unusable for the rest of this duel. Gongenzaka took a deep breath and put his hand over his deck to draw.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"Academia is definitely upping their game." The sound of canons firing followed by loud explosions going off somewhere in the distance was nowhere near the type of background sounds I expected for this Battle Royale.

"This is like a battlefield." Elizabeth commented. "Arterially fire, solders searching for survivors…"

"Reiji probably didn't except things to get so out of hand." I sighed. "I for one didn't except this city to really turn into a war zone, but by the sound of things it didn't seem like Academia wanted to play gently."

"Could… our existence be what caused this?"

I bit my lip. Even as someone who hasn't watched the anime, it wouldn't take a genius to realize that throwing a new element into the timeline would be enough to cause a Butterfly effect. Tracers, Fragments, those things weren't supposed to be part of the original timeline, right? Our actions weren't so subtle either, the first people we came to interact with were the main cast, so all the effect our actions had onto this timeline was caused from our direct interference with the people that the story is resolving around.

"I'm not sure, but we were definitely the catalyst that increased the intensity of these changes." I told Elizabeth and turned back onto the path we were going. "Don't bother thinking too much about this. We need to move on."

"Right…" Elizabeth agreed with me, although I could sense a conflict in her voice.

"Welp, I was looking everywhere for you." Huh?

I looked around, hearing a voice. But there was no one else around, just me and my sister. I looked down at my Duel Disk, it was strange but my Astral Angels were reacting to something as well, I could feel what the cards were feeling.

"If you go to the left there's an open area. I'm waiting for you there. Choose not to come and there will be consequences."

The voice was definitely female and it was coming from the left side as well. It was definitely a trap, but if the person was able to make even my Astral Angels react, then maybe it was worth checking it out.

"Let's go this way." I told my older sister, pointing toward where the voice told me to go.

"I don't know where we are going anyways, so why not." Elizabeth sighed and agreed with my idea.

We went down the path that the voice told me to go, while I cautiously looked around for any ambushes. Elizabeth didn't hear the voice, so did that meant that it all came from my head? But it sounded so real and Sola herself didn't say anything against my choice to go down that path. No, don't think about such useless things right now. All that matter was figuring out how that voice was able to speak to me without alerting Elizabeth, and maybe how much I should beat it if it turns out that it's a duelist wanting to fight me.

It didn't take too long until I could see an open area with no trees in front of us. It wasn't a place that I have visited before, so there's no way that my consciousness told me to come here, or that any of my Duel Spirits manipulated my thoughts to trick me coming here. I stepped into the small meadow and found them. Sitting on the branch of a tree, with their back turned toward me was someone wearing a cloak. Their white boots were swinging weakly, but suddenly stopped.

"Who's that?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'm glad that you listened to what I told you." The figure spoke up and stood up onto the branch. I had a gut feeling that there was more to this than just asking me to come here. I couldn't help it, but my body tensed up when the figure stood up; like my mind was telling me to stay on guard.

I opened my mouth to speak up, but before a sound could come out, the figure suddenly leaped into the air and made a backflip before landing a few feet away from me, their hood falling off to show…

"No way!" Elizabeth shouted.

That was…

I couldn't believe it, but my sister reacted in shock as well…

"You have my face…" But how? How could there be someone with my face in this world?

And it wasn't just the face either, she looked like an almost complete copy of me in term of age and height as well. The only difference I could find was in her hair. The green and white parts were swapped, but other than that there was absolutely no difference between us.

"I should probably introduce myself." The girl ran a hand through her hair and grinned. "My name is Evice and I'm Academia's new super weapon."

"Super weapon?" Elizabeth spoke up before I could. "What nonsense is this? Why do you have my sister's face?"

"Hmm? I just happened to be born with this face, so it's not my fault." Evice pouted. "Anyway, as I was saying, I was just allowed to go out of the building and this is my first mission, so I figured out that as a way to check out my skills, I should duel against my original."

"That's why you called me here." I couldn't help but smirk, so I was going to beat that doppelganger into the ground and I won't even need to ask for it.

"I'll duel as we-"

 **SNAP!**

My eyes went wide. With just a snap of her fingers Evice was able to make my sister completely disappear!

"What did you do to her!?" I shouted at the copycat.

"Hmm? I just teleported her to somewhere else." Evice chuckled and raised her Duel Disk, which had the form of a white shield with a green orb. "As the host of True Light, we are the ones who rule over space, so moving item X to place Y is like child play, but you don't seem to know that. Why, I wonder…"

"Where did you teleport her!?" I yelled again. I don't care about that other nonsense that this copycat was talking about!

"Somewhere in this city, doesn't matter really." Evice shrugged. "Don't worry I didn't kill her. After all, she'll be the sacrificial lamb once all of this is over~"

"You are one crazy bitch!" I spat and activated my Duel Disk. I'm done talking with this psycho, it was time for Sola to incinerate this freak's copy-pasted face!

"Come now, it's not nice to call yourself a bitch." She chuckled and activated her own Duel Disk, a bright green sword blade forming in front of her. "But since you don't seem to think of me this way, the only proper response would be: Bring it on, bitch."

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Evice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm taking the first move!" I declared and looked through my hand. "I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Silver Ring (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_! Next I activate its effect to add a Level Four or lower LIGHT monster to my hand and I choose Astral Angel Golden Ring whom I'm going to now Special Summon because I control a LIGHT monster on my field!"

A glowing blue cube with two silver wing accessories attached to it formed on my field, and just a moment later it was followed by a glowing green cube with golden wings accessories.

"When my two rings are on the field you can't target either of my monsters for attack!" I explained. "With this, you are locked out of battling and now I'm going to set a card, ending my turn!"

"You are putting such obstacles on my way from the start?" Evice raised an eyebrow. "Can't say that I'm surprised by this, but oh well, it's my turn now. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"After seeing how angry you were from seeing my face, I think you are going to hate me for this." Evice chuckled to herself. "But it can't be helped, I Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Ignis**_!"

The monster that appeared on the field was a machine with white circular body and three green oval eyes. Its hands were floating next to its body with three claws coming out of them and two green halos floating behind them, holding the arms in the air through their own gravity field. The lower part of the monster was made of an upside down triangle with green flames coming out of the backside.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Ignis**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200**

 **Effect: Once per turn: You can banish 1 LIGHT other monster from your hand or field; inflict damage to your opponent equal to the banished monster's Level x200. If this card is banished, you can destroy 1 monster on the field.**

* * *

"Even my own monsters…" Not only did she stole my face, but she also dares to use the same deck as me!?

"Do you see now why I told you that we are similar?" Evice asked me. "But I'm not done yet. Now I'm going to activate Ignis' effect! Once per turn, I can banish a monster from my field or hand other than itself to inflict damage to you equal to the banished monster's level times two hundred! I banish the Level Four _**Astral Angel Laruam**_ from my hand for this effect!"

* * *

 **Astral Angel Laruam**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 1400**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summoned: You can Set 1 "Astral Angel" Spell/Trap Card directly from your deck, but banish it when it leaves the field. If this card is banished, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Take control of that target until the end of this turn.**

* * *

Ignis' arms raised and created a blue portal filled with stars, out of which appeared another white robot monster. This one however had a cubic-shaped body with two long blades coming out of the sides, acting as claws. The monster spotted a tail coming from its back, hanging underneath its body. Lastly, the monster had a small golden face in the shape of a knight's helmet attached to the front of the cubic body.

The new monster's body began to glow and then exploded, sending a wave of white needles flying toward me, stabbing my shoulders and chest. I tried to keep my voice down, but the searing pain was too much to for my body to ignore it.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 800** → **3200** **』**

"Gaaaaaaaah!" I gasped and put a hand over my chest. Even with so little damage, I felt like my live force was slowly getting sucked out of me, which was also strange because I didn't take any physical damage. This look-alike… She was a dangerous foe to face.

"But this isn't over yet! When Laruam is banished, its effect lets me take control of one monster that you control, but only until the end of this turn." The cube's spirit reappeared behind Golden Ring and wrapped its tails around my monster before teleporting it to the other side of the field.

"Stealing my own Astral Angels now? How suitable for a lowlife like you." I sneered. This girl's entire act so far was to try and get under my skin, and while that might have worked at the start, I wasn't going to let her make a fool out of me.

"It's not unheard for a copy to surpass the original, is it?" She chuckled.

"You can't surpass perfection." I retorted. "Astral Angels are based after me, they are a representation of my heart and soul, so even if you use a deck with the same name, the connection and bond formed with every card is inferior to the ones I built."

"Hmm, bonds? Can you say that while you treat your own monsters like tools? No, let me show you what true bonds are. You will help me, Golden Ring, right?" Shockingly, the monster actually turned back and then floated down and up, nodding to Evice's question.

"Traitor!" I hissed.

"Now, now. It was you who said that there was a bond between you two, not the monster." I bit my lip while the doppelganger kept mocking me. "Now, let's do this! I fuse together Astral Angel Golden Ring and Astral Angel Laruam!"

The two monsters were turned into white and yellow whirlwinds that flew into the Fusion portal behind my look-alike.

" _Ring that protects the beacon of light, the flames given by the gods, merge in the endless constellations to become a knight beyond the domain of mortality! Contact Fusion!_ _ **Astral Angel Nucleiceratus**_ _!_ "

Out of the portal appeared a creature whose entire body was black with stars and planets filling its insides. Four wings burst out of the monster's back and then tied themselves around its body, forming two huge gauntlets with spikes on its knuckles, two tiny legs with yellow shackles tied around its heels and knees, limiting its movement. Overall, the monster's body was covered completely in that bulky armor with the only exceptions being the glass on its chest that showcased the stars and planets moving inside its body, as well as, the visor on its helmet. The monster's head wasn't separated from the body through a neck and instead the part that was going to be its lower jaw (probably, the monster didn't have a mouth after all) was a part of the monster's chest. The only human-like features the monster had, other than its bipedal stance, were its two eyes, which looked like tiny supernovas.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Nucleiceratus**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000**

 **2 "Astral Angel" monsters, except Tokens**

 **Effect: Must be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned by shuffling the above cards you control into the Deck. (You do not use "Polymerization".) Once per turn: You can target 1 card on the field; banish 1 LIGHT monster from your hand or Graveyard, and if you do, banish that target. During the End Phase: You can shuffle this card into the Extra Deck, and if you do, Special Summon 1 Level 7 or lower "Astral Angel" monster from your Deck.**

* * *

"Contact Fusion…" I think that Gladiator Beasts were the last ones that used this sub-method of Fusion Summoning.

"Well, aren't I a unique girl?" Evice winked. "I'm now going to activate Nucleiceratus' effect! By banishing a LIGHT monster from my hand, I get to banish a card that you control, so bye-bye _**Astral Angel Sagitta**_ and ciao to your set card."

* * *

 **Astral Angel Sagitta**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 400/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: If this card was Special Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Astral Angel" monster that's currently banished, but its ATK and DEF become 0. If this card is banished, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Banish that target until your next Standby Phase.**

* * *

On Evice's field appeared a slim white robot with two long blades for hands and two small triangles for legs. A single red eye was glowing in the center of its body with a halo rotating above it. The monster jumped into Nucleiceratus' arm and put its arms and legs together, connecting them to transform into an arrow that the Fusion then grabbed and then at my face-down card, stabbing it. I tried not to show it, but I was annoyed that my set Lumenize faded away along with the arrow that pierced it.

"And now here comes the best part." Evice chuckled. "When Sagitta is banished, I can banish a monster on your field until the next Standby Phase, so until we met again, Silver Ring." A black void appeared underneath my monster and sucked it inside, leaving my field completely exposed.

"Leaving yourself with such weak defense is unforgivable for the girl that's supposed to host the True Light. Tch, tch, I will have to punish you for this. Nucleiceratus' attack her directly with _**Nuclear Fist**_!"

The monster let out a loud groan and leaped into the air, raising its arms above its head, it then landed on the ground and slammed its fists into the ground, causing the entire area around us to burst upward. Literal streams of energy flew through the cracks in the ground, while I was send flying into a tree along with the debris that hit me as well.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3200 - 2500** → **700** **』**

"Ah!" I clenched my chest again, feeling something fading away. It was like my entire life force was slowly leaking out of my body. It might not be that far from the truth, since my back was in searing pain after I got smashed against a tree.

"I'm going to lie down a card and call it a turn." Evice finished. "How was I? Don't I deserve a praise for my amazing work, mama?"

"You were just lucky!" I hissed regaining my footing. "I'm going to give you a well-deserved ass whooping. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 700, Hand: 4** **』**

I looked at the cards in my hand and one that I just drew – _One for One_. Ok, maybe I could make this one work out. "I activate One for One to discard Astral Angel Digital and Special Summon the Level One Tuner, _Astral Angel Einplus (Lv.1, ATK: 200)_ , from my deck!"

"Oh, a Tuner?" Evice smiled. "Do you specialize in Synchro?"

"I Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Müllaufbereiter**_!" The monster that came out of my card was made of light with a rusty grey armor plates covering its chest, left shoulder and knees. Its head was wrapped in dirty bandages with a camera-like contraption sticking out of the left side of its face. Finally, the monster was carrying an old shovel whose handle was broken in the middle and the two parts were tied together with dirty belts to make it work.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Müllaufbereiter**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 600/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned, you can target 1 Level 2 or lower monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon that target in Defense Position. During your turn, except the turn this card was send to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; add 1 "Selig" card from your Deck or Graveyard to the hand.**

* * *

"And now, I activate Müllaufbereiter's effect to revive _Astral Angel Digital (Lv.2, DEF: 400)_ whose effect activates, calling out two more Digitals from my deck!" As my first drone flew out of the Graveyard portal, two more fell from the sky to join it.

"Five monsters at once." Evice rubbed her chin. "That's a nice start."

"I'm going to end the duel in this turn!" I wasn't going to play with this bitch! One clear strike would be enough to finish this match. "I tune my three Level Two Astral Angel Digital to my Level Two Astral Angel Müllaufbereiter!"

The junk monster exploded into two rings that my monsters flew through.

" _The supreme angel with the burning soul of a star. Spread your beautiful wings of destruction and erase our enemies with your blazing light! Synchro Summon! Level Eight! Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)!_ "

"S-Sola!" Evice gasped, before her lips curved into another grin. "She's also a Synchro monster, huh? No wait, a Synchro Pendulum? Oh! She evolved didn't she?"

' _What's she talking about?_ ' I asked my monster.

" _What's more concerning, I can feel her having the same type of strength as you, she is like a mirror reflection of you in almost every expect."_ Sola replied. _"She also seems to know…"_

' _Know about what?_ ' I demanded.

" _Nothing important."_ I wasn't buying into this… _"Your Life Points already went into the red zone from just one attack, we should focus on ending this duel as quickly as possible!"_

"Fine!" I yelled. "I activate Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph's effect! Once per turn, I can halve the attack points of one of your monsters, then Sola gains that lost attack and you take that same amount as damage! _Photon Link Conversion_!"

My monster fired several white needles that pierced the Fusion's body and absorbed its energy into Sola's wings, making them radiate with the newly obtained power before she fired it at Evice, knocking the girl onto her rear.

 **Astral Angel Nucleiceratus, ATK: 2500/2** → **1250**

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 1250** → **4250**

 **『** **Evice LP: 4000 - 1250** → **2750** **』**

"The difference between your monsters' attack is…" Evice's eyes opened wide.

"Battle! Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, attack Astral Angel Nucleiceratus! _Photon Particle Stream_!" My monster fired a beam of solid light toward the Fusion Monster.

"I guess I should flip my face-down card then! Trap Open! _**Stellar Compass**_!" Evice's face-down card flipped showing a hand holding a broken compass against the night sky. The compass, arms were pointing at South, while visible in the night sky was the Little Dipper constellation.

* * *

 **Stellar Compass (Trap) Normal**

 **You can activate this card when your opponent targets 1 monster on your side of the field as the target of a Spell/Trap Card, or as battle target. Change the target to a different monster on the field, including your opponent's side of the field.**

* * *

"With Stellar Compass' effect I can change your attack target to a different monster on the field!" Evice smirked. "That, of course, includes your side of the field!"

That was bad. The only other monster on my field was Astral Angel Einplus who had 200 ATK, so if I took this battle it would be over for me. "I activate my Quick-Play Spell, _Selig Transform_ to transform my Einplus into a much holier monster!"

My monster's body fell apart, explosion the core inside of it. After that, new pieces of armor flew out of thin air and connected around the glowing ball of light, giving it a new, more powerful body to use.

" _Illuminati of light that watches over the cosmos! Transform into a whirlpool of light and Transcend beyond the limits of the Universe! Transformation Summon! Level Four! Sacred protector of Heavens! Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lv.4, DEF: 2000)!_ "

"A Transformation Summon!?" Evice shook her head. "Contact and Transformation are both unique ways to Fusion Summon, so we are very alike, aren't we? Too bad that your Knight will now have to suffer in your place."

" _I'm sorry."_ Sola apologized before turning around to blast my warrior, turning his body into ash.

"When Golden Knight leaves the field all monsters on your field are destroyed!" I declared. The spirit of my monster returned back and swashed at the air with its blade, sending the slashes to Astral Angel Nucleiceratus, destroying it.

"Hmm, both Fusions got destroyed." Evice noted. "How ironic, right?"

"I activate the effect of Astral Angel Digital in my Graveyard!" I just had to ignore her babbling and focus on winning the duel; that's all that mattered. "By removing all three Digitals from play, I can draw a card for each."

"After using your entire hand to summon that perfection, you are able to refile it through Graveyard effects? Interesting." Evice commented.

I took a careful look at the cards that I got. _Kuriray_ , _Astral Angel Enlightener_ and _Damage Diet_. "…I set one card and end my turn."

"Then it's my turn." Evice smiled. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evice] LP: 2750, Hand: 3** **』**

Just how was she going to play out this turn? Her effects seems to be focused on banishing and burn damage, so Kuriray and Damage Diet should be able to protect me from the later, but I had nothing to stop her from banishing my monster with.

"It appears that fate wants me to crush you with all of my might." What the-? Her cheerful personality turned into an ice queen in just a moment! "Before I do that however, your Silver Ring will return back onto our field at this moment!"

A black portal appeared above me and the monster fell off it, falling next to Sola with its 1400 ATK.

"Now Behold! The power given to me by Academia! Using the Scale Five, _**Astral Angel Sinistra**_ and the Scale Ten, _**Astral Angel Dextra**_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

First monster with a triangle pointing toward the left appeared in the sky. Its body had three black tentacles coming out from the sides, one of which was floating below the monster like a tail while the other two floated to the sides with small claws attached to their ends. The triangle had a glass in the center with a yellow core inside of it.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Sinistra**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 5**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000**

 **Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except "Astral Angel" monsters. This effect cannot be negated. Once while this card is face-up in the Pendulum Zone: You can pay 800 LP, add 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your Deck to the hand.**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned, you can target 1 "Astral Angel" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. You can banish this card and 1 other LIGHT monster you control; Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your Extra Deck with a Level that's less or equal to the half the combined levels of the monsters banished by this effect. The monster summoned by this effect is returned to the Extra Deck during the End Phase of this turn.**

* * *

The second monster had the appearance of a humanoid with white robotic skin and a black belt tied around its waist. The monster had four feet instead of two with a third arm coming out of its back and instead of head its body was carrying a triangle pointing toward the right side with a pink orb inside the glass center of the triangle.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Dextra**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 10**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000**

 **Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except "Astral Angel" monsters. This effect cannot be negated. If an "Astral Angel" monster you control would leave the field, you can destroy this card instead.**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned, you can target 1 "Astral Angel" Spell/Trap Card in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand. You can banish this card and 1 other LIGHT monster you control; Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your Extra Deck with a Level that's less or equal to the half the combined levels of the monsters banished by this effect. The monster summoned by this effect is returned to the Extra Deck during the End Phase of this turn.**

* * *

"No way…" I collapsed on my knees, watching the two columns raising in the sky. "Academia has learned how to produce Pendulum Cards already…"

"Swing!" Evice cried out. "Create the world that I desire with your divine power! Pendulum Summon! The Golem controlling the stars! _**Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium**_!"

A giant monster levitated through the Pendulum portal, landing on Evice's field. Its body was heavy and made of white metal with several golden plates covering its sides and black metal covering its wrists. The monster's legs had a ruby and sapphire spikes coming out of the knees while several jets were attached to the back of its feet, presumably to help it move its heavy body. The monster had a giant golden ring attached to its back with twelve crystals, each of which had a different color. Finally, the face was sharp with a mouthplate covering the jaw and a sharp horn expanding from its forehead. The monster's eyes began to glow yellow and it leaned forward to look down at us. Not kidding, this thing was the size of a five story building.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Pendulum/Effect**

 **Pendulum Scale: 1**

 **ATK: 2800/DEF: 2000**

 **Pendulum Effect: You cannot Pendulum Summon monsters, except "Astral Angel" monsters. During either player's turn: If a monster(s) you control is targeted by an opponent's card effect; banish all monster you control, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone.**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned, you can turn all of your banished monsters face-down: Halve the ATK of all monsters your opponent currently controls, and if you do, negate their effects until the end of this turn. If 2 or more cards were turned face-down by this effect, this card can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn. If this card is targeted by a card effect: You can banish 1 card from your Pendulum Zone; negate the activation, and if you do, banish that card face-down.**

* * *

"This is your ace…" I gulped; it was huge so huge…

"Deus-Ex Radium's effect activates!" Evice said. "When its Special Summoned, I can turn all of my banished monsters face-down to halve the attack power of your monster, as well as negate its effects! _**Deus-Ex Machina**_!"

"Aaaaahhhh!" Sola cried out and fell on her knees, her energy wings slowly began to become dark and their size shrunk until the wings disappeared completely.

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, ATK: 4250/2** → **2125**

 **Astral Angel Silver Ring, ATK: 1400/2** → **700**

"Now battle! I attack Sola Electra!" Evice's monster raised its fist and then threw it toward us.

"Trap Open! _Damage Diet_ halves the damage I would take from this battle!" I exclaimed as a barrier formed around me and Sola jumped before me to take the hit. Deus-Ex Radium's fist hit my monster and… I don't remember what happened after that very well. There were just pieces of it that my brain was able to recollect. I remember, that I felt like several tons worth of metal have slammed against my chest and then everything turned dark for a moment.

When I opened my eyes again I was lying in a crater with Evice and her monster staring down at me. There were remains from trees, some of which were burned. My entire body was arching in pain and when I looked down I saw that my clothes were torn apart with blood flowing through the multiple cuts on my arms, legs and stomach.

 **『** **Avice LP: 700 - 338** → **362** **』**

"You actually remained conscious after this attack!" I heard Evice clapping.

"I-I can still fight." I breathed out. "I can… still…"

Why? My arms and legs wouldn't move anymore! The doppelganger already had her attack, her hand was at zero, it was my turn to counterattack, so I had to stand up!

"That's nice of you, but this duel is already over." What!? I glared at Evice, this smile on her face, it wasn't the smile of someone who was lying… But how!?

"When two or more monsters are flipped face-down for Deus-Ex Radium's effect, he gets to attack twice during the Battle Phase!" Evice stated. "So, now you are going to-!"

Before she could finish, the look-alike suddenly grabbed her chest and leaned against her monster's leg, taking deep breaths. Did she get tired or something?

"Hehe." And then, she chuckled, looking down at her hand. "This is so… new to me. Sun, wind, I'm not used to being outside, am I? You are lucky, mama. But I already proved my superiority, so there's no point in continuing this. We'll have to meet again."

"W-wait!" I shouted and reached out, but Deus-Ex Radium's body began to glow and then the monster disappeared alongside my look-alike.

" _ **Connection Lost: Duel Canceled**_. _ **"**_ My Duel Disk announced before turning off. If she has attacked Silver Ring instead of Sola I was going to lose even with my trap, but she didn't care about this… This girl was toying with me throughout the entire duel. All those duels I won, all this strength that I thought I had, it was nothing compared to her.

Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K. (Ay, its a copy-paste from last time. Well, almost.)**

 **True Light : One of the first two forces of nature that appeared when the universe was created. As time went by, True Darkness and True Light turned into the original, neutral celestial entities from which were later born several other sub-entities known to the human kind.**

 **As one of the first entities to ever exist, True Light represents half of the power that keeps the universe's balance. It's a force of nature that has power over space and reality, allowing it to create and destroy universes at will.**

 **The first time both humankind and the Duel Spirits came into direct contact with True Darkness happened around 3000 years when after a battle for the fate in the world caused a wormhole to appear in Ancient Egypt and a part of the celestial was transported to the human world.**

* * *

 **Avice: I'm dead on the inside...**

 **Diabolic Tracer: In other words, here are the remaining previews.**

 **Chapter** **40:** **Stages of Rebellion.**

 **Summary:** The Battle Royale is at its end and most of the Obelisk Forces have been driven out, despite the heavy loses, the Standard Duelists keep pushing the enemy away. During that time, while Ventus is helping Koharu in searching for Fusion remnants, the two of them come across the strongest duelist that participated in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension – at the same time, Evan and Avice both begin a duel against Yuya's counterparts, Yuri and Yugo respectively.

 **Chapter 41:** **Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

* * *

 **A/N: Ay, I'm back! Took a little longer than I wanted, but it's here I guess, so that's what matters. Right?**

 **I think that we could easily call this chapter the "no-result" chapter because literally none of the four duels that were started in this chapter got finished. Oni's got cancelled, Yuya and Gongenzaka will have theirs finished next chapter and Avice... Well, I think that the result with Avice's duel was obvious and while it didn't get finished I will count it as a "Lost" for her.**

 **There was also supposed to be a duel between Suny and Teppei, but I deleted it because it didn't make sense for them to duel one another when the city is being invaded by the Obelisk Force. Which means that we will have to wait until the Synchro Arc to see her deck in action.**

 **Oh, also sorry for the mirror match in case anyone got confused which Astral Angel is used by whom. To make it easier to understand, Avice's Astral Angels have different monster types and their names are either German or English, while Evice's monsters are all Machine-Type and have Latin names.**

 **I'm going to reveal who who's Nightshroud's new host in "** **Those With Fate in Darkness** **", but do you guys have any suspects? I did give several hints in the chapters that featured that bad boy, so I wonder to what conclusions did those clues lead you to.**

 **Thanks to** Yuu Sumeragi **for following this story and thanks to** JetSetGoooooo **for both the follow and the favorite!**

 **Now onto the reviews:**

Ethan Kironus **: Yeah, I sure didn't have the side characters (and the canon characters for that matter) a lot of time to shine because of Evan and Avice, so I hope to fix that mistake now and in the future.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Thanks for the review, but I want to respond** **specifically** **to something that got my attention.** **The reason why Evan didn't use handtraps to counter the Obelisk Force is because he doesn't have this kind of handtraps. Part of the thing that I want to do with his deck for Season 1 is to have him use mostly the same cards that he used until now because logically there's no way he could find new ChronoDevil cards in a world that didn't even create them. That's also why I must apologize in case his duels seemed repetitive up to this point.**

 **I don't have anything else to cover here, but sorry for removing the Yuya-Sora rematch. Also there are TWO more chapters of the Battle Royale, so this chapter is kind-of the middle point.**

 **Thanks to everyone for reading, have a nice day and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	40. Chapter 40

Stages of Rebellion

"Reiji told me that you will escort Sora Shiunin from here. Be careful, Academia's agents are very cunning. Also, be sure that your Duel Disk has a tracer activated, so we would know if you get ambushed or carded."

"Understood. I'll treat this mission with utmost cautiousness."

Hikage nodded to Shun's warning and pulled the handcuffed Sora. Shun gave the ninja one last careful glance before running off in the other direction. Although his original duty was to look over the Lancer Candidates and overview their strength, the Xyz Duelist was now burdened with a new, more important task; neutralizing the Academia unit that was firing upon the stadium.

"Hmm, it's no use, you are no match against the might of Academia." Sora chuckled and raised his head, watching the smoke rising from the direction of the stadium. "You're neither trained for this, nor organized enough to pull off a victory, if you tell Reiji to surrender and give us what we came from, Academia might be generous enough to overlook your interference in our actions and leave Standard in peace. Wouldn't that be the best option for you?"

Hikage shoved the blue haired boy forward, not minding Sora's rambling that much. Although the dark smoke in the sky was an anxious sight, the students of Fūma Clan Duel School were taught that there was nothing more shameful for a ninja than abandoning their mission. Of course, if Reiji ordered to surrender, Hikage wouldn't go against that command, but as long as the head of Lion Corporation hasn't given such an order, the ninja had a duty to fight against Academia.

"Geez, you are so rude." Sora complained. "But your silence tells me that you know my words are the truth. Hehe, all this trouble you went through and I'm going to get free just a bit after you put me away."

"Save your bragging for after you manage to do something useful."

Sora and Hikage both stopped walking and turned toward where the new voice came from, spotting a young man with blue hair and eyes, wearing a black overcoat with white trimmings and sharp edges. Sora could only stare in horror at the new figure and his entire body began to shiver from the dominant aura that was coming out of the newcomer. Hikage on the other hand narrowed his eyes and stepped in front of Sora, facing the man.

"Who are you?" Hikage asked.

"You will never have the chance to use my name so it's not important." The man said and activated his Academia Duel Disk, a black model with light blue blade. "I'm here to eliminate any opposition against Academia's forces, so you are about to be destroyed."

"…" Hikage looked down at his Duel Disk.

He was a ninja, not a fool. The Fūma Clan duelist could feel the pressure and strength the man was giving off. Their skills were nowhere close to one another, but if he was only able to slow down this man for a few moments, enough for Shun and the others to deal with the other Academia forces, then someone would at least be able to come and investigate once Hikage's signal disappeared.

"I can't let you move past this point." Hikage stated, activating his own Duel Disk.

"DUEL!"

* * *

"It's my turn now!" Yuya shouted, drawing another card.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Yuya] LP: 4000, Hand: 5** **』**

"I activate the Field Spell, _Sky Iris_!" A card showing the silhouette of Odd-Eyes Dragon flying out of the Pendulum Portal appeared in front of Yuya for a moment causing the field around him to glow. "I activate Sky Iris' effect! I destroy one card on my field to add an Odd-Eyes card from my deck to the hand!" Performapal Skullcrobat Joker bowed and its body burst into pixels while Yuya pulled a card out of his deck. "I add Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! And now the effect of Performapal Lizardraw activates! When a monster is destroyed I can draw a card for each Performapal monster on my field and since there's just one I draw a single card."

"Pendulum Dragon?" Hikaru muttered, tapping with his foot impatiently. ' _Well, I'm going to have to play nice then. I don't want to witness Miss Trevor's rage if I accidentally destroy one of the remaining subjects._ '

"Using the already set Pendulum Scale, I Pendulum Summon again!" Yuya declared raising his arm while four beams shot out of the portal and landed behind him. "Come out, _Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_ , _Performapal Skullcrobat Joker (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_ , _Performapal Sellshell Crab (Lv.5, DEF: 2500)_ and the star of this show, _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!"

Odd-Eyes raised its head and roared while the Performapal monsters stood in front of it and Yuya.

"Now I activate Pendulum Sorcerer's effect to destroy Performapal Monkeyboard and Performapal Odd-Eyes Unicorn in order to add two new Performapal monsters from my deck to the hand." The Performapal monsters burst into golden dust that fell upon Yuya's deck. "I add _Performapal Cheermole_ and _Performapal Momoncarpet_ to my hand, then I use them to set the Pendulum Scale!"

' _What's going on?_ ' Hikaru thought. ' _This resource management, drawing, searching, replacing cards. Those calculated moves aren't ordinary for someone who hasn't fought seriously. Unless that lost fragment is actually…_ '

"Performapal Cheermole's Pendulum Effect raises the attack of all Pendulum Monsters on my field by four hundred!" Yuya exclaimed as a golden aura surrounded the rest of his monsters, giving them a boost.

 **Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer, ATK: 1500 + 400** → **1900**

 **Performapal Skullcrobat Joker, ATK: 1800 + 400** → **2200**

 **Performapal Sellshell Crab, ATK: 500 + 400** → **900**

 **Performapal Lizardraw, ATK: 1200 + 400** → **1700**

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, ATK: 2500 + 400** → **2900**

"Now my Odd-Eyes' attack is higher than Wild Archer's." Yuya noted. "Battle! Odd-Eyes attack Wild Archer! And at this moment, I activate Shellshell Crab's effect to increase Odd-Eyes attack by three hundred for each Pendulum Monster on my field except itself!"

"That's four other Pendulum Monsters…" Hikaru muttered.

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, ATK: 2900 + 1200** → **4100**

"Spiral Strike Burst!" Yuya called as Odd-Eyes roared and jumped into the air, firing its flare through Wild Archer's chest, destroying it.

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 4000 – 1300** → **2700** **』**

"If you attack me with two of your other monsters it will be over for me." Hikaru noted. "However, I won't let you get this victory so easily. Quick-Play Activate! _**Rank-Up-Magic Akuma Domination**_! When an Akuma Xyz monster on my field is destroyed by battle or card effect I can revive it with its effects negated and then rank it up into a monster that's a rank higher!"

* * *

 **Rank-Up-Magic Akuma Domination (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **If a "Shiroi Akuma" Xyz Monster you control was destroyed by battle or card effect and send to the Graveyard this turn: Target that monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target with its effects negated, and if you do, Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Shiroi Akuma" monster that is 1 Rank higher than that target, by using that target as the Xyz Material. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 2 Xyz Monsters in your Graveyard; return them to the Extra Deck, then draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Another Rank-Up?!" Yuya cried out in shock.

"My power is always growing." Hikaru smirked. "Revive, Shiroi Akuma - Wild Archer and become the foundation of my new strength!" The red archer monster raised from the Graveyard and then turned into a beam of light that flew into the sky.

" _Unchain the son of Mother Earth! Be released! The singular relentless force that follows its own objective! Before the demonic light that watch over mortal's carnage! Up Xyz Change! Rank Six! The sign of strength,_ _ **Shiroi Akuma – Rampant Bull**_ _!_ "

A silver column of light shot into the sky. A giant muscular beast, resembling a knight with a bull head appeared on the field. Its cold bloody red eyes were staring at Yuya and a tail made from electricity swung behind its back. The beast's entire body was covered in dark silver armor with electricity flying out of small gasps in the armor plates. The beast's wrists were restricted by shackles, each of which had an electric whip hanging from it.

* * *

 **Shiroi Akuma – Rampant Bull**

 **Rank: 6/Attribute: Light/Type: Thunder/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 3000/DEF: 3000**

 **2 Level 6 LIGHT Thunder-Type monsters**

 **Effect: If your opponent activates a card or effect, targeting this card you control: You can negate the activation, and if you do, inflict 600 damage to your opponent. If this card was Special Summon using a "Shiroi Akuma" Xyz Monster as Xyz Material, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card: Banish all monsters your opponent controls with ATK less than this card's ATK, then inflict 600 damage to your opponent for each monster banished by this effect.**

* * *

"At this moment Balance Scales' effect activates! When I Xyz Summon, I can revive Scales from my Graveyard at the cost of banishing it when it leaves the field!" A portal appeared and the Xyz Monster raised from it, landing in front of Hikaru with 1800 ATK. "And then Rampant Bull's effect lets me use one of its Xyz Materials to banish all of your monsters with less attack than it! _**Taurus Punishment**_!"

"What!?" Yuya's eyes opened wide and he turned back toward his Performapals.

Rampant Bull roared and swung its chain firing four lightnings through it, vaporizing all of the Performapal monsters at once, leaving Yuya's field wide open for a direct attack during the next turn. Shocked, the performer fell on his knees and wrapped his arms around his body. His Pendulum was broken… Odd-Eyes couldn't come back from the banished zone. It was gone. His ace, the symbol of his dueling was gone…

"Next, for every monster that got banished by Rampant Bull's effect you take six hundred points of damage." Hikaru continued. "With five monsters removed from play that makes three thousand points of damage!"

Rampant Bull's horns began to glow and lightning fell from the sky, hitting Yuya. The entertainment screamed out in pain and then collapsed face-first onto the ground.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 – 3000** → **1000** **』**

"Was that enough to break your will?" Hikaru growled. "Pathetic."

"I'm not done…" Yuya clenched his fist and slowly raised back onto his feet. "Even without Odd-Eyes… I won't give up fighting! I'm going to set a card and end my turn!"

"A single facedown? Hmm, it's as if you aren't even trying anymore." Hikaru sneered. "It's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Hikaru] LP: 2700, Hand: 4** **』**

'If I just attack with Rampant Bull it should be enough to finish him off.' Hikaru thought and looked at the screen of his Duel Disk, showcasing the current state of the duel. 'But that set card is suspicious. It could be a bluff, however there are also the Action Cards which can save a situation. I better put my all in this turn.'

"I activate the Spell Card _**Rank-Neutral-Spell Akuma Reform**_! With this, I can use an Xyz Monster on my field as Xyz Material to summon a different Xyz Monster with the same Rank from my Extra Deck! I choose to evolve Balance Scales!" A portal appeared in front of Hikaru and his Xyz Monster fell into it, an explosion of light following shortly after.

* * *

 **Rank-Neutral-Spell Akuma Reform (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 Thunder-Type Xyz Monster you control; Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Shiroi Akuma" monster that is the same Rank as monster you control, by using it as the Xyz Material. (This Special Summon is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to that target also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.)**

* * *

" _The sky and earth will shake before the white demon's fury! Light with demonic origins, choose the path of an untamed beast feeding from the souls of sinners! Xyz Summon, Rank Four! The savage beast, Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Lion (Rank: 4, ATK: 2700)!_ "

A giant muscular beast covered in golden armor with blue cracks on it landed on Hikaru's field and stood up on its back legs. Yuya gulped at the sight of the ferocious beast, even though it was weaker than Rampant Bull, its presence alone was giving Yuya the chills. There was no mistaking it, that was Hikaru's real ace.

"Next, I activate _**Spell Mirage**_! Through this card's effect I can destroy one Spell Card on my field to add a Spell of the same type from my deck to the hand." Akuma Storm burst into pieces that then flew into Hikaru's Duel Disk.

* * *

 **Spell Mirage (Spell) Normal**

 **Destroy 1 Spell Card on your side of the field; add 1 Spell Card of the same type (Normal, Quick-Play, Continuous, etc.) from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"By destroying Akuma Storm, I'm able to add the Continuous Spell, _Yūrei Barrier_ to my hand." Hikaru showed the card to Yuya. "And now, the second effect of Akuma Storm activates! When it destroyed, I can revive an Akuma monster from my Graveyard, so raise again, _Shiroi Akuma – Wild Archer (Rank: 5, ATK: 2800)_!"

A Graveyard portal opened and the red archer leaped through it, landing beside the other two Xyz Monsters.

"Now I activate _Yūrei Barrier_!" Hikaru continued. "While this card is on my field, all of my Shiroi Akuma monsters are going to get a bonus two hundred attack points and the ability to inflict piercing damage!"

 **Shiroi Akuma – Rampant Bull, ATK: 3000 + 200** → **3200**

 **Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Lion, ATK: 2700 + 200** → **2900**

 **Shiroi Akuma – Wild Archer, ATK: 2800 + 200** → **3000**

"The preparations are complete." Hikaru closed his eyes and then opened them again to glare at Yuya. "Rampant Bull attacks you directly!"

Rampant Bull roared and swung its electricity charged whip toward Yuya.

"I won't let you!" Yuya shouted. "I activate my Trap Card, _Performapal Pinch Helper_! When my opponent declares a direct attack this card allows me to negate the attack and then Special Summon a Performapal monster with eight hundred or less attack from my Deck! I choose you, _Performapal Radish Horse (Lv.4, DEF: 2000)_!"

A red plant horse appeared in front of Yuya and turned around to shield the entertainment, while a barrier formed around them blocking the whip.

"That doesn't matter!" Hikaru countered. "My Wild Archer will attack next! _**Sagittarius Shot**_!"

Following Hikaru's order, the Xyz Monster created another arrow made of electricity and fired it at Radish Horse, cutting off the monster's head.

"Radish Horse!" Yuya cried out then glared at Hikaru. "How could you!? Due to Performapal Momoncarpet the damage that I take is halved!"

"But you still take damage." Hikaru clicked his fingers and suddenly a charge of electricity shrugged through Yuya's body, shocking the duelist, who screamed in pain before falling onto his knees once again.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 1000 – 500** → **500** **』**

"And now for the finish! Berserk Lion attack him directly!" Berserk Lion roared and leaped toward Yuya, swinging its claws to cut the boy's neck.

"I discard Performapal Inflater Tapir to make the damage I would take from this attack zero!" A purple Tapir with a small top hat and huge eyes appeared in front of Yuya and took the attack instead, exploding into a cloud of purple spoke that caused Berserk Lion to start coughing from the smoke it breathed in.

"You managed to survive…" Hikaru looked at his cards and then moved one of them toward his Duel Disk. "I set a card and end my turn."

"Ha…ha…" Yuya took a deep breath and looked down at his deck.

Somehow he was able to survive the attacks of three Xyz Monsters, but his strongest monster was banished and he didn't feel that he had the strength to win this duel. Why? Even after obtaining Pendulum Summoning, after becoming the first to use that summoning mechanic, he still wasn't the strongest. Despite how much he tried, there were people that were able to surpass him even when it comes to utilizing Pendulum Summoning. Reiji, Evan, they were much stronger than him. He has never seen their will to waver in front of a difficult situation. Was it because they had a clear goal that they were aiming toward? To become a worthy successor of his father's dueling, to bring smiles to everyone, to save Yuzu, for which one of these things was he fighting right now?

"Heh, are you doubting yourself now?" Hikaru asked, catching the Duelist's attention. "Are you scared to draw because you know that the gap in skill between the two of us is too large? If you are a coward, just press surrender and I'm going to end your miserable life quickly."

"That's not it." Yuya lowered his head. "Hikaru, what are you fighting for?"

"Huh?" the Xyz Duelist blinked in confusion. "What kind of bullshit is this?"

"You came here, attacked us, why?" Yuya pressed on. "What's the thing that drives you forward? What's you reason to do this, to attack Standard that's neutral in this conflict!?"

"Hmm? So you want to know what drives me forward." Hikaru rubbed his chin in thought. "To be honest, I don't know the exact reason why I choose to go out of line, but I'm here because I owe someone my life. When Academia attacked the Xyz Dimension, all of my friends, all of my relatives, were carded or killed. My life was empty and my spirit was slowly fading from the endless duels I had to participate in. My body was already giving up, I was just lying there, in the ruins of my former home, ready to accept my fate, when something happened. I was found by a ground of people who took me in, treated my wounds and saved my life. So, that's why I'm doing this. Because I owe it to those who gave me a reason and a chance to continue on living!"

"Wow…" Yuya's eyes widened. "But… I still can't understand why you are fighting us."

"It's simple." Hikaru stated. "You are in our way! You and your friend came to a place where you weren't supposed to be!"

"Place where we weren't supposed to be?" Yuya repeated. "I don't know what this means, but I can't let you defeat me and probably go after Gongenzaka next, so I'm going to have to stop you right here! My turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Yuya] LP: 500, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate Sky Iris' effect to destroy Cheermole, and when there are no cards in my other Pendulum Zone Performapal Momoncarpet will destroy itself." Yuya said and both cards in his Pendulum Scale burst. "And now by Sky Iris' effect I can add an Odd-Eyes card from my deck to the hand, I choose _Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon_!"

"Using the Scale Two, Dragoncaller Magician and the Scale Five, Wisdom-Eye Magician, I set the Pendulum Scale!"

The two scales appeared behind Yuya again and his monsters raised into them. First, was Dragoncaller Magician who wore a blue cloak with red sleeves and a brown magician hat with an orange dragon eye on its left side. Second was Wisdom-Eye Magician, wearing a dark and white cloak, with golden decorations and blue jewels on its shoulders, and on the buttons of its cloak.

"Next, I activate Wisdom-Eye Magician's Pendulum Effect! By destroying this card I cat set a new Magician directly from my deck." Yuya explained and his monster's body glowed, transforming into a new creature. "I set the Scale Eight, Xiangsheng Magician in my Pendulum Zone!"

The light faded away revealing a woman wearing a pink dress with a hood covering her pink hair. She had a white eye patch over her right eye and in her hand she carried a white and pink bow.

"Pendulum Summon!" Yuya cried out. "From my Extra Deck, _Wisdom-Eye Magician (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_ , _Performapal Radish Horse (Lv.4, ATK: 500)_ and from my hand, _Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2800)_!"

"A new Odd-Eyes?" Hikaru noted. "But due to Yūrei Barrier's effect your monster is too weak to defeat any of mine!"

"I…" Yuya looked down. He could bring out Dark Rebellion by using Wisdom-Eye and Radish Horse, destroy all three of Hikaru's Xyz monsters, but he would leave his monsters defenseless for next turn…

" _At the rate at which your dueling evolves, it won't be long before you manage to surpass me."_

Yuya opened his eyes, remembering Evan's words after their second duel. He had so much to learn yet in order to become as strong as those around him. His growth as a duelist was just starting! Yuya clenched a hand around his pendulum. He could see it clearly! The silhouette of a dark dragon waiting to be summoned for the first time; the source of his new strength!

"I activate Xiangsheng Magician's Pendulum Effect! Once per turn, I can change the level of one monster on the field to become the same as another one! I choose to give Wisdom-Eye Magician my Odd-Eyes' level of seven!" Xiangsheng Magician aimed her bow below and fired an arrow onto Yuya's field. The projectile exploded and a blue aura surrounded Wisdom-Eye Magician.

 **Wisdom-Eye Magician Lv.4** → **7**

"Two Level Seven monsters?" Hikaru noticed. "Don't tell me… You are going to Xyz Summon?!"

"I overlay Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon and Wisdom-Eye Magician!" Both of Yuya's monsters turned into yellow beams of light that flew into a galaxy portal that appeared in front of him.

" _The subzero dragon with diachronic eyes, revive from the depths of the infinity abyss and become the freezing shield of rectitude! Xyz Summon! Rank Seven! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon (Rank: 7, ATK: 2800)!_ "

A dragon with dark skin and pieces of ice in place of scales appeared out of the portal and let out a threatening cry before settling beside on Yuya's side of the field.

"Wow." Hikaru whistled. "So Pendulum Summoning wasn't the only trick you had in your sleeves, was it? But your new dragon has the same attack power as Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon, therefore it can't destroy any of my monsters!"

"Now yet!" Yuya smiled. "But, I activate Performapal Radish Horse's effect targeting your Berserk Lion! Now, till the end of this turn, your monster is going to lose attack power equal to Radish Horse, and Odd-Eyes Absolute is going to gain the same amount of attack!"

The horn on Radish Horse's head shot into the air and exploded into twinkles that flew over the two Xyz Monsters. Berserk Lion dropped its arms and leaned forward tiredly while Odd-Eyes raised its head and roared out again.

 **Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Lion, ATK: 2900 - 500** → **2400**

 **Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, ATK: 2800 + 500** → **3300**

"Now battle! I attack Berserk Lion with Performapal Radish Horse!" Yuya declared, sending his monster forward.

"But Radish Horse has less attack power than any of my monsters!?" Hikaru shouted back at the entertainer while Berserk Lion leaped forward and swung its claws toward Radish Horse. "You are going to lose if this attack goes through!"

"That's why I activate Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon's effect to detach one Xyz Material and negate the attack!" Yuya replied, his dragon absorbing one of its Xyz Materials into its chest before swinging its tail to block Berserk Lion's counter attack. "And when this effect is activated, I can revive one Odd-Eyes from my Graveyard, so come back, _Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2800)_!"

"So that's what you were aiming for? Reviving your Odd-Eyes monster?" Hikaru commented. "But even with two more attacks, you will be unable to defeat all of my monsters at once!"

"Let's put that to the test!" Yuya jumped on Saber Dragon's back and pointed forward. "Let's go! I attack Berserk Lion with Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon!"

Odd-Eyes opened its mouth and unleashed a brilliant blast of light that pierced through the monster's chest and caused it to explode with the flames skipping past Hikaru who was standing indifferent to the attack.

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 2700 – 400** → **2300** **』**

"When a monster is destroyed in battle by Saber Dragon, I can destroy another one of your monsters." Yuya stated. "I choose to get rid of Wild Archer next!"

Following Yuya's words, his Odd-Eyes unleashed another blast of solid light that pierced the second Xyz Monster, blowing it up.

"And now Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon will attack Rampant Bull!" The Xyz dragon leaped into the air and the blades of ice on its back grew larger before shooting a barrage of ice shards against Rampant Bull, piercing the monster's body until it exploded as well. The shockwave that followed the Rank 6's destruction knocked Hikaru onto his back.

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 2300 – 100** → **2200** **』**

"I set a card and end my turn." Yuya finished, jumping off Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon's back.

"Only five hundred damage?" Hikaru groaned, standing back up. "That's amateur numbers, I expected more from you! But it can't be helped, your experience is still that of a newbie and your strategy is to just mindlessly charge at your opponent like some brute. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Hikaru] LP: 2200, Hand: 2** **』**

"First, during my Standby Phase I'm going to activate the Trap Card, _**Revival of Akuma**_! If Shiroi Akuma monsters were destroyed by battle or card effect during the last turn, this card allows me to Special Summon the same number of Level Four or lower Shiroi Akuma monsters from my hand or Graveyard as long as their effects are negated."

* * *

 **Revival of Akuma (Trap) Normal**

 **You can activate this card only during your Standby Phase. When this card is activated, Special Summon a number of Level 4 or lower "Shiroi Akuma" monsters from your hand or Graveyard, up to the number of "Shiroi Akuma" that were destroyed by battle or your opponent's card effects during the last turn. If this card is in your Graveyard, except during the turn it was sent there: You can banish this card from your Graveyard to target 1 LIGHT Thunder-Type Xyz Monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target with its effects negated, but destroy it during the End Phase of this turn.**

* * *

"Now, through Revival of Akuma's effect, I shall call, from my Graveyard, _Shiroi Akuma – Mobilize Rooster (Lv.4, DEF: 1200)_ and from my hand, _**Shiroi Akuma – Loyal Dog**_ and _**Shiroi Akuma – Shrewd Monkey**_!"

A dog-like monster made from blue electricity jumped onto Hikaru's field. The beast had two heads that were looking in different directions and there was a collar made from black metal with silver spikes tied around each of its necks.

* * *

 **Shiroi Akuma – Loyal Dog**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 1700/DEF: 1400**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned, you can target 1 Level 4 "Shiroi Akuma" monster in your Graveyard: Special Summon that target in Defense Position, but its effects are negated. If the only monsters you control are 2 Level 4 "Shiroi Akuma" monsters, you can treat this card as 2 Xyz Materials for the Xyz Summon of a "Shiroi Akuma" Xyz Monster.**

* * *

Another monster made from yellow electricity appeared on Hikaru's field. The monster had large red eyebrows shaped like lightnings and it was wearing golden shackles on its wrists and ankles, while its tail had three bells of different sizes tied to its tail.

* * *

 **Shiroi Akuma – Shrewd Monkey**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 300**

 **Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned, you can target 3 "Akuma" Spell/Trap Cards in your Graveyard, return those cards to the bottom of your deck in any order, and if you do, send 1 "Shiroi Akuma" monster from your Deck to the Graveyard. An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card as Xyz Material gains this effect.**

 **This card cannot be targeted by card effects.**

* * *

"And now, I'm going to activate the Graveyard effect of _Rank-Up-Magic Akuma Domination_! By banishing this card, I can target two Xyz Monsters in my Graveyard and return them into my Extra Deck, then draw a card." Hikaru said before showing Yuya the cards that he choose. "I return Berserk Lion and Wild Archer into my Extra Deck to draw a new card!"

Yuya gulped. Since Berserk Lion was the one that Hikaru returned and he currently had three Level Four monsters on the field, it meant that the beast was going to show up again.

"And now, I Xyz Summon using my three monsters as materials!" Rooster, Dog and Monkey all turned into beams of light that flew into the galaxy portal that opened before Hikaru.

" _The sky and earth will shake before the white demon's fury! Light with demonic origins, choose the path of an untamed beast feeding from the souls of sinners! Xyz Summon, Rank Four! The savage beast, Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Lion (Rank: 4, ATK: 2700)!_ "

"The effect of Balance Scales activates! When I Xyz Summon, I can revive Scales from my Graveyard but it will be banished when it leaves the field." The Scales raised from the Graveyard portal once more. "And due to Yūrei Barrier all of my monsters gain two hundred attack points and the ability to deal piercing damage!"

 **Shiroi Akuma - Berserk Lion, ATK: 2700 + 200** → **2900**

 **Shiroi Akuma – Balance, ATK: 1800 + 200** → **2000**

"Hikaru, you…" Yuya whispered. Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon still had a single Xyz Material left, but that wouldn't be enough to stop both attacks.

"Now I'm going to activate the Quick-Play Spell – _**Cosmic Storm**_!" Hikaru activated a spell that showed _Stellarknight Delteros_ , _Stellarknight Trivver_ , Stellarknight Constellar Diamond directing a solar flare toward a star system, destroying all the planets and other stellar bodies in its path. "With Cosmic Storm's effect, I can destroy a number of face-up cards you control up to the number of Xyz Monsters on my field!"

* * *

 **Cosmic Storm (Spell) Normal**

 **Destroy face-up cards on the field, up to the number of Xyz Monsters you control. During your Standby Phase: You can banish this card; add 1 LIGHT monster from your Graveyard to the hand.**

* * *

"I choose to get rid of your two Odd-Eyes monsters!" Hikaru shouted and a sphere if electricity formed over his monsters head before launching itself toward Yuya's monsters.

"Odd-Eyes!" Yuya cried out, his dragons roared and their bodies shattered into pixels. "You… I'm not done for yet! When Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon leaves the field I can Special Summon an Odd-Eyes from my Extra Deck! Come out, _Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon (Lv.7, DEF: 3000)_!"

A new Odd-Eyes with green and white scales flew over Yuya's head and landed in front of its duelist, moving its wings to cover its body; a blue aura formed around the best showing that it was in Defense Position.

"When Vortex is Special Summoned, I can return one of your monsters to the hand!" Yuya said and pointed toward Berserk Lion. "I choose your ace!"

"Due to Shrewd Monkey's effect, Berserk Lion can't be targeted by card effects." Hikaru replied. "Therefore, your effect will have to return Balance Scales whose effect banishes it instead of returning it to my Extra Deck."

A purple vortex appeared in the center of Balance Scales' body and the monster broke apart before its remains were sucked into the vortex, leaving no trace from the Xyz.

"It's over." Hikaru sighed. "Pendulum, Xyz and then Fusion, you weren't completely weak, but your strength wasn't enough to ear you a victory! Battle! I attack Radish Horse with Berserk Lion!"

Berserk Lion roared and leaped into the air, bringing its claws down toward the Pendulum monster. At that moment, Yuya pressed the screen of his Duel Disk and his set card flipped face-up.

"Trap Open! _Last Minute Cancel_ turns my monsters to Defense Position!" Radish Horse jumped away from Berserk Lion's claws and then lied down in the snow, a blue aura surrounding its body as it changed from 500 ATK to 2000 DEF.

"Even so, due to Yūrei Barrier Berserk Lion can inflict piercing damage!" Hikaru pointed out. "The difference between my monster's attack and yours defense is nine hundred, so disappear!"

Berserk Lion jumped back and raised its claws, charging a ball of electricity that it then flew toward Radish Horse. The Performapal cried out and its body exploded, sending Yuya flying back into the snow. It was over. Hikaru lowered his Duel Disk and turned to leave, but…

"This Duel isn't over yet!" Yuya called out.

"What do you me-!" Hikaru paused.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 50** **』**

"No way… How do you still have Life Points?" Hikaru demanded.

"Performapal Pinch Helper's second effect lets me send it to the Graveyard in order to halve the damage I would have taken." Yuya explained and raised his Duel Disk. "I'll never understand… I could never understand what you people went through, fighting every single day of your life… But because I don't understand that feeling doesn't mean that I'll just lay down and accept defeat!"

"Your Life Points are at fifty and your hand is at zero." Hikaru pointed out. "Do you believe that there is a way to turn this around?"

"There's always a chance!" Yuya returned and grabbed the top card of his deck. "If I believe in my deck, it's sure to respond! My turn. DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Yuya] LP: 50, Hand: 1** **』**

Yuya looked at the card that he drew and his eyes widened in shock. Hikaru take a careful look at Yuya's expression, trying to pry out from the boy's eyes if the card that he drew would turn around the duel or not. But the only thing he could make out was the shock, no, the amazement shining within Yuya's eyes. Yuya's red orbs raised from the card and looked toward Hikaru, a large smile bloomed on the entertainer's face; the duel was his!

"I release Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon to Advance Summon!" The Fusion Odd-Eyes burst into a beam of light that shot into the sky, piercing the clouds. "Under normal conditions, this card would need two tributes, but I can summon it with just one by releasing a Level Five or higher monster! Come out! The superior dragon with diachronic eyes! _Odd-Eyes Advance Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!"

A dragon's roar echoed through the mountain and Yuya's new monster flew through the light, shattering it. Hikaru gasped at the sight of the new monster. It was covered in red scales like the original Odd-Eyes, but its body had more horns and sharp blades with two grey horns sticking out of the monster's head and large wings spread on its back.

"Odd-Eyes Advance Dragon's effect activates!" Yuya cried out. "When its Tribute Summoned, I can destroy a monster controlled by my opponent and inflict damage to them equal to their monster's original attack! _**Advanced Reaction Burst**_!"

Odd-Eyes opened its mouth and fired a stream of multicolored energy toward Berserk Lion, vaporizing the monster. Hikaru cried out and his body was knocked back, sliding across the white field, until his body hit against a rock.

 **『** **Hikaru LP: 2200 – 2700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Yuya** **』**

"I'm sorry." Yuya apologized to Hikaru and then turned around. "I need to go help Gongenzaka."

* * *

"Bringing such a powerful Synchro monster so early in the duel, I, the man Gongenzaka, feel honored to face such a legendary monster." Gongenzaka clenched his fist looking at Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.

"This is the strongest monster within my deck." Makioka explained and gestured at her dragon. "Its unique ability to banish cards from anywhere makes it one of the most superior examples of Synchro Monsters, so if you managed to take it out, I'll be quite impressed."

"I plan to defeat it!" Gongenzaka stated. "My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Gongenzaka] LP: 1300, Hand: 3** **』**

"I Normal Summon the Tuner Monster, _Superheavy Samurai Fist (Lv.2, ATK: 900)_." A small yellow robot with a huge right first appeared before Gongenzaka. "Next, when I control a Superheavy Samurai, I can Special Summon _Superheavy Samurai Hexagon (Lv.6, ATK: 600)_!" A second, bulky robot with brown armor and a stick stepped forward and slammed its stick into the ground.

"And now I tune my Level Six Superheavy Samurai Hexagon to my Level Two Superheavy Samurai Fist!" the little robot jumped into the air and turned into two rings that surrounded Hexagon and a beam of light exploded into the sky.

" _Shinobi hiding in the darkness. Emerge onto this war ground with a cry that echoes in the mountains Synchro Summon! Come before us, Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi (Lv.8, DEF: 2800)!_ "

A black and blue robot with yellow arms and legs appeared in front of Gongenzaka and sat down, a blue aura surrounding its body.

"When I Synchro Summon a monster, I can Special Summon Superheavy Samurai Soulclaw (Lv.2, ATK: 500) and then I equip them to Sarutobi!" Red and blue mechanical claws flew over to the Synchro and attached themselves to its arm. "Through Soulclaw's effect the equipped monster gains five hundred attack and defense!"

 **Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi, ATK: 2000 + 500** → **2500, DEF: 2800 + 500** → **3300**

"Now I activate Sarutobi's effect!" Gongenzaka continued. "Once per turn, I can destroy a spell or trap card controlled by my opponent and inflict five hundred damage to them!" the ninja put its hands together and fired a beam from its visor shattering Makioka's set Torrential Reborn.

 **『** **Makioka LP: 4000 - 500** → **3500** **』**

"Next I attack Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier with Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi!" the ninja's visor began to glow again and it fired a beam that cut off all three of Trishula's heads. The monster's body leaned back and then exploded, a shard of ice cutting through Makioka's shoulder, making her wince in pain.

 **『** **Makioka LP: 3500 - 600** → **2900** **』**

"Are you ok?!" Gongenzaka wondered.

"It's just a scratch." Makioka replied. "Getting wounded while fighting is a normal thing, I'm used to it."

"Used to it?" Gongenzaka repeated. "What is that supposed to mean? Is fighting like this a normal practice for you?"

"Of course." Makioka shrugged. "At the place I came from, fighting is everything. Nothing can be obtained unless you are a winner and in the unfortunate event of losing, you are fated to lose everything you held dear. That's why I practiced, pain, tiredness, I was able to overcome those things and raise to another level."

"So that's your determination." Gongenzaka noted. "There's nothing else I can do, so now it's your turn."

"Before I start however, I want to congratulate you. By destroying Torrential Reborn on this turn you were able to save yourself from losing the duel on my incoming turn. With that said. I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Makioka] LP: 2900, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card: Surface to revive one of my Level three or lower Aqua monsters in Defense Position." Makioka explained. "I choose to revive _Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier (Lv.2, DEF: 0)_! And while Cryomancer is on the field none of your Level Four or higher monsters has the ability to declare an attack anymore."

"So you are going to use this lockdown tactic again?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"More than that." Makioka shook her head and took another card from her hand. "I Normal Summon _Dewdark of the Ice Barrier (Lv.2, ATK: 1200)_!"

A blond man with a mask covering his mouth and two black daggers in his hands appeared before Makioka and bowed to her.

"While the only monsters on my field are Level Two of lower, Dewdark is able to declare a direct attack ignoring the opponent's monsters." Makioka explained. "So battle! Attack my opponent directly!"

The ninja disappeared from the field and reappeared again in front of Gongenzaka, kicking the duelist in the stomach. Gongenzaka gasped from the surprise attack and retreated back a step before he fell onto his knees, coughing.

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 1300 - 1200** → **100** **』**

"And with that my turn concludes." Makioka closed her eyes. "Your hand is at zero and your Life Points are at a hundred, which means that the only hope you have to defeat me will be the card that you are about to draw. Unless it's something good, my Dewdark will finish you off during the next turn!"

"I, the man Gongenzaka, won't allow myself to be defeat like that!" Gongenzaka announced and looked down at his deck. "As long as there's a single card left in my deck, there's a chance for a turnaround! My turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Gongenzaka] LP: 100, Hand: 1** **』**

"First, I'm going to unequip Superheavy Samurai Soulclaw and Special Summon it in Defense Position." The mechanical claws flew off Sarutobi's hand and landed next to it with 500 DEF. "Next, I Normal Summon the Tuner Monster, _Turque Tune Gear (Lv.1, ATK: 0)_!"

"It's not a Superheavy Samurai?!" Makioka wondered.

"I activate Turque Tune Gear's effect!" Gongenzaka said. "I equip it to Superheavy Samurai Soulclaw and when equipped by this effect, Turque Tune Gear turns the equipped monster into a Tuner! Now I'm going to tune my Level Eight Superheavy Samurai Ninja Sarutobi to my Level Two Superheavy Samurai Soulclaw!"

"Another Level Ten Synchro?!"

" _Raging deity, ruling over a wasteland of fallen warriors, come forth in a spiraling storm of flames! Synchro Summon! Now come before us, Level Ten!_ _ **Superheavy Samurai Ruler Susanowo**_ _!_ "

A single beam of light flew from the sky and a retrained form of Susanowo landed on the field, sitting on the ground with its legs crossed. The new monster looked almost like a complete copy of Gongenzaka's original ace but instead of the strange spear-like weapon, this new Susanowo was carrying a katana.

* * *

 **Superheavy Samurai Ruler Susanowo**

 **Level: 10/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Machine/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 3800**

 **1 Machine-Type Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner "Superheavy Samurai" monsters**

 **Effect: This card can attack while in face-up Defense Position. If it does, apply its DEF for damage calculation. Once per turn, if you have no Spell/Trap Cards in your Graveyard: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Discard 1 card, and if you do, destroy that target, then inflict damage to your opponent equal to the destroyed monster's Level x200. When your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can banish 1 card from your Graveyard: Negate the action, and if you do, destroy it.**

* * *

"So your Susanowo evolved…" Makioka commented. "But it's useless! While Cryomancer is on my field your monster can't attack!"

"I'm going to chance that!" Gongenzaka replied and stepped onto Susanowo's arm. The machine reacted and raised its owner so he could reach frozen rocks that surrounded them and grab an Action Card. "I discard a card in order to destroy Cryomancer and then inflict two hundred damage for every level that the monster had!"

Susanowo swung its katana and unleashed a wave of wind that pierced Makioka's monster and it exploded while the girl winced from the damage she took.

 **『** **Makioka LP: 2900 - 400** → **2500** **』**

"Battle!" Gongenzaka shouted. "I attack _Dewdark of the Ice Barrier_ with Superheavy Samurai Ruler Susanowo! _**Ame-no-Murakumo Sword Slash**_!"

"I won't let you!" Makioka shouted and grabbed an Action Card on her own. "I activate the Action Card – _Evasion_! This negates your attack!"

"I activate Susanowo's second effect! When my opponent activates a Spell or Trap Card I can banish a card from my Graveyard in order to negate your card! I banish the Action Spell that I discarded for Susanawo's first effect!"

"No way!" Makioka gasped.

Susanowo swung its sword once again, smashing it against the ground, it unleashed a shockwave that tore through the field and cutDewdark of the Ice Barrier in two. The force of the attack launched Makioka into the air and she cried out before crashing into the snow.

 **『** **Makioka LP: 2500 - 2600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Gongenzaka** **』**

"So, I actually lost this duel." Makioka whispered while lying in the snow. "To think that anyone from Standard would be able to beat me, and with the odds so much against them. But, the time I brought _him_ should be enough, so it's fine." The girl forced herself to stand up and looked at Gongenzaka. "I congratulate you for this victory, Lancer. But we will meet again!"

"Wait, what do you-!" Gongenzaka reached out, but before he could question the girl, her Duel Disk emitted a blinding blue light and she disappeared from the field.

Gongenzaka looked around and then sighed. Makioka was gone for good, there was no sight of footsteps to say that she used the blinding light in order to run away. Like she faded into thin air."…What did she mean by Lancer?"

"Gongenzaka!" The duelist turned and was met by a sight that made him smile.

"Yuya. Are you ok?"

"Yes." The entertainer nodded. "I tried to find you as soon as I finished my Duel. What happened with the girl that you fought against?"

"She disappeared." Gongenzaka replied. "I, the man Gongenzaka, am deeply confused about what just happened, but I have a gut feeling that we haven't seen everything just yet."

"Yeah." Yuya nodded in agreement. "But these people, just who were they and why did they attack us?"

"We'll think about it later. Right now we must find Yuzu and make sure that she's ok." Gongenzaka replied and turned around to continue the search with Yuya following shortly after him.

* * *

"Where are we going next?" Ventus asked.

"There's no 'we' here, I'm going to find the remaining Fusion duelists and deal with them." Koharu replied. "Meanwhile, you can go do some of your ninja stuff or whatever, just don't get in my way."

"Hey, I'm the one who helped you in that duel against the Academia Duelist!" Ventus pouted. "Couldn't you be a bit nicer? We aren't enemies of anything."

"But we aren't allies, I-! Wait." Koharu raised a hand to gesture for Ventus to stop.

"Huh? What's it?"

"Hikage's position just disappeared from the map." Koharu clenched her fist. "Damn it! Academia is already tearing through Reiji's most trusted people as easy as a hot knife cuts through butter."

"I think Hikage's last position was not too far, we should go there and avenge him!" Ventus suggested.

"Well, we are hunting down Academia's dogs anyways, so it's obvious that we should go there." Koharu agreed and pointed to the left. "That's where his last position was, we are going there together, understood? No ninja jumping or random stuff like that."

"Heh, you are already starting to sound like a carrying teammate." Ventus smirked and walked past the Xyz Duelist.

Koharu on the other side was glaring daggers at the ninja's head for pointing out that little detail. It wasn't like she cared what happened to the Lancers or anything like tha- "You big dummy!"

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"Ah…" Damn it!

I've been looking for Elizabeth for the past hour, but I had no idea where that bitch teleported her to and my body was already starting to give up from all the damage I took in the last duel. In fact, it was a miracle by itself that I could still move, but since my clothes were already damaged I had an easy time tearing off pieces to bandage my wounds with.

But that feeling… Lying there helpless and on the verge of defeat, that scene will haunt me for the rest of my life. To think that a knock-off of all things would match my skills, no, it wasn't even a match. She completely dominated the fight and played with me.

"Calm down." Sola's spirit spoke to me. "There's no use getting frustrated over facts that have already passed."

"It's easy for you to say that." I retorted. "But what am I going to do if we have to face her again? Her strength… Do you think we could ever hope to reach her level?"

"I don't know, really." Sola crossed her arms. "When I watched her I sensed the exact same aura like yours. Not even twins have a spiritual presence as similar as you and her. If we ever have to face her the most that we would need to do is become stronger before then, so that's easy. But how are we going to explain those similarities? You and your siblings aren't supposed to have counterparts in this universe, so what exactly was that girl?"

Ah, just great! More weird things to brainstorm about; exactly the type of side-activity that I needed! Why must the plot be so damn confusing! Wait. Why did I care how that look-alike came to be in the first place? She's just some copy that I got to find and destroy, right? I wasn't going to tire my brain with useless information about useless people – that was Elizabeth's duty. Mine was to be awesome and-!

Is that the sound of a motorbike engine that I'm hearing? It was also getting louder and…

"Whoohooo!" A motorbike suddenly flew over my head. My jaw dropped at the sight. Though it was hard to make out the details from below and with the speed that it passed me, but the motorbike I saw looked very similar, almost like the one driven by…

"Yugo!" I shouted, slamming my fist against the palm of my left hand.

The motorbike then landed on the ground and spun to the side before the brakes stuck themselves in the snow and… Well, children, why don't you try to tell me what happens when you use brakes on a frozen road? Exactly. The bike went out of control and I winched, closing my eyes to avoid watching the massacre that ensued.

When I opened my eyes, the white D-Wheel was on the ground with Yugo lying face-down next to it. Should I look for a stick and check if he was dead or just ignore and go on my way? Yeah, I should probably do the second, but if Yugo was dead I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I… borrow the motorbike for a quick tour around the field.

"Ahhh! My back hurts!" Yugo yelled and jumped onto his feet, rubbing his back with both hands. "Ouch, ouch. Ah, damn it! How did this happen?"

Well, forget about it, turns out that crashing with a motorbike doesn't result in anything more than a bit of pain in the back inside this universe. I shook my head and moved on, leaving that dumb-head to deal with things himself.

"Hey wait there!" Damn it, Yugo!

"Hmm?" I turned back and looked at the Synchro Yuya. "What do you want, copycat?"

"Huh?" Yugo looked at me with confusion written all over his face. But he quickly recovered from it, shaking his head before pointing at me; what a rude gesture. "Do you know where the heck this place is? I've been driving around for the past few hours and got through a volcano, a forest and other crazy shit. Not to mention that everyone I came across keeps getting my name wrong and challenges me to a duel!"

"Well, you teleported in the middle of a tournament Battle Royale so that's understandable." I told him.

"A tournament?" Yugo tilted his head to the side. "This… Um, how do I put it… This is one weird looking tournament. Also, why are those bastards in the blue uniforms participating as well?"

"Blue uniforms?" Ah, damn it, he must be talking about the Obelisk Force and… Wait, he must know who the Obelisk Force is when he's asking specifically about them. "You probably don't remember, but we have met before as well."

"We did?" Wow! He didn't even remember what happened at the park?

"Yeah, we did." I nodded. "I watched you murder that Xyz guy who looked just like you."

"Wait, I killed him!?" Just how many things about his own actions did Yugo have no idea happened? "I remember dueling him and all, but killed? Like, he's dead now type of killed?"

"Yes, the 'I got blasted by a huge-ass dragon and now rest six feet below the ground' type of killed." I'm getting a headache from this conversation already… "What other kind of killing were you thinking about? Actually, don't answer that, I don't want to know."

"Tch, I wasn't able to learn where that bastard took Rin to." Yugo clenched his fist.

"You are really stupid, aren't you?"

"Hey!"

"No hey! Didn't it ring you a bell that he might not be involved when, I don't know, he accused you of kidnapping his comrade?" Was logical and rational thinking a forfeit art of enlightenment for everyone in this universe, or did they just evolved to have sub-human levels of intelligence?

"I'm, sure that he was the bastard who stole Rin from me!"

"And what evidence do you have?"

"He has the same face as the bastard who stole Rin!"

"And while you were murdering him there was another one with the same face trying to make you both stop fighting." I pointed out.

"Umm… he had the same face as the bastard who stole Rin!"

"God are you stubborn." I rubbed my temper. My inner voice was telling me to drop this pointless conversation, but that D-Wheels of his would let me cover more ground when searching for my siblings, so I had to try a different approach. "You said that the one who kidnapped your friend had the same face as Yuto, right? Then how about we do something else?" I suggested. "How about a duel? If you win, I'm going to give you information about a group of people that could help you find Rin, but if I win, you will have to drive her around on that D-Wheel. Sounds fair?"

You probably wonder why I'm doing this instead just requesting for him to help me out in exchange of helping him out. Well, I'm still angry for my duel against Evice so beat this punk would help me call down a little.

"Waitwaitwait! You know who could help me find Rin!?" Yugo exclaimed. "Why didn't you say that from the start! I'm going to duel you, fine!"

The Yuya look-alike raised his D-Wheel back up and jumped onto it before activating his Duel Disk. So, he was going to duel while riding that thing like he did with Yuto? I was fine with that.

"DUEL!" we both yelled.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Yugo LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Girls take the first turn!" I said and quickly grabbed a card from my hand. "I activate the Spell Card – _**Star Transcendence**_! By releasing an Astral Angel monster in my hand, I can Summon a LIGHT monster from my deck whose level is higher than the tribute monster's with exactly one star!"

* * *

 **Star Transcendence (Spell) Normal**

 **Tribute 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your hand: This turn you can Normal Summon 1 LIGHT monster from your deck whose Level is equal to the Tributed monster's Level +1 (You don't need to tribute monsters for the Normal Summon of a Level 5 or higher monster). If this card is in your Graveyard, except during the turn it was sent there: You can banish this card and up to 2 LIGHT monsters in your Graveyard: Special Summon 1 monster from your Deck whose level is less than or equal to the banished monster(s) combined Levels.**

* * *

"With this card, I release Astral Angel Einplus from my hand to Normal Summon a Level Two monster directly from my deck." A halo appeared in front of me with a portal inside of it. "I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Müllaufbereiter (Lv.2, ATK: 600)_!"

"Huh!? A Normal Summon from the deck?" Yugo exclaimed. "I have never heard of something like that before!"

"Well, now you have!" I responded and gestured toward my monster. "Müllaufbereiter's effect activates! When its Normal Summoned I can Special Summon a Level Two or lower monster in my Graveyard, so come back, _Astral Angel Einplus (Lv.1, DEF: 500)_!"

The ground below me opened and Einplus flew through it. The little Tuner flew over to me and its body began to glow brightly.

"And now I activate Einplus' effect!" I announced. "When it's Special Summoned I can add a Level Four or lower Astral Angel from my deck to the hand! I choose to add Astral Angel Silver Ring. Next I tune my Level Two Müllaufbereiter to my Level One Einplus!"

My triangle turned into a green ring and surrounded Müllaufbereiterwho turned into two spheres of light.

" _The universe is always expanding! Activate, the hunter able to detect its prey from across the stars! Synchro Summon! Level Three! Astral Angel Bewegungsmelder (Lv.3, DEF: 1700)!_ "

The drone flew before me and landed with a blue aura surrounding its body. Although summoning him without any monster to weaken through his effect was an awful idea that could get my monster destroyed prematurely, it was the best I could do at the moment.

"So you are using Synchro and not one of these other weird summonings?" Yugo wondered; was he talking about Fusion or Xyz?

"I'm full of surprise, but you won't like them." I warned him. "Now I'm going to set a card and end my turn, so come and try to attack me if you are brave enough."

"Of course I'm!" Yugo shouted and sped toward me. I barely had time to reach and jump out of the way, before the D-Wheel ran through the spot where I was standing a moment ago. Didn't even slow down. He was really aiming to drive through me, wasn't he!?

"You bastard that almost killed me!" I yelled at him.

"You are fine!" He retorted and turned around. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Yugo] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I Normal Summon the Tuner, _Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice (Lv.3, ATK: 300)_!" A blue triangle (ha, coincidence?) with red eyes on its sides appeared next to Yugo's D-Wheel and flew after him.

"Next, when there's a WIND monster out on the field, this guy can be Special Summoned from the hand! Come out, _Speedroid Taketomborg (Lv.3, ATK: 600)_!" A humanoid robot with yellow, red and blue body appeared next to the triangle. "Let's go now! I tune my Level three Taketomborg to Tri-Eyed Dice!"

The triangle turned into three Synchro rings that rotated around Taketomborg who turned into three stars.

" _Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level 6 Six! Hi-Speedroid Kendama (Lv.6, ATK: 2200)!_ "

Some weird blue monster with what looked to be a spear sticking out of its front flew through the Synchro rings and moved next to Yugo, who drove in circle around me.

"Now I activate Kendama's effect! I banish Taketomborg from my Graveyard to inflict five points of damage to you! Take this!" The Synchro turned toward me and the end of its spear began to glow.

Oh no.

It fired a beam that hit the ground before me and exploded, sending snow into my eyes. Argh!

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 500** → **3500** **』**

"Now battle! I attack your Bewu-… Bawu- Whatever its name is with Hi-Speedroid Kendama!" Yugo's Synchro turned around and charged toward mine. I have watched Yugo's duel against Yuto and knew exactly what this card was able to do.

"Trap Open! _**Cosmic Reflect**_!" My trap flipped face-up. Its artwork showed Sola Starlight looking at a mirror whose reflection showed a Battle Ox charging at her from behind. "This negates your attack and then I can Special Summon a single Astral Angel Token with its attack and Level being the same as those of the monster whose attack was negated!"

* * *

 **Cosmic Reflect (Trap) Normal**

 **When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target the attacking monster; negate the attack, and Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel Token" (Fairy-Type/LIGHT/Level ?/ATK ?/DEF 0). (When Summoned, its Level and ATK become equal to the original Level and ATK of the targeted monster.)**

* * *

A mirror appeared before my monster and took the attack in place of Bewegungsmelder. As Kendama's blade stuck it, the mirror broke into pieces and out of them appeared another Kendama, who, unlike the original version, had white armor.

"Argh, damn it!" Yugo exclaimed and grabbed another card in his hand. "I set a card and end my turn!"

"Great, this means that I'm going to be able to finish this duel quickly." In case you guys didn't notice, my field was already set and ready to call forth my strongest monster!

"My turn, draw!" I declared.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Avice] LP: 3500, Hand: 4** **』**

"First off, I'm going to activate the effect of Einplus in my Graveyard!" I began. "By increasing the level of a monster on my field by One, I'm able to Special Summoned Einplus from my Graveyard, but it'll be banished when it leaves the field again!"

A Graveyard portal opened in the snow and the little triangle returned back onto my field, floating over my Astral Angel token, which gained another star.

 **Astral Angel Token, Lv: 6** → **7**

"And now I activate Einplus' other effect! Since it was Special Summoned, I can add a Level Four or lower Astral Angel monster from my deck to the hand! I choose _**Astral Angel Harmonograph Fünf**_!"

* * *

 **Astral Angel Harmonograph Fünf**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Rock/Pendulum/Effect**

 **ATK: 400/DEF: 200**

 **P.S: 5**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can target 2 Spell/Trap Cards in your Graveyard; banish them card, and if you do, apply the effect of one of them as this card's effect.**

 **Effect: If this card is banished, you can target 1 "Astral Angel" monster in your Graveyard or that's banished, except for this card: Special Summon that target, but destroy it during your 2** **nd** **End Phase after its Special Summoned by this effect.**

* * *

"Synchro you are from Synchro, I believe you know what happens when a Tuner and a non-Tuner join the field! I tune my Level Seven, Astral Angel Token, to my Level One, Astral Angel Einplus!"

Like last time, Einplus turned into a ring and Astral Angel Token flew through it becoming seven stars that then shot through the ring into a blazing green beam of light.

" _The supreme angel with the burning soul of a star. Spread your beautiful wings of destruction and erase our enemies with your blazing light! Synchro Summon! Level Eight! Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)!_ "

"I have never seen anything like that before!" Yugo exclaimed, checking something on his Duel Disk. "It's a Pendulum monster?! What the heck is a Pendulum monster!?"

"I'm going to have to skip the part where I explain that to you because you won't get to see my monster's Pendulum ability in action!" I responded. "I'm ending this now! Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph's effect! Once per turn, I can halve the attack points of one of your monsters, then Sola gains that lost attack and you take that same amount as damage! _Photon Link Conversion_!"

My monster's white needles stuck Hi-Speedroid Kendama's body and the machine's eyes stopped glowing as its body began to slow down. Sola then absorbed the needles back into her wings and they began to radiate with a green aura that my monster then fired against Yugo, blowing up the ground below his wheels.

 **Hi-Speedroid Kendama, ATK: 2200/2** → **1100**

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 1100** → **4100**

 **『** **Yugo LP: 4000 - 1100** → **2900** **』**

"Damn, that was close!" Yugo's D-Wheel speeded through the smoke. "I was going to fall off my D-Wheel because of that attack!"

"Oh shut up." How annoying. I was going to teach him a lesson. "I activate Bewegungsmelder's effect! Once per turn, I can target one of your monsters and reduce its attack to zero, as well as negate its effects. How awful for Kendama, but it seems that it's going to get de-buffed twice in a single turn! _Area Stun_!"

My Synchro flew over the Speedroid and dropped a pink cube of energy that unleashed a stream of electricity which paralyzed the already deactivated monster.

 **Hi-Speedroid Kendama, ATK: 1100** → **0**

"If the monster targeted by Bewegungsmelder gets destroyed this turn, you are going to take half its original attack as damage, but Sola's attack is already enough to finish you off with a single swing, so that effect doesn't really matter." I told him. "Go, Sola Electra! Attack Hi-Speedroid Kendama with _Photon Particle Stream_!"

"Trap open!" Dang it! "I activate _Speed Turn_! When I control a Speedroid monster, this card lets me change one of your monsters to defense and drop its Defense values by five hundred! Of course, I choose Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph!"

The glow on my monster's wings died down and she fell onto the ground with a blue aura covering her body. Well, that sucked.

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, DEF: 2000** → **1500**

"Tch, lucky bastard." If I had changed Bewegungsmelder to attack I would have dealt some solid damage, but I would have also left a 600 ATK monster for him to curb stomp on my next turn…

"I activate Astral Angel Müllaufbereiter's second effect! By banishing it from my Graveyard, I'm able to add a Selig card from my deck to the hand! I choose _Selig Transformation_ and then I set a card facedown. At the end of this turn, Kendama's attack returns to normal due to Bewegungsmelder's effect and its effects return as well."

 **Hi-Speedroid Kendama, ATK: 0** → **2200**

"If I haven't set Speed Turn on my last turn I would have lost." I heard Yugo breathed out in relief. "It's my turn now. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Yugo] LP: 2900, Hand: 4** **』**

"Perfect!" I didn't like that happy sounding voice… "I activate _Speedroid Scratch_! By sending _Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice_ from my hand to the Graveyard, I'm able to add _Speedroid Double Yoyo_ to my hand, and then I'm going to Normal Summon it!"

As the name suggested, a pair of green yoyos with blades coming out of them appeared on Yugo's field with 1400 attack points.

"Double Yoyo's effect lets me revive a Speedroid from my Graveyard! Come back, _Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice (Lv.1, DEF: 100)_!" A yellow dice with a red eye in its center jumped out of the Graveyard and next to Yugo's other monsters. "Now I tune my Level Four, Double Yoyo, to the Level One, Red-Eyed Dice!"

Double Yoyo flew through the green ring and turned into four stars that then burst into a straightway of light.

" _Feel the pulse of this swordsman's soul! Come out! Level Five! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara (Lv.5, ATK: 2000)!_ "

Out of the light came another robot, this time a red one whose waist had the shape of a sword and it was also holding two swords in its arms; making for a total of three sharp swords!

"I banish Double Yoyo for Kendama's effect! Now you lose five hundred Life Points!" The blue Synchro fired at me again, this time knocking me back with the shockwave its attack produced.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3500 - 500** → **3000** **』**

"Now battle! I attack Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph with Hi-Speedroid Kendama!" the Synchro charged at Sola who looked back at me.

"Quick-Play activate!" I shouted, activating my set card. "Selig Transformation, transform Bewegungsmelder into a being with new power!"

My monster's body broke apart and its core flew off after which a new set of armor locked itself in place around it, transforming my monster into its new form.

" _Drone tearing through the matter of space! Transform into a blazing storm of light beyond the limits of this reality! Transformation Summon! Level Six! Sacrosanct guardian of hope! Astral Angel Mercury Shield (Lv.6, ATK: 1700)!_ "

"Argh! What's up with those weird types of summoning!?" Yugo rubbed his head. "Even though you did replaced your weaker monster, the target of Kendama's attack doesn't change, so you are going to take damage!"

"Not if I can help it!" I gestured toward Mercury Shield. "I activate Mercury Shield's effect! Once per turn, I can change two Attack Position monsters, one on each field, to Defense! I choose itself and your Kendama!" My monster put its shields in front and they began to glow, blinding Hi-Speedroid Kendama who missed Sola and instead smashed into the snow.

"Stop dodging my attacks! I'm going to attack Sola with Chanbara!" Yugo declared as his second Synchro charged toward me. "And when Chanbara attacks, it gains a hundred more attack points!"

 **Hi-Speedroid Chanbara, ATK: 2000 + 100** → **2100**

The Synchro flew through my Sola and cut her into pieces, destroying her. But, I still had Mercury Shield to protect my Life Points from damage!

"I'm going to set a card face-down and end my turn!" Yugo finished, laying a single card on his field. "I would have finished the duel in this turn if you weren't avoiding my attacks like this!"

'That was dangerous.' I thought. WithoutSelig Transformation I wouldn't have been able to counter Yugo's attacks, which would mean that I would have taken a total of… 2900 damage? Wow.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Heh, thanks for the save. I almost had my work done and was going to join the rest when that annoying Yuya came out of nowhere and Xyz Summoned that dragon."

And while the Standard Duelists and the Tracers had their own problems, Sora had to explain how exactly he got caught by Shun and why he wasted the others' time with this rescue. To say that his 'savior' was pissed would be an understatement. Even though Sora was keeping his usual smiling face, deep inside he was absolutely terrified what was going to happen to him next.

"That's enough!" the older boy said irritated and waved with a hand, which immediately caused Sora to shut up. "You've been defeated by a Xyz user, the same kind that we've been beating in the hundreds. Getting your duel interrupted is no excuse for trampling Academia's name with your incompetence!"

"Wait, I can still prove my worth!" Sora practically begged. "I know how we could find one of the girls that the Professor sent us to collect!"

"That's information is irrelevant to me. Unless you know her exact location, your info is of no use for Academia's goals."

"Please, I'm still able to fight!" Sora cried out. "I know that I failed, but I'm able to do better than that! I swear, just give me a chance!"

"Are we interrupting something?"

Ventus and Koharu walked in front of the two Fusion Duelists with their Duel Disk already activated. Sora and the boy stopped their arguing and turned toward the interrupters.

"It seems that fate has choose to save you once again, Shiunin." The boy sighed and stretched out his left arm, the Duel Disk strapped on it coming to life. "You can go on and continue the search while I deal with these insects."

"W-what!?" Sora's eyes widened. "If they are two we should duel together!"

"I don't care to watch you show your 'worth' for Academia's cause, so I got no need of you." The boy replied. "Unless you are going to disobey a direct order from a higher-up, in which case you know what the penalty is, right?"

"N-no, I'll be going." Sora gulped and turned back to leave. "I'll leave this to you, Kaiser Ryo."

"Kaiser!" Koharu's expression suddenly changed from confident to uneasy and her hand began to visibly tremble. Ventus noticed that, but he didn't bother to ask her what was wrong; there was no need to confirm what he already figured out.

"It seems that my fame is well known even among the Xyz Dimension." Ryo's face gained a maniacal grin as he pointed toward his chest. "My full name is Ryo Marufuji, be sure to remember it because that's going to be the last name you get to hear in this life."

"I take it that you are the one who beat Hikage." Ventus narrowed his eyes.

"You mean that other ninja? He really was to match for me, didn't even manage to do any damage before I finished him off." Ryo replied. "But now I understand why his face didn't show a sight of defeat even after I finished him off. He must have been buying time for you to show up."

"And now we are here, so his believing did pay off." Ventus replied and looked back to Koharu. "Come on, if we fight together, we'll be able to win this!"

"I…" Koharu took a deep breath and nodded. "Together, right… Let's fight together and defeat this bastard!"

"Hmm, the only one who's going to get defeat is you two." Ryo said. "I'm going to crush you and then everyone else that tries to go against Academia's will!"

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Ventus LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Ryo LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" Koharu exclaimed. "I activate the Continuous Spell: Wishes Incorporated! Once per turn, if there are no monsters on my field I can Special Summon one Wishes monster from my hand, but as a cost, I can't Special Summon monsters for the rest of the turn, except through Xyz Summoning! I Special Summon _Knight of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_!"

The knight clad in light appeared before Koharu and turned back to nod to its controller.

"Next, I Normal Summon _Golem of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_!" another monster made from light raised next to the knight. "And now, I'm going to Xyz Summon with these two monsters!"

Both of Koharu's monsters turned into beams of yellow light that flew into a galaxy portal that formed above her head and it then exploded, giving birth to a new monster.

" _Hope, the enigmatic force that unites us, come as the courageous protector of dreams! Xyz Summon! Heavenly warrior of light! Rank Four, King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

"So you were able to Xyz Summon on your first turn." Ryo noted. "That's going to make beating you sweater for me."

"I set two cards face-down and end my turn." Koharu finished before turning toward Ventus. "That's all I got for now. It's your time to make a move."

"Right!" Ventus nodded energetically and stepped forward. "Even though I found you somewhat cool during the GX era, I won't forgive you for what you did to my fellow ninja. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Ventus] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Hmm…" Ventus thought while rubbing his chin. "This hand is really, really, really bad, but let's try and do something with it. I Normal Summon _Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior (Lv.4, ATK: 1850)_ and then I set a card. That's turn."

"That's… Really the best that you could do?" Koharu glared at her partner. "Also, why the heck did you change your deck again? Couldn't you just pick a deck and use only that one instead of switching back and forth between this one and the Heroic deck?"

"It's important to give your decks a fair treatment." Ventus raised a point. "It wouldn't be fair for my Lightsworn deck if I use the Heroic deck more than it, and it won't be fair for the Heroic if I use the Lightsworn deck more. It's all about the balance, the yin and yang as they say."

"Nobody says that." Koharu groaned. "You just came up with this to try and sound smart while in really you don't have an excuse for using more than one deck, isn't that right?"

"…It's about the yin and yang."

"Enough!" Ryo shouted at the two. "If you two wanted to act like fools, you should have gone to the circus instead of entering a battlefield! I'm going to vaporize you for making fun of dueling with your acting! The countdown of your destruction begins now, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Ryo] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my side of the field, I can Special Summon _Cyber Dragon (Lv.5, ATK: 2100)_ from my hand!" a robot serpent-like monster without any limbs appeared in front of Ryo and roared at the Lancers. "And next, I'm going to Normal Summon _Proto-Cyber Dragon (Lv.3, ATK: 1100)_ "

A small version of the original Cyber Dragon appeared with cables attached to its body.

"While Proto-Cyber Dragon is on my field it can be treated as Cyber Dragon." Ryo explained. "Next, I activate the Quick-Play Spell: _Photon Generator Unit_ to release my two Cyber Dragons and Special Summon _Cyber Laser Dragon (Lv. 7, ATK: 2400)_ from my deck!" A more stylized and slimmer version of Cyber Dragon appeared with a laser attached to its tail. "Now I activate Cyber Laser Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can destroy a monster on the field at the condition that the monster I'm about to destroy has more attack or defense than Laser Dragon's attack. I choose King of Dreams, Hope!"

"I won't let you!" Kiharu threw her arm forward. "I activate my set card _**De-Xyz**_! This takes one of my Xyz Monsters and turns it back into the monsters used to summon it!"

Cyber Laser Dragon's tail raised and fired a red laser toward Hope, but the Xyz monster quickly turned into a ball of light and returned back into Koharu's Extra Deck before the beam could touch it.

* * *

 **De-Xyz (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Return 1 face-up Xyz Monster you control to the Extra Deck, then, if that monster had monsters attached to it as Xyz Materials while it was on the field, Special Summon those monsters from your Graveyard.**

* * *

"Now come out, _Knight of Wishes (Lv.4, DEF: 900)_ and _Golem of Wishes (Lv.4, DEF: 1800)_!" Hope's Xyz Materials flew in front of Koharu and transformed into two monsters that landed before her in Defense Position. "Now your dragon can no longer hurt my monsters!"

"By returning it to the Extra Deck you made reviving that Xyz Monster only harder for yourself." Ryo pointed out. "It would have been much easier to revive it from the Graveyard, of course you probably wanted for it to have Xyz Materials in order to actually do something, so I could understand. But now I'm going to activate _Overload Fusion_ to Fusion Summon by banishing Cyber Dragon and Proto-Cyber Dragon from my Graveyard!"

The two Cyber Dragons appeared back onto the field and then flew toward one another, merging into a vortex of different colors while Ryo began to chant.

" _Soulless machines, melt into a singularity that sparkles massacres and flames of demolition! Fusion Summon! Futuristic dragon of metal! Chimeratech Rampage Dragon (Lv.5, ATK: 2100)!_ "

A cybernetic black dragon appeared on the field with two Cyber Dragon heads sticking from its shoulders. The beast roared and charged two beams inside of its robotic jaws.

"I activate Rampage Dragon's effect! When it's Fusion Summoned I target Spell and Traps up to the number of materials I used to Fusion Summon it and destroy them! The amount of monsters used was two, therefore both of your set cards are done for!"

Chimeratech Rampage Dragon fired its beams, obliterating both Koharu and Ventus' set cards.

"He got rid of your backrow in a single move." Koharu muttered. "If he attacks now, one of us is going to take a serious amount of damage!"

"I'm not done yet!" Ryo announced. "By sending two LIGHT Machine monsters from my deck to the Graveyard, I can give Chimeratech Rampage Dragon two additional attacks during this turn! I send _Cyber Pharos_ and _Cyber Dragon Core_ , then activate Core's effect to banish it and Special Summon another _Cyber Dragon (Lv.5, ATK: 2100)_ directly from my deck!"

"Umm, three dragons, two additional attacks…" Ventus began to count with his fingers how much would all that make… "That's five attacks in a single turn!"

"Now battle! I attack Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior with Cyber Laser Dragon!" The machine monster fired another beam from its tail, cutting the warrior's body in half.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 4000 – 550** → **3450** **』**

"Next, I attack you directly with Cyber Dragon!" The original Cyber Dragon charged forward and fired a fireball from its jaw.

"Oh boy." Ventus gulped and jumped onto a rock before making a backflip to grab an Action Card that was lying onto the extension of the red rocks that covered the lava region they were dueling into. "I activate the Action Card – _**Guardian of Rock**_! This card Special Summons a single _Guardian Token_ on my field!"

* * *

 **Guardian of Rock (Spell) Normal**

 **Special Summon 1 "Guardian Token" in Attack Position (Rock-Type/FIRE/Level 1/ATK 1000/DEF 0). "Guardian Token" cannot be destroyed by battle. Destroy all "Guardian Token" on your field during the End Phase of this turn.**

* * *

A large pile of red rocks appeared in front of Ventus and took the attack, but the shockwave knocked the ninja duelist back and he fell onto the ground with a loud thud that made Koharu wince in pain.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 3450 – 1000** → **2350** **』**

"Hmm, I'm now going to use Rampage Dragon to attack Golem of Wishes." Ryo turned toward Koharu and her monsters next. His Fusion Monster looked at the monsters and fired a beam from one of its heads, the attack connecting and blowing up Koharu's monster.

"Golem's effect negates the destruction of my Wishes monsters once per turn!" Koharu replied and her monster stepped out of the smoke with its fists clenched.

"But as you said, it negates destruction only once per turn, so I'm going to attack again!" Rampage Dragon fired a second beam that destroyed the golem. "And now the third attack is going to destroy Knight of Wishes!"

"My monsters…" Koharu whispered to herself.

"With this your attacks for the turn are over!" Ventus struggled to stand back up, but using his willpower, he got back onto his feet. "So, end your turn."

"Is that so?" Ryo asked. "The reason why I went to destroy your partner's monsters instead of attacking your token to clear the field for my final act. Behold! I activate the Quick-Play Spell – Cyberload Fusion! With its effect, I can Fusion Summon a monster that lists Cyber Dragon in its required materials by shuffling monsters on my field and in my banished zone! I take my two Cyber Dragons, Proto-Cyber Dragon, Cyber Dragon Core, Cyber Laser Dragon and Chimeratech Rampage Dragon for a new Fusion Summon!"

The spirits of Ryo's three banished monsters appeared beside the ones on his field and all six of them flew into the multicolored portal as the Duelist began to chant.

" _Soulless machines, become the fountain of which spurs massacre and cover the world in your flames! Fusion Summon! Obliterate everything in your path! The ultimate machine of destruction – Chimeratech Overdragon (Lv.9, ATK: ?)!_ "

Ryo's ultimate monster, a limbless, headless, mechanical dragon appeared out of the multicolored portal. As the monster settled down onto the field, several slots on its surface opened and six heads stuck out of it.

"When Chimeratech Overdragon is Fusion Summoned, its attack and defense becomes equal to the number of monsters used to summon it times eight hundred!" Ryo explained.

 **Chimeratech Overdragon, ATK: 0 + 6*800** → **4800, DEF: 0 + 6*800** → **4800**

"I think we might be slightly screwed right now." Ventus admitted.

"The total number of times that Overdragon gets to attack is equal to the number of materials used to summon it." Ryo continued. "Therefore, I get to do six more attacks during this turn, for a total of eleven! Of course, I'm going to need only two of them, so go, Chimeratech Overdragon attack the Xyz scum first!"

Overdragon's heads all fired together a single beam that flew toward Koharu. The Xyz Duelist bit her lips and then turned around, running away from the beam. She jumped onto a rock column that was sticking out and grabbed an Action Card from it before activating it.

"I play Miracle targeting your Overdragon! With this effect, all damage that I would take is halve-!" Before Koharu could finish, the beam reached her and a huge explosion sent her flying backward into a rock.

 **『** **Koharu LP: 4000 – 2400** → **1600** **』**

"Koharu!" Ventus shouted, but the Xyz Duelist didn't respond. Her body slowly collapsed from the rock onto the ground. "No…"

Action quickly, Ventus ran over to the girl and took her into his hands, pressing his fingers against the side of her neck to check for a pulse. Thankfully, she was just knocked out from that attack, but the bad news were that there were five more attacks coming their way!

"So, she used an Action Card to halve the damage?" Ryo wondered. "Doesn't matter! I'm going to use Chimeratech Overdragon to attack Guardian Token next!"

"I won't let you!" Ventus shouted and grabbed a nearby Action Card. "I activate _Miracle Fire_! This Action Card has the ability to copy the effect of another Action Card activated this turn and I choose Miracle, halving the damage I would have taken!"

The gigantic dragon fired another combined beam from its mouths that caused the token to explode and the force of the impact sent Ventus' body rolling across the field.

 **『** **Ventus LP: 2350 – 1900** → **450** **』**

"And now again!" Ryo grinned maniacally. "I attack the girl directly with Chimeratech Overdragon!"

Ventus raised his head to look forward as the dragon moved to dispose of Koharu. The ninja Duelist clenched his fists with all of his remaining strength, he wanted to make his body to move, search for an Action Card that could protect Koharu, but his muscles didn't react. The ninja bit his lips and looked down. Even as a Tracer, his strength wasn't a match for Ryo and because of his overconfidence Koharu was going to be killed.

"Action Card - Big Escape!"

The energy inside Chimeratech Overdragon's jaws quickly died down, making the monster unable to fire its attack. Ryo glared at the direction from where the voice came from, Ventus doing the same.

"Kurosaki!"

The Raid Raptor user glanced at Ventus for just a moment to note the ninja's presence after which he turned his attention back toward Ryo. At that moment, however, his Duel Disk announced a new message.

" _ **Intrusion Penalty: Two Thousand Life Points!**_ "

A painful electrical shock traveled from the Duel Disk through Kurosaki's body, but the Duelist didn't do as much as to flinch from the pain before jumping from the rock he was standing onto, landing between Ryo and the other duelists.

"Take Koharu and get as far away from here as you can." Kurosaki ordered. "I'm going to take care of the Fusion."

"You weakling believe that there's a chance to win?" Ryo looked at Kurosaki with an expression that showed disgust only from the thought about it. At that moment, Ryo's own Duel Disk beeped, and he looked down at the screen. "Hmm, I would destroy you without a problem, but I'm being called to return now, so we'll have to finish this one at another time."

The Cyber user turned his back to the three duelists and his Duel Disk glowed, after which his entire body disappeared. After Ryo disappeared, Kurosaki took a deep breath and turned back to check on Koharu.

"I'm almost surprised that you let him get away so easily." Ventus pointed out.

"Even I know that I'm out of his league." Kurosaki replied and kneeled down next to Koharu. "It's really me who got lucky that he had to leave, or else this would have become much darker for all of us."

"Man, Academia sure got an elite array of duelists, too bad that they are so hard to notice under that pile of disposable minions that they throw at their enemies, right?"

"Are you Kurosaki?"

The two duelists turned around and noticed a girl wearing the same clothes as Yuzu walking toward them. Kurosaki narrowed his eyes and Ventus stared carefully at her. Although the clothes and even the face were the same as Yuzu's the ninja was able to recognize that this wasn't the same girl duo to her blue hair and green eyes.

"Yuzu Hiiragi?" But unlike Ventus, Kurosaki wasn't able to differentiate between pink and blue.

"My name is Serena." The girl replied. "I'm a Duelist from Academia and-!"

Before she could finish, the Xyz Duelist's Duel Disk was already activated…

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"Good thing that I always wear a jacket or I would freeze here."

I wonder what kind of thought process made Reiji think that putting Antartide as an Action Field was a good idea. Is he expecting us to be dueling against Academia on the South Pole or something? But I haven't meet any Academia agents since the ones I took yesterday, so that was strange. Were the others actually able fight off this menace?

I mean, the Obelisk Force were as much of generic folder soldiers as humanly possible, so it wasn't a surprise that the others would be able to fight against them, but I don't accept to believe that Academia didn't send a few higher ranked duelists, you know, a few mid-bosses for me to slowly tear apart. Maybe Ryo, or Akusa? Beating Manjome would be a piece of cake, but I wonder if Judai would exist in this world, and if he did, would he be with Academia or against it? Actually, I wouldn't mind facing off against anyone as long as their idea for the perfect first turn isn't summoning Ancient Gear Hound Dog and pass.

I walked onto a hill and sat down to look around, you know, use the high point to check what's going on below would be much easier than walking around like a mindless monkey. First thing I found was a girl that looked exactly like Yuzu, but she was wearing some red uniform. She was walking through the area and in the distance I could make out the uniforms of another Obelisk Force. They seemed to be moving toward Yuzu's current position and it was just a matter of time before they caught up with her.

" _What are you planning to do now, master?"_ Foxy asked me.

"I got no idea." I shrugged. "I think that she should be able to deal with Academia' cannon folder by herself, but something doesn't feel right. I've the gut feeling that it's better to not leave the main characters unprotected."

" _That's because we are your gut feeling. I can sense something dark in the vicinity."_ Wolfy sat down on my left side. " _We get our strength out of your negative emotions, so we can tell when something - as humans tend to say – 'evil' comes within a certain vicinity."_

"Riveting." I wasn't already disliking this. "Well, I left Yuya's group because they would be dragging me, but if I join forces with Yuzu, at least until I found someone else to dump her with, I might get a few 'Good Karma' points from her father."

"Then let's jump." Wolfy told me.

Yeah, no. I turned around and walked down the same way that I climbed onto the hill in the first place. Seriously, if I listened to half of my monsters' suggestion I would have entered the hospital a dozen times by now. Still, I had to cut them some slack because humans and monsters had a very different level of durability from one another.

But by the time I reached Yuzu's spot, she was already surrounded by the Obelisk Force. Surprisingly though, they didn't outright challenge her to a duel, actually it seemed like they were just trying to trap and immobilize her instead of, well, doing whatever they did to everyone else who came in their way. I wondered why were they acting so differently toward her than with everyone else in the tournament; could it have something to do with what Yuzu told me about her having lookalikes as well? If that was so, then…

I clenched my fist. No, it wasn't time to think about these things, first on my duty list would be to give these blue bastards the ass-whooping of the millennia. Activating my Duel Disk, I began to slowly walk toward the group, trying to keep a smug smirk on my face.

"It seems like you found a few new friends, Yuzu!" I called out, catching everyone's attention. "Mind introducing me to them?"

"E-Evan? What are you doing here?"

"Helping you out obviously." I shrugged. "I mean, I might not be a gentleman, but three boys ganging on a girl definitely isn't a fair game."

"Who's that?" one of the Obelisk Force asked and the other two just shrugged. How rude!

"Be careful, those are from the Fusion Dimension." Oh, thanks for telling me Yuzu, there was absolutely no way I would know that these highly militarized duelists are from a DIMENSION THAT USED CARD GAMES AS WEAPONS OF WAR!

"Don't worry, I'm already familiar with the situation." I gave her a trump up trying to act it cool.

"You people are nuisances too!"

What the heck? Some guy in a purple uniform jumped from the top of a building and landed down in front of the rest of us. His face looked a lot like Yuya's, but his expression was malicious and those eyebrows were – a little funny to look at – but mostly creepy.

" _Is it me, or people are starting to show out of nowhere quite often."_ Foxy commented.

' _You must be having a very easy life if the first thing you notice is how overused this trope is instead of wondering how many of his bones were broken after falling from this height._ ' I retorted. _'And Wolfy, you mentioned that there was something dark, would you give me a status update?'_

" _Unknown evil element detected. Repeat. Unknown evil element detected."_ She kept going off like an alarm and pointed at the new guy repeatedly. Yep, it was coming from the Yuya look-alike.

"Yuya!" Oh, and while I had a monologue with inner voices that no one else could hear, Yuzu was ready to throw herself in the arms of non-Yuya.

"What are you saying?" the look-alike asked, clearly offended. "I'm not that guy. That aside, you three, out of the way. If you get in my way, you'll end up like this."

He pulled two cards from his pocket and threw them in front of us. They all had the Normal Monster layout and I was able to recognize the two minor characters from the start of the tournament, inside the cards' artwork. I wasn't sure if I should act like I felt sorry for these people I never met or swear revenge to this guy I have never seen before, but I probably had to do something so that Yuzu wouldn't think that I'm a heartless bastard. Talking about Yuzu, she collapsed on her knees in shock while the Obelisk Force ran away; even they were scared from the Yuya look-alike!

"It can't be… People are sealed inside these cards!? This can't…" Yuzu was shocked by this discovery, while I was debating, if I should tell her that Pegasus – the creator of the game – liked turning people's souls into cards as well.

"Oh, do you know them?" the other guy asked stepping toward us. "Sorry, they were interfering with my work. You can have them back."

"And what exactly was your work?" I stepped in front of Yuzu because he seemed to be going mainly after her.

The counterpart made a grimace. "You are getting in my way as well and I shouldn't leave any witnesses."

"Oh, I'm shaking." I replied derisively.

"Did you do this?" I looked back at Yuzu, who was staring at the cards in front of her.

"That's right." the look-alike confirmed.

"Why?"

"I believe he was pretty clear about that." I interrupted.

Yuzu raised her head after I interrupted her and from her expression I could tell that she was pissed off. "Turning people into cards-"

"If you keep bugging me about it, I'll turn you into a card too." The look-alike threatened and Yuzu gasped. "But I can't do it because I'd get scolded by the Professor if I did something like that. Of course, I'm free to do as I please with that friend of yours."

"The Professor…" Yuzu repeated. "So that means you are from Academia?"

"Please, just stop talking!" I shouted and activated my Duel Disk; a bit more of Yuzu being unable to piece together obvious things and I was going to card her myself! "As for you, freaky-eyebrow-guy-whoever, explain why exactly your Professor wants Yuzu and I might let you walk out of here with only three fractured bones!"

" _Couldn't we get to break at least four?"_ Foxy requested.

"Correction: I will let you off with just four broken bones!"

"You are a funny fella." The Yuya look-alike chuckled. "But I'm not owning any explanations, do I? As long as I Yuzu to the professor like I did with Rin and Ruri and get praised by the Professor, I don't care what's going to happen."

"So you were the one who took Ruri away?" Yuzu muttered and stood up.

"It seems that you don't want to come along, do you?" the look-alike asked. "Fine then, since I also have to deal with your friend, how about a duel? If I win, you have to listen to what I say and your friend here gets turned into a card. Sounds good?"

"What!? No-"

"YES!" I yelled; my blood was practically boiling for a fight!

"You sure are eager to turn into a card, are you?" the doppelganger replied with a malicious smirk and activated his Duel Disk. "It would be rude of me to not comply with your request."

Yuzu activated her Duel Disk as well, albeit begrudgingly.

"DUEL!" All three of us shouted at once.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Yuzu LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Yuri LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"So, your name is Yuri?" I said, looking at the data shown by my Duel Disk. "Now I can never think about the word 'yuri' without remembering your freaky face."

"Aw, that hurts my feelings." Yuri put a hand over his chest acting hurt. "But since I'm alone, I believe it's only fair if I get the first turn, right? I Normal Summon _Predaplant Moray Nepenthes (Lv,4, ATK: 1600)_."

The monster that appeared on Yuri's field had the appearance of a plant whose roots were forming legs and arms while there were two flowers on the top, forming, what I believed to be, the monster's heads.

"Now, I'm going to set a card and end my turn." A single set card appeared before Yuri.

Something was wrong, his plays weren't flashy and unlike the other Academia students that I fought, this one didn't seem to be trying to bring out a Fusion Monster from the start of the duel. Of course! He probably wanted to first see how our decks worked before making big plays.

"Evan." Yuzu called toward me. "I know that you got involved to protect me, but for what he did to Rin and Ruri, the pain that he must have brought to so many, I want to defeat him! If it's ok with you, can I go first?"

What the heck was this question? Since Yuri had a set card maybe it would be best for me to let her trigger his set card and then attack after she-! No! That was wrong! Using her to bait my opponent that would be too loud even for me! But I couldn't turn down her request either, because these flames for retributions that sparked into her eyes were definitely true. She wanted to get back to Yuri for what she did and because of that I'm going to be here to support her for this duel.

"Very well." I nodded and gestured with a hand to go for it. "I'll be here to support you, understood?"

"Yes." Her smile returned, even if just a little, and she took the top card of her deck between her fingers. "My turn. DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Yuzu] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card: _1st Movement Solo_! When there are no monsters on my field, this card allows me to Special Summon a Level Four or lower Melodious monster from my hand! Join my side, _Serenade the Melodious Diva (Lv.4, DEF: 1900)_!"

The monster that appeared was a girl with pink hair and skin, dressed in a yellow dress with a small pink wing sticking from her back. Although I never looked much at Yuzu's duels, her Melodious monsters had always caught my eyes with how pretty and beautiful they looked.

"Serenade the Melodious Diva can be treated as two Tributes for the Tribute Summon of a Fairy monster. I release her to summon _Mozarta the Melodious Maestra (Lv.8, ATK: 2600)_!" Serenade turned into sparks of gold that then reformed into a new fairy wearing a red dress. "And Mozarta's effect allows me to Special Summon a Level Four or lower Melodious monster once per turn, so I call _Aria the Melodious Diva (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_ "

Another pretty fairy with light pink skin appeared singing. "And due to Serenade's effect I can Normal Summon twice on the turn she was Special Summoned, so I call _Canon the Melodious Diva (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_!"

Eh, this one wasn't as cute with the light blue skin, but she was still a pretty monster, and that pink and purple dress she was wearing was awesome! If I had to rate, this one would be 6.8 out of 10.

"Wow, I'm amazed." Yuri clapped. "You brought out three monsters in one turn."

"And now I'm going to battle!" Yuzu declared. "Mozarta the Melodious Maestra destroys Predaplant Moray Nepenthes!"

"Hehe, if you destroy my monster and the other two attack me directly I'm going to lose this match." Yuri realized. "But I can't have that happen now, can I? So instead, I'm going to activate my Continuous Trap, _Dark Seed Planter_! This card turns all monsters on the field into DARK attribute and then while I control this card, I'm able to negate the attack of any DARK monster on the field!"

A dark mist flew out of Yuri's card and surrounded all of Yuzu's monsters. The fairies screamed as their attributes were forcefully changed, but more importantly that that, now that all of them were DARK neither was able to attack anymore!

 **Mozarta the Melodious Maestra, Attribute: LIGHT** → **DARK**

 **Canon the Melodious Diva, Attribute: LIGHT** → **DARK**

 **Aria the Melodious Diva, Attribute: LIGHT** → **DARK**

"And finally, I use Dark Seed Planter's second effect to negate Mozarta's effect, so there's nothing more than you can do for this turn." Yuri stated.

"I'm not done." Yuzu called and activated one more card. "I activate the Spell Card: _**Full Score**_! Through this spell's effect I draw a card for every Melodious on my field, but I'm unable to further Special Summon during this turn. Of course, there's no use Special Summoning anymore this turn, so I'm going to draw three cards!"

* * *

 **Full Score (Spell) Normal**

 **Draw a card for each "Melodious" monster on your side of the field, but you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn.**

* * *

"I set a card and during the End Phase of the turn in which Aria was unable to deal Battle Damage, I'm able to inflict eight hundred points of damage to my opponent!" Yuzu raised her hand and her fairy began to sing, but not a normal song. The sound waves from her voice hit Yuri in the chest like a bullet and he was send skidding backward.

 **『** **Yuri LP: 4000 – 800** → **3200** **』**

"Wow." Yuri chuckled. "Even though your monster wasn't able to attack, I still took some damage. You don't disappoint, Yuzu."

Yuzu looked bothered by the Fusion Duelist's and looked away from him, which resulted in our eyes meeting. I noticed tears that were reflected in her eyes, she must be trying not to let everything that was going on to affect her, but it clearly isn't working.

"I'm sorry, because of me your plays got limited as well." She apologized.

"There's no need to apologize." I told her.

It was true that I could no longer declare any attacks because of Dark Seed Planter but I was going to figure out something in time. At least now I knew what that set card was, and even with the disadvantage that it puts me into, I'm going to find a way to beat it!

"My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"That's going to work as well." It wasn't the card that I wanted, but it was still good.

"Using the Scale Seven, _ChronoDevil Timescale Champion_ and the Scale Five, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" My monster raised inside a pair of crimson columns behind me and a pendulum of the same color began to swing between them.

"Pendulum you say?" Yuri rubbed his chin. "I heard that Standard had something new like this, but I believe that this is going to be my first time seeing a Pendulum Summon in person. Show me how it's done, teach."

"With pleasure." I hissed. "But before that, Timescale Champion's Pendulum Effect allows me to draw a card if another card is set in the Pendulum Zone. Next, I'm going to Pendulum Summon! Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Appear before me, my dark soul, _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv. 6, ATK: 2500)_!"

"Hmm, so you were able to bring out a Level Six without a Tribute?" Yuri wondered. "Certainly impressive, but I don't see why everyone hyped up this thing so much."

"Due to Chrono Phantomus' effect your monster should lose five hundred attack and defense upon Phantomus hits the field through Pendulum Summon, but I can't attack away, so I'm going to ignore that effect. What I won't ignore through is ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost's Pendulum Effect which gives my monster an extra five hundred points boost in attack power!"

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 + 500** → **3000**

"Now I'm going to set two cards and finish my turn." I didn't like to just pass my turn like this, but even if I tried to attack or do anything Dark Seed Planter would just screw me over, so this was the best I could do for the moment.

"Aw, that's all? I was expecting something more after all that you said, but it seems that you are only bark and no bite." Also, this Yuri guy was getting on my nerves. What kind of scum goes around insulting their opponents like this?

"Oh, well. It's my turn anyways." Yuri sighed, drawing.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Yuri] LP: 3200, Hand: 4** **』**

"Hmm, if I let Aria around on the field, I'm going to keep taking damage every single turn, so I should better take care of that before doing anything else." Yuri thought. "Of course that won't be a problem because I activate the Spell Card – _Instant Fusion_! By paying a thousand of my Life Points, this card lets me bring out any Level Five of lower Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck!"

 **『** **Yuri LP: 3200 – 1000** → **2200** **』**

"Fusion Summoning without Fusion Monsters?" Yuzu said out loud. "I have never heard of that before."

"That's the wonders of the Fusion Dimension." Yuri shook a finger in front of us. "Allow me to show you! I Special Summon _**Predaplant Amorphopwall**_!"

The monster that appeared on the field had six roots coming out of it, functioning as its limbs that helped the monster move. Its main body consisted of a dark brown spike, spadix if you may, with multiple eyes borne on a fleshy stem. Its body was wrapped by a spathe, which looks like a large petal with spikes coming out of it.

* * *

 **Predaplant Amorphopwall**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: DARK/Type: Plant/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 2200**

 **2 Level 3 or lower Predaplant monsters**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned, you can place 1 Predator Counter on every other Special Summoned monster on the field. Level 2 or higher monsters with a Predator Counter become Level 1. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster with a Predator Counter; take control of that target, and if you do, the opponent cannot target this card for attacks or with card effects while you control a monster through this effect. If this card is destroyed; return all monsters you took control over with this card's effect to their original controller.**

* * *

"And now of course, the effect of Amorphopwall activates, putting a Predator Counter on every Special Summoned control on your field!" Three of Amorphopwall's eyes shout of and transformed into flower heads that bit onto Phantomus, Mozarta and Aria with my monster groaning in pain while the latter two screamed.

"And then, all of your Level two or higher monsters with a Predaplant counter on them become Level One." Yuri continued. Wait, what!?

 **Mozarta the Melodious Maestra, Lv. 8** → **1**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, Lv. 6** → **1**

 **Aria the Melodious Diva, Lv. 4** → **1**

"And now I activate Amorphopwall's second effect! Once per turn, I can take control of a monster with a Predator Counter, and the one I'm going to choose is your Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer!"

"My what!?" Two tentacles shoot out of Amorphopwall's body and wrapped around my monster's arms, pulling it forcefully on that bastard's side of the field.

"Because Phantomus is no longer under my control, it loses the attack bonus that it had." Even a little, our situation looked a little better with Phantomus' attack points not being higher than Mozarta's.

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 3000 - 500** → **2500**

"And now I activate Polymerization to fuse together Predaplant Amorphopwall on my field with Predaplant Drosophyllum Hydra in my hand!" A weird green monstrosity appeared before Yuri and then flew into a multi-colored vortex.

" _Two poisonous flowers luring their prey in! Now become one, and from the hell beneath your petals, give soul to a new nightmare! Fusion Summon! Predaplant Dragostapelia (Lv.8, ATK: 2700)!_ "

Out of the portal appeared a monster that looked almost like a dragon with a long red body and wings while its head and limbs were colored green. The beast's neck was covered in glowing red orbs, the same as the two on its face that acted as eyes. It lowered its head and then roared at me and Yuzu.

"T-this monster…" Yuzu whispered; her body was trembling as well.

"Do you like my pet?" Yuri laughed. "Well, you are going to love it once I reveal its effect! Once per turn, Dragostapelia allows me to target a monster on the field and put a Predator Counter on it and since I see only one monster that hasn't gotten to enjoy the gift of my Predator Counters, I choose to target Canon the Melodious Diva!"

The dragon-plant monster opened its mouth and another flower flew out of it, biting onto the Melodious' leg. Yuzu's monster screamed out in pain and then collapsed on its knees with the other Melodious monsters doing the same.

"What's happening to my monsters?" Yuzu asked.

"Ah, it seems they got to taste Dragostapelia's sweet nectar! Not only does my monster's Predator Counters reduce the targeted monster's Level to One, they also negate the effects of all monsters who wield them, so your Melodious monsters all have their effects negated!"

 **Canon the Melodious Diva, Lv.4** → **1**

' _Effect negating, monster stealing, his deck is well versed in disrupting opponent's plays._ ' I thought, looking at Yuri's plays. ' _And those Predator Counters reducing the monsters' levels to one, the only summoning method that doesn't care about a monster's Level on the field is Fusion, so this deck can effectively double as anti-Xyz and anti-Synchro._ '

"And last, but not least, my Predaplant Moray Nepenthes gains two hundred attack for every Predator Counter on the field, which means that it gains eight hundred more attack."

 **Predaplant Moray Nepenthes, ATK: 1600 + 800** → **2400**

"Now, how about a battle?" Yuri looked toward me and his grin widened. "I'm going to first attack you with your own ace monster."

That sadistic bastard! Phantomus activated his arm blade and flew toward me, swinging its weapon down onto me. I gritted my teeth, keeping the screams from escaping my mouth, but the attack knocked me backward and I slammed into an ice column before collapsing onto my knees.

"Evan!" Yuzu screamed. I smiled back; that much damage wasn't enough to take me down.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 2500** → **1500** **』**

"And now, I'm going to finish you off with Dragostapelia's direct attack!" Yuri laughed as his monster began to change an orb of black fire. "I guess your blood isn't boiling for a fight anymore, is it?"

I looked down at my set cards and them back up to the Fusion Monster. Dragostapelia fired the dark beam and I prepared myself before…

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Yuya and Gongenzaka well walking toward the end of the Iceland. The entertainer looked at the snow under his feet while he thought back to his duel with Hikaru and the way that the Xyz Duelist fought. Despite his words, Hikaru's plays were tame, maybe a little reckless, but he wasn't fighting to win. No, the more Yuya thought about it, the more it seemed like the boy was just trying to buy time.

But for who?

"Are you ok, Yuya?" Gongenzaka noticed his friend's worried expression.

"It's nothing." Yuya shook his head. "I just thought, could it be that they were just trying to hold us back?"

"The girl I fought mentioned something about that." Gongenzaka replied, rubbing his chin. "Do you think it's something related to Yuzu?"

 **BOOM!**

Yuya was about to answer what he thought, when they both heard a loud explosion coming from the distance and turned around. Raising above the frozen hills, was a black cloud of smoke. Yuya held his pendulum tightly, he couldn't explain why, but he felt a chill shaking his body. There was just one group right now that would hypothetically be behind the explosions while there were still people on the streets, dueling; civilian's lives was something Academia wouldn't care about.

"A fight?" Gongenzaka wondered.

"We should check it out!" Yuya insisted and ran off toward the source of the dark cloud.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I was just about to draw my next card when I heard a loud explosion and saw a pillar of smoke rising from behind the frozen hills ahead of us. Something seriously was going on there, I didn't have time to be playing around with Yugo!

"It was fun to duel against you, but I must finish this match here." I told Yugo and took a step back before grabbing the top card of my deck. "I'm winning this turn! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Avice] LP: 3000, Hand: 6** **』**

'It's here.' I could see the winning formula already in front of my eyes! "Using the Scale Five, _Astral Angel Harmonograph Fünf_ and the Scale Nine, _ **Astral Angel Furuta-Pendel Neun**_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Astral Angel Harmonograph Fünf was, well… A Harmonograph? If I had to try and explain its appearance, it had a body made from white metal, like most other Astral Angel monsters, but with a large arm that was holding a rotating gimbal with a green pendulum mounted inside of it.

Astral Angel Furuta-Pendel Neun was another type of pendulum, with a light grey body in the shape of a cube, with a black metal, horizontally expanded, arm mounted on top of it. Attached to the arm was another green pendulum which was rotating vertically. At the front of the cube-shaped body, was mounted a golden mask without a mouth, only two white eyes.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Furuta-Pendel Neun**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Psychic/Pendulum/Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 400**

 **P.S: 9**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can target 1 of your banished Spell/Trap Card(s); turn it face-down, and if you do, apply its effect as this card's effect.**

 **Effect: Once per turn, you can target 1 monster on the field, except this card: That target gains 400 ATK and DEF for the rest of this Duel (the change is applied even if the targeted monster leaves the field). You can't target the same monster with this card's effect more than once per Duel.**

* * *

"With this, I'm able to Special Summon monsters whose Levels are from six to eight! Swing, pendulum of balance, arise within my soul and become a path of light! Pendulum Summon!" A single beam fell from the portal and a green portal appeared in front of me before breaking apart to reveal… "Come back, _Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!"

"It's back again!?" Yugo yelled, shocked. "That's not fair!"

"I activate Sola Eletra's effect!" I continued. "I target your Hi-Speedroid Chanbara and halve its attack, then Sola gains the lost attack points and you take the same amount of damage!"

Sola spread her wings and fired an array of needles that stuck the area around Yugo and then exploded, causing him to lose control over his D-Wheel for just a moment before regaining it back. That was close! I had to be more careful with the attacks then, didn't want to break the D-Wheel after all.

 **Hi-Speedroid Chanbara, ATK: 2100/2** → **1050**

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, ATK: 3000 + 1050** → **4050**

 **『** **Yugo LP: 2900 - 1050** → **1850** **』**

If I attacked now it should be enough to finish him off, but I didn't want to fail like last time because of his set card.

"I activate Mercury Shield's effect! By turning two of my banished monsters face-down, I'm able to return one of your monsters to the Deck! I choose to return Hi-Speedroid Kendama!"

My Fusion Monster raised its arms and then slammed them in the ground. A dark hole opened under Kendama and the Synchro was sucked inside of it, after which Mercury Shield removed its arms from the ground and the dark hole disappeared from the field.

"I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Silver Ring (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_!" The silver ring-like monster with wings appeared before me. "Next I activate its effect to add a Level Four or lower LIGHT monster to my hand and I choose _**Astral Angel Sternkatze**_!"

Unlike most of my other monsters, minus Sora, the artwork of this one depicted a more organic creature. It was a little girl with light purple skin and short blue hair. Two metal cat ears were jutting from the sides of the monster's head and her eyes were covered by a white blindfold with a yellow eye engrained in the center of the blindfold. The monster was wearing a blue sundress with a white scarf hanging from her neck and covering most of her upper body. The monster's arms were covered by bulky white gauntlets with small pink claws on the back of its wrists. Her feet were also covered by armor that made them look more animalistic, being flat like a horse's paw. Instead of a tail, the monster had three pink belts which were hanging from her upper back and two of them tied around the middle one around the level of the monster's waist, forming a large single belt that looked like a tail.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Sternkatze**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Beast-Warrior/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 400**

 **Effect: If this card is in your hand: You can target 1 Level 3 or higher monster you control; reduce its Level by 2, also Special Summon this card. If this card is banished, you can target 3 of your banished cards, except "Astral Angel Sternkatze": Shuffle them into your deck, and if you do, draw 1 card.**

* * *

"I activate Astral Angel Sternkatze's effect, I reduce Silver Ring's Level by Two and then I can Special Summon Astral Angel Sternkatze from my hand!" Silver Ring's four stars appeared above its head and Astral Angel Sternkatze grabbed two, shattering them.

 **Astral Angel Silver Ring, Lv: 4** → **2**

"Next, if I control an Astral Angel monster, I can Special Summon _**Astral Angel Geschwindigkeit Bord**_!" The monster that appeared had one of the simples designs, being a flat black board with blue circuits running through it and a golden mask with three blue eyes mouthed to its front.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Geschwindigkeit Bord**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 2000**

 **Effect: If you Normal Summoned an "Astral Angel" monster this turn, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). Once per turn: You can target 1 LIGHT monster you control: All monster you control become that monster's Level. If an opponent's monster attacks, you can banish this card from your Graveyard: Halve that monster's ATK.**

* * *

"I activate Geschwindigkeit Bord's effect! Once per turn, I can make the level of all monsters I currently become the same as a monster currently on my field! I choose Sternkatze, turning all of my monsters into Level Two!"

 **Astral Angel Geschwindigkeit Bord, Lv. 5** → **2**

 **Astral Angel Mercury Shield, Lv. 6** → **2**

 **Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph, Lv. 8** → **2**

"I use Astral Angel Sternkatze, Silver Ring, and Geschwindigkeit Bord as Xyz Materials!" My three monsters turned into yellow spheres and the galaxy portal opened in the sky above me.

" _The heavenly dragon, break through the fabrics of space and annihilate the unholy that stands in your sight! Xyz Summon! Rank Two! Astral Angel Dragolight (RANK: 2, ATK: 1000)!_ "

My little dragon monster flew next to my shoulder and rubbed its head against it. Now I had a Synchro, Fusion and Xyz Monster as well as two cards in my Pendulum Zones. Everything was ready, there was no way that he could survive that many attacks!

"Battle!" I declared and threw my fist forward. "I attack with Sola Electra the Synchro Seraph!"

My monster's wings began to glow again and she flew into the air and the bolts attached to her gauntlets shot out creating a circle in front of her that then charged itself and formed a barrier of solid light. Sola charged a large beam with the energy inside her wings and fired it at the bolts, which broke the attack into several smaller beams, all of which flew toward Yugo's Hi-Speedroid Chanbara.

"Trap Open, Re-dyce-cle!" Yugo shouted, activating his set card. "When this card activates, I must target a Synchro Monster in my Extra Deck and Revive Red-Eyed Cide from my Graveyard! Then I roll a dice and Red-Eyed Dice's level will become equal to the roll, after which I must Synchro Summoned the chosen Synchro Monster in my Extra Deck. However, if I'm unable to do summon it, all monsters on my field are going to be destroyed! The monster I choose is the Level Seven Synchro Dragon!"

"The only other monster on your field is Chanbara, so unless you roll a two, all of your monsters are going to be erased!" I pointed out.

"I'll have to put all of my luck in this roll then!" Yugo responded. "Whenever I'm going to win or lose, it's all up to this dice roll! Go!"

A dice flew out of Yugo's trap card and rolled on the ground. If the roll was 2, he was going to get out his ace, which wasn't strong enough to take Sola Electra's attack either, so no matter what the roll was I was going to win! Then the dice began to slow down until it stopped on…

"It's a two!" Yugo cheered. "Alright, let's go! I tune the Level Five Hi-Speedroid Chanbara to the Level Two Red-Eyed Dice!"

Yuya's Synchro counterpart really was a lucky guy, huh? The chances to roll a two at this exact moment was… Well, it was as likely to happen as all of the convenient top decking that everyone of us is able to use, so I'm not sure why people even call that a matter of chance.

" _Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings, and strike down your enemies at the speed of light! Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level Seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon (Lv.7, DEF: 2000)!_ "

The monster that beat Yuto flew over Yugo's D-Wheel and roared before moving in front of its user to protect him as a blue aura surrounded the dragon itself.

' _At least he was smart enough to summon it in defense._ ' I thought. "But even if you managed to call your strongest monster, I'm still going to attack it! _Photon Particle Stream_!"

"Don't be so sure! When an attack is declared, I can Special Summon _Speedroid Menko (Lv.4, DEF: 2000)_ and then all of your monsters are going to be changed to Defense Position!"

"What!?" a monster that looked like a metal carpet appeared in front of Clear Wing and redirected Sola's beams, which hit the surrounding area instead of the dragon. After that happened, all of my monsters kneeled down and their bodies were surrounded by a blue aura.

"From my hand, I'm going to activate _Selig Transformation_ once again to transform Mercury Shield!" A halo appeared in front of my monster and it jumped through it, the heavy armor that Mercury was wearing slowly changing as it moved through the ring of light.

" _Sacrosanct guardian of hope_! _Transform into a whirlpool of light and Transcend beyond the limits of the Universe! Transformation Summon! Level Four! Sacred protector of Heavens! Astral Angel Golden Knight (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)!_ "

After Mercury Shield completely moved through the ring, my knight landed on the field and swung its sword toward Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.

"Due to his own effect, Golden Knight gains five hundred attack for every other LIGHT monster on my field." A red glow surrounded my monster and its attack raised to 2800. "Now erase his dragon!"

"I banish Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice to activate its effect!" The spirit of Yugo's blue dice appeared in front of his dragon and blocked Golden Knight's attack. "By banishing Tri-Eyed Dice, I can negate a single attack during this turn, so my Clear Wing is safe!"

"Not for long!" I responded. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell: _Dimension Overlap_ to release Astral Angel Dragolight and give Golden Knight a second attack this turn along with five hundred bonus attack points! However, because Golden Knight would lose five hundred attack points from the removal of one of the LIGHT monsters that are on my field, his attack remains the same!"

"Now you can attack Clear Wing again…" Yugo realized. Of course, I wasn't going to win in such a lame way.

"I now activate the effect of Star Transcendence from my Graveyard! I banish it along with Astral Angel Silver Ring and Astral Angel Sternkatze to Special Summon a Level Six LIGHT monster from my deck! Come out, the embodiment of my shining hope! _Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

" _We meet again, heaven's seraph."_ Clear Wing roared.

" _A bit too soon if you ask me."_ Sola responded before turning to face me. _"Now, let's finish this in one attack!"_

"Right!" I nodded. "Astral Angel Harmonograph Fünf's Pendulum Effect activates! By banishing two Spell or Trap Cards in my Graveyard I'm able to apply one of their effects! I banish one of mySelig Transformation and Dimension Overlap in order to apply the latter's effect! I release Golden Knight to give all of its attack power to Sola Starlit!"

My knight turned his blade toward Sola and kneeled down in front of her. My ace smiled and touched the blade, which turned into light that flew behind her and was absorbed into her electric wings while Golden Knight's body turned into ash.

 **Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, ATK: 2500 + 1650** → **4150**

"At this moment, Golden Knight's other effect activates! If its send to the Graveyard, all of your Special Summoned monsters are getting destroyed!" Sola Starlit spread out her electric wings and fired several beams of light that pierced Clear Wing and Speedroid Menko, destroying them.

"Clear Wing!" Yugo cried out in desperation.

"This is the end for real!" I told him. "Sola Starlit, attack him directly! Linear Ray Artillery!"

Sola Starlit leaped into the air and launched a single green beam from her arm that hit Yugo in the chest and knocked him off the D-Wheel with a scream while the vehicle itself hit a pill of snow and stopped there.

 **『** **Yugo LP: 1850 - 4150** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

I sighed and wiped the sweat off my forehead. Although my Life Points didn't reach the red zone, I felt that bad things were going to happen if I wasn't able to end the duel in this last turn.

" _I always love beating these dragons."_ Sola giggled and waved before disappearing from my field.

I waved at her as well and then moved toward Yugo. The duelist was lying unmoving in the snow, did I accidently threw him into a coma with that last attack? Dibs on his D-Wheel if that's the case!

"Damn it…" Yugo groaned and slowly sat up in the snow. "NOW MY SUIT IS ALL WET!"

"There's no time for that!" I shouted at him and ran toward his D-Wheel after making sure that he was alive. "We have to hurry!"

"Hurry? Where?"

"There!" I yelled at him and pointed toward the black smoke rising behind the hills. "I sense that there's something bad going on there and from the look of it, there's no one else around here to check it out than us!"

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Back to Evan, Yuzu and Yuri's duel, the pink haired girl collapsed on her knees and covered her mouth, while her terrified eyes couldn't look away from the cloud of smoke that covered Evan's field. Yuri on the other side had his huge grin on as he watched the destruction caused by his monster.

"That's one less nuisance to deal with." Yuri shrugged and raised his Duel Disk. "Although, he wouldn't make a good card after getting hit by Dragostapelia's attack, I could give him to you as a gift once we get to the Fusion Dimension."

"You…" Yuzu clenched her fist and glared daggers toward Yuri, who chuckled at her behavior.

"Don't you think that you are counting me out a bit too early?"

"No way!"

Yuri's eyes widened. Evan walked slowly out of the cloud of smoke, completely unstarched from the attack. He looked over at Yuzu and winked at her.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4200** **』**

"E-Evan!" Yuzu burst into tears of happiness.

"How!?" Yuri hollered. "Dragostapelia's attack should have finished you off."

"It's very simple, really." Evan replied and threw his arms to the sides. The cloud of smoke dispersed revealing two Trap Cards glowing behind him. "First, the effect of _Enchanted Javelin_ to increase my Life Points by the attack power of your Dragostapelia. And second, I used the Continuous Trap, _Pendulum Switch_ to Special Summon ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost and have him take the attack in my place. Also, I went ahead and activated Timefrozer Ghost's effect while he was being attack, negate the effects of your Predaplant Moray Nepenthes until the end of this turn!"

"What!?" Yuri gasped and looked at his monster. The plant's healthy green skin was replaced by grey. "If Moray's effects are negated, the attack bonus it gains will be negated as well!"

 **Predaplant Moray Nepenthes, ATK: 2400 - 800** → **1600**

"Now, all you can do is attack me directly with Moray Nepenthes for sixteen hundred damage!" Evan stated.

"All of this was according to your plan, wasn't it?" Yuri gritted his teeth, infuriated. "You wanted to divert my attention from Yuzu so she could have all of her monsters on the next turn, didn't you? But that won't happen! I attack Canon with Moray Nepenthes!"

"I activate my Trap, _Melodious Rhythm Change_!" Yuzu countered. "With it, I return Canon the Melodious Diva to my hand and Special Summon _Shopina the Melodious Maestra (Lv.7, ATK: 2300)_!"

The blue fairy disappeared from the field and in her place appeared a new Melodious with purple skin and dress. The fairy flew over the field and winked at me.

"So you did this, huh?!" Yuri clicked his tongue. "Well, it doesn't matter! I'm going to attack that guy directly then!"

Moray Nepenthes swung its roots at me and slammed me across the chest. I groaned in pain and took a step back, good think that I had set Enchanted Javelin last turn or this attack was going to be dangerous.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4200 – 1600** → **2600** **』**

"I'm setting a card and finish my turn." Yuri stated.

"At this moment Timefrozer Ghost's effect ends and your Moray Nepenthes gets back its effects." I explained. "But with one less Predator Counter, its attack increase will be lower."

 **Predaplant Moray Nepenthes, ATK: 1600 + 600** → **2200**

"It's my turn again!" Yuzu stepped forward and drew a card from her deck.

 **『** **Turn 5 [Yuzu] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate _Polymerization_!" Yuzu exclaimed, activating the iconic Spell Card. "I fuse together Canon the Melodious Diva in my hand with Aria the Melodious Diva from my field!"

Her two monsters fell into a whirlwind of colors and a new power began to jut out of the portal. Evan gripped his chest; he could sense it - that monster must have been Yuzu's true strength!

" _Supreme prodigy! Echoing melodious voice! With the guidance of the baton, gather your power! Fusion Summon! Now come here to the stage! Sing the song of victory! Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir (Lv.6, ATK: 1000)!_ "

A light skinned fairy with glassy green eyes and a light blue dress appeared in the center of a flower whose pink petals were surrounding her body.

"Oh, so your specialty is Fusion Summoning?" Yuri rubbed his chin and licked his lips. "That's definitely interesting, but your style is clumsy. If you come with me, I could teach you how to make really beautiful Fusion Summons."

'Like she's smart enough to accept that.' Evan thought and looked over to Yuzu. She wasn't the type of girl that would abandon her friends for strength, her actions were driven by a naïve believe that friendship actually has a value.

"Evan!" Yuzu turned toward the boy and smiled. "I will repay you back for protect me by returning Phantomus to his righteous owner! Go, Bloom Diva! Attack Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer!"

"What are you doing?" Yuri laughed maniacally. "Your monster's attack is lower than Chrono Phantomus! All you are going to do is destroy yourself!"

"That's not true!" Yuzu responded. "When Bloom Diva battles a Special Summoned monster, she can't be destroyed and all damage I would take is dealt to the opponent instead! Then, the battling monster is destroyed as well."

"Destroyed? After what you said about bringing your friend's ace back, I thought that you were going to gain control over it, not destroy it!" Yuri retorted.

"It's not a problem." Evan responded. "Phantomus is a Pendulum monster and Pendulum Monsters go to the Extra Deck upon destruction, so as long as I manage to reconstruct my Pendulum Zone next turn, I can revive Phantomus over and over!"

"An immortal monster, is that it?" Yuri asked. "Then I guess I'm going to keep it! Dragostapelia's effect activates! Once per turn, I can put a Predator Counter on a face-up monster on the field and negate its effects! I choose Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir!"

"That effect…" Yuzu began.

"…Works during either player's turn!?" Evan gulped, knowing what was going to follow.

Dragostapelia spit another Predator Counter that bit onto Bloom Diva's shoulder and made her cry out in pain. At the same time Chrono Phantomus activated his arm blade and slashed Yuzu's fusion in half, destroying it. The girl cried out and fell on her knees, feeling the impact from the attack.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 1500** → **2500** **』**

' _Yuzu's more sensitive to the damage._ ' Evan noted, looking at the girl. She was panting already after just losing 1500 Life Points. ' _I felt the damage from Yuri's attacks as well, but…_ '

"I'm… not done… yet!" Yuzu collected herself and stepped back up, standing on her trembling legs. "Because Aria the Melodious Diva is no longer on the field, Predaplant Moray Nepenthes loses attack."

 **Predaplant Moray Nepenthes, ATK: 2200 - 200** → **2000**

"Shopina the Melodious Maestra, destroy Predaplant Moray Nepenthes!" The fairy opened her mouth and unleashed a soundwave that tore apart the plant's body and destroyed it.

 **『** **Yuri LP: 2200 – 300** → **1900** **』**

"Hehe that almost hurt." Yuri chuckled.

"I now activate Shopina's effect! Once per turn, I can return a Melodious monster in my Graveyard to the hand." A card popped out of Yuzu's Graveyard and she took it. "I return Aria the Melodious Diva and then Normal Summon her. With this, I end my turn and during the End Phase, Aria's effect activates, inflicting eight hundred damage to my opponent!"

Another shockwave hit Yuri in the chest, knocking the Fusion Duelist backward.

 **『** **Yuri LP: 1900 – 800** → **1100** **』**

"Now that was fun." Yuri chuckled. "Much better than the mere eight hundred you dealt on your first turn!"

"Don't forget that it's my turn now." Evan informed Yuri. "In this turn, I'm going to destroy your lock! DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 2600, Hand: 3** **』**

Evan looked over the cards in his hand before taking one of them. "Using the Scale One, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, I build the Pendulum Scale!"

The familiar fox-girl monster raised into the crimson column and winked at everyone.

"ChronoDevil Timescale Champion's Pendulum Effect lets me draw a card when a card is activated in my other Pendulum Scale." Evan continued. "Swing Pendulum of Destruction, burn inside my soul and become my path to crimson victory! Pendulum Summon! Appear before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost (Lv.3, DEF: 300)_ and from my hand _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, DEF: 2000)_!"

The ghost and the golem monsters fell from the sky and roared.

"Next, I activate Timefrozer Ghost's effect! I target a card on your field and negate its effect until the end of this turn! The one I choose is Dragostapelia!" Evan pointed at the dragon-like fusion and his ghost launched its ghost arms to grab the beast.

"Then I'm going to activate Dragostapelia's effect to put a Predator Counter on your monster!" Yuri responded and a Predator Counter bite down onto Timefrozer Ghost's armor. "With this, your monster can no longer use its effect and its level gets reduced to one!"

 **ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost, Lv. 3** → **1**

"With this, I can now make my move." Evan stated. "I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Summit Hornet (Lv.3, ATK: 1000)_ and then I use it along with Protector Golem to Xyz Summon!"

The two ChronoDevils turned into purple energy and flew inside the galaxy portal that appeared on the ground in front of Evan while the duelist chanted.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800.)!_ "

"Oh? A Xyz Summon?" Yuri grinned. "I don't think it's a very smart idea to use this against us."

"I activate Void Lancer's effect." Evan declared, ignoring the Fusion Duelist's warning. "I used one of his Xyz Materials to target a card on the field and negate its effects! The one I choose is Dark Seed Planter! _Voided Zone_!"

"My trap!" Yuri bit his lip, knowing full well what that meant.

"Now my DARK monsters are free to attack you!" Evan pointed out. "When Protector Golem is in the Graveyard while all of the monsters I control are DARK, I'm able to revive it! Now I activate _Timeline Fusion_ to fuse together Protector Golem and Timefrozer Ghost!"

A large gear appeared in front of Evan with a red and purple portal inside of it and his two monsters jumped into it, becoming one with the whirlwind inside.

" _Ancient guarding made of stone! Cross your future with the ghost of the voiceless to become the fabled demon holding the gift of death! Lead me toward immortality! Fusion Summon! Level Eight, ChronoDevil Grey Reaper (Lv.8, ATK: 1700)!_ "

" _It's nice of you to finally show up, pal."_ Void Lancer commented.

" _Our foe is dangerous, we should not take him lightly."_ Grey Reaper warned his fellow ChronoDevils.

" _Yeah, yeah, now give me that scythe of yours for a moment, ok?"_

"I activate Grey Reaper's ability!" Evan declared and his monster threw its scythe into the air before merging its essence with it. "I equip Grey Reaper onto Void Lancer to give my Xyz Monster the attack power of my Fusion!"

Void Lancer's lance disappeared from its arms and the monster stretched out its arm, grabbing the scythe before giving it a few swings.

 **ChronoDevil Void Lancer, ATK: 1800 + 1700** → **3500**

"Equipping a Fusion to a Xyz?" Yuri glared at the Greyson. "Are you trying to make me angry or something?"

"That was the idea from the start, so yeah." Evan nodded. "Now battle! I attack Dragostapelia! _**Grey Void Slash**_!"

Void Lancer swung its scythe, charging it with dark energy, all of which was unleashed with a single swing of the blade, tearing through the ground as it made its way to Yuri's Fusion Monster and then cut it clear in half. The Fusion threw its head back and roared in pain before exploding, while Yuri just stood there grinning as his Life Points fell from the attack.

 **『** **Yuri LP: 1100 – 800** → **300** **』**

"That was a nice one." Yuri applauded. "But sadly, you weren't able to get rid of all my Life Points."

Evan bit his lower lip. He was being played around with by Yuri. Even with the full strength of his ChronoDevils, he just couldn't match Yuri. No, it was worse than that. Yuri wasn't even trying, he was just playing around with them, like a predator playing with its prey. Evan looked down at his empty hand, no traps, spells or hand traps left for him to use, Void Lancer was literally his only line of defense.

"Since you are done, I believe it's my turn to play now." Yuri leaned forward and licked his lips. "Ok, here I go. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 7 [Yuri] LP: 300, Hand: 2** **』**

"It seems that it has come time for our little game to end." Yuri said, disappointed. "First I'm going to activate my set card – _Predaplanet_! When a monster with a Predator Counter leaves the field, this card's going to let me search my deck for a Predap card. Now that the formalities are behind us, I'm going to Normal Summon _Predaplant Flytrap (Lv.2, ATK: 400)_."

A small plant with sharp teeth appeared on Yuri's field.

"And now, I activate Fusion Substitute." Yuri grinned while a Fusion Portal appeared behind him and Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer fell inside of it along with Flytrap.

" _Time demon of dark origin, become one with the beautiful flower with an insect-alluring fragrance! From the dark void you are created, give birth to a new terror! Fusion Summon! Appear! Poisonous dragon with hungry fangs. Level Eight! Starving Venom Fusion Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)!_ "

Evan's eyes widened and Yuzu covered her mouth with both hands, horrified by the sight of Yuri's new monster. It was a long purple dragon with red orbs covering its body and two additional mouths sticking from the back of its shoulders. The beast's sharp fangs were drooling while it stared down at the two humans before it.

"Ha-ha-ha! Isn't it beautiful!?" Yuri laughed hysterically. "This is my ace, and unlike yours, its royal only to me. I'm going to show you how great its ability is in just a moment, but before that, I'm to use Predaplanet's effect to add _Predaplant Squid Drosera_ to my hand. And now I'm going to show you the true beauty of my dragon! When Starving Venom is Fusion Summoned using only materials on the field, it gets the attack points of all Special Summoned monsters my opponent controls!"

"WHAT!?" Yuzu and Evan cried out together.

 **Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, ATK: 2800 + 3500 + 2600 + 2300** → **11 200**

"Let's battle!" Yuri laughed. "Starving Venom, attack ChronoDevil Void Lancer!"

Long purple vines came out of the dragon's back and they began to charge several orbs of dark energy that the dragon fired together into a single spiral of darkness that flew toward Evan. The Greyson's arms dropped while the attack traveled toward him. It was over. He was going to lose!

"EVAN!" Yuzu cried out desperately.

It was no use. The attack connected and ChronoDevil Void Lancer cried out as it exploded in flames. But inside the fire, a purple monster that the Standard duelists recognized as Performapal Inflater Tapir formed around Evan' protecting the Duelist from the hell that surrounded him.

" _ **Intrusion Penalty: Two Thousand Life Points!**_ "

"Intrusion wha-! AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Yuzu's eyes opened at the familiar voice and she turned quickly around with Evan following suit. Standing a few feet away from the two were Yuya and Gongenzaka with their Duel Disks activated.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 – 2000** → **2000** **』**

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 4000 – 2000** → **2000** **』**

"That's a surprise." Yuri muttered to himself.

"Yuya…" Yuzu smiled, a tear rolling down her cheek. She put her hands over her chest, her best friend was there and… The bracelet began to grow again!

The purple glow became stronger and then enveloped the entire area, forcing everyone to cover their eyes. Yuzu knew all too well what that meant, once Yuya came within vicinity while there was one of his counters in the area, the bracelet would make them disappear. But not this time. In response to Yuzu's bracelet, the crimson pendulum that Evan carried inside the pocket of his jacket began to glow as well and the crimson light overpowered the pink glow and pushed Yuzu, throwing the girl into the air.

"Yuzu!" Yuya screamed and ran toward her with Gongenzaka.

"What the?" Evan looked at the glow coming from his pocket. His pendulum was suppressing Yuzu's bracelet!

"I'm starting to get lost on what's going on here." Yuri groaned, rubbing his forehead. "I don't have time to deal with all of this, so I'm going to discard Predaplant Squid Drosera to allow my Starving Venom an attack on every monster with a Predator Counter. Which includes, Mozarta the Melodious Maestra!"

Starving Venom turned toward the Melodious next and opened its mouth before firing a fireball toward it.

"Don't think so, bastard!" A new voice called. "When an attack is declared, I can Special Summon Speedroid Menko to change your monster into Defense Position!"

A square shape machine appeared in front of Starving Venom's attack and blocked it, after which the Fusion Monster was forced to kneel down. After that happened, Yugo's D-Wheel landed between Yuri and the others with Avice jumping off it and activating her own Duel Disk.

" _ **Intrusion Penalty: Two Thousand Life Points!**_ " The Greyson bit her lips as the electricity moved through her body and then glared at the Fusion User.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 – 2000** → **2000** **』**

"Where do you people keep coming from!?" Yuri yelled at them.

"T-that's the guy who dueled against Yuto!" Yuya exclaimed, catching the siblings and Yuri's attention. "And the other one is…"

"Two more that look just like me." Yuri muttered to himself. "The professor didn't tell me about this."

"Fusion…" Yugo glared at his Fusion counterpart. "Now I remember, that Duel Disk, it was the same as the one used by the guy who took Rin from me!"

"Ho? So you are still looking for her?" Yuri's grin returned once again. "I was hoping that you and that other copy would destroy each other after I lured you into the Xyz Dimension, but that somehow didn't happen."

"You bastard!" Yugo yelled. "Where did you take Rin! Answer me!"

"Sorry, but I can't do." Yuri shook his head. "The professor will get mad with me if I tell anyone about what happened with Rin."

"Then I'm going to force you to talk through a duel!" Yugo roared.

"Sorry, can't do that either." Yuri shook a finger in front of his Synchro counterpart. "It would be fun to get rid of you all, but I'm on the clock and there are some things that I need to ask the Professor, so let's leave this for another time. I activate Fusion Substitute's additional effect from my graveyard to banish it and return Predaplant Dragostapelia back into my Extra Deck to draw a card."

Yuri looked at the card that he got and then turned it to show the rest.

"I activate _Violet Flash_!" A bright flash envelope Yuri and when it died down, the Fusion Duelist was no longer there.

"Damn it!" Yugo smashed his fist against his Duel Disk. "That bastard ran away again."

Avice on the other hand sighed in relief and turned off her Duel Disk before turning around to meet her brother. What she saw surprised her. He didn't seem happy to see her, actually, he looked quite worried.

"Avice. Where's Elizabeth?"

Avice mentally cursed herself. Of course he was going to ask her about that. The younger Greyson looked around, Yuya and Gongenzaka were helping Yuzu get back up after she got violently thrown and Yugo was still there which was going to raise a lot of questions that she didn't want to have to answer.

Avice sighed and looked back at her brother. He was waiting for an answer, so she gave him one.

"Let's just say that everything just became a lot more complicate."

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K.**

 **Pendulum of Ruins/Destruction/H armony: The pendulum pendants carried by Yuya, Evan and Avice respectively, are fragments of an ancient item with mysterious powers. While the full extent of the original pendulum and its counters are unknown, each of the newer pendulums appears to take a power after his host. As in Yuya's case, the Pendulum of Ruins was bound to the will of his host' original spirit and created the Pendulum monsters in order to benefit him.**

* * *

 **Avice: Only two more chapters until we can put an end to this season. This sure was a wild, and long, ride.**

 **Chapter 41:** **Those With Fate in Darkness**

 **Summary:** Elizabeth found herself being chased by a Fusion Duelist called the Supreme King. But she comes across Evan who quickly steps in and a duel between the two wielders of Darkness begins. As ChronoDevils and Evil Heroes crash against one another, something suddenly changes about Evan…

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

* * *

 **A/N: Aaaaand, done.**

 **In this chapter we got to see a bit more of Hikaru and** **Makioka's personalities and their causes to fight against the Lancers. We also got to see through Ryo a reason why Sora would have a valid reason to want to break ties with Academia. I always felt that his "redemption" in the anime was poorly done. Heck, I can't even remember the reason why he choose to join the Lancer's side in the first place.**

 **Other than that, Yugo got competely** **wrecked by Avice while Yuri was actually doing a pretty good job fighting against Evan. Based on what we saw I believe that we could now put the dueling skills on every Yu-boy with Yuri being on top.**

 **Last news, Dueling Book released a function that allows users to create and use their own custom cards when dueling, so guess who's going to be spending all of his free time from now on turning ChronoDevils and Phantomus into actual cards! That's right. I always thought that they would remain only as words, but apperently now its time to grab the pen and start drawing these card artworks for real!**

 **Big thanks to** GideonGoldTheDarkOne **for follwing this story!**

 **Now onto the reviews:**

Ethan Kironus **: I hope that I did the Ice Barrier archetype some justice in this chapter, wanted to implement one of their ACTUAL strategies instead of some fancy moves, but even if I failed miserably (most likely scenario) I'll try to get them right the next time Makioka duels.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Thanks for correcting my spelling, I'm not sure how I was able to get half of these wrong...**

 **Also about Reira and Oni. Funny thing is, that I originally planned for Reira to wreck Oni, but while writing the duel I found out that Reira's C/C/C monsters tend to commit suicide at the End Phase, which caused traumatic Neos flashbacks, so I changed the result because of that reason.**

 **Given that Hikaru was originally meant to be Evan's rival, I believe that you can understand why balancing isn't as important for me when it comes to Hikaru's cards compared to some other OCs.**

 **And that's all. Hope that it was a satisfying read and see you all next time.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	41. Chapter 41

Those With Fate in Darkness

 **Avice's POV**

"It seems we did something wild that's probably going to fuck up the timeline again, didn't we?" I asked my brother; who simply nodded, like he wasn't even listening to me. "Geez, are you still angry about Elizabeth? It's not like I wanted that to happen, nor did I have any way to stop it."

"I was just thinking." My brother turned toward me. "Thinking how exactly to fix that mess."

Saying that, he gestured toward Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Yuya and… Yugo. I winched, it probably wasn't a good idea to bring the two Yu(s) to the same place, not after what happened the last time more of them showed at once. But strangely, I couldn't sense anything 'negative' coming from them this time around. I don't know why, could it have something to do with my pendulum? It was glowing even since I got here and it didn't seem to have a button to shut it down with.

"How exactly did a second Yuya came to be?" Gongenzaka asked – bad move there…

"I'M NOT YUYA! THE NAME IS YUGO!" I was already so used to it, that my fingers automatically went into my ears the moment I heard Gongenzaka calling him Yuya.

How I knew that this was exactly what Yugo said while my ears were sealed? Well, you could see him as well, couldn't you? He didn't seem smart enough to respond to the same situation with anything other than yelling his name out loud - such a noisy fella.

"You are the one that fought Yuto." Yuya said and walked in front of his counterpart. "Because of you Yuto is now gone!"

"Yeeeeah, I heard about that already." Yugo rubbed the back of his head, nervously. "But I thought that he was the one who took Rin away from me and wanted to make him pay! I had no idea that there was anyone else with the same look, or that there was a total of four of us."

"Did you just say Rin?" Yuzu asked.

"Yes, she's my-" Yugo paused and began to stare at Yuzu. Ugh, I could already see where this was going to go.

"RIN!"

The Synchro counterpart screamed and jumped onto Yuzu, hugging her while asking how she escaped and such. Yuzu's face of surprise was almost as funny as Yuya and Gongenzaka's both of which grabbed Yugo to try and pull him away while I watched them from the side, trying not to laugh too much at their silliness. Even though this was a pretty stupid situation to be in, I was glad that there was a chance for me to sat down next to my brother and relax for a moment while laughing at others' stupidity. Or, I would be happy if my brother's mind was somewhere completely away from me. He was staring at his own pendulum for Ra knew how long, at this moment the red crystal was going to break from the intense of his gaze.

"Could I ask for something from you?" I felt a strange warm feeling in my chest after my brother asked and looked me with his piercing crimson eyes.

"What are you saying? Did you became as stupid as Elizabeth?" I tried to play it down, like I didn't care that much. "We're siblings, if you can't trust me, then who can you? I'm going to do anything that you need me to do!"

"I want you to follow them around." My brother pointed toward the group of four idiots. Excitement levels quickly dropped down from that…

"You need me to babysit them?" I asked. My brother usually didn't request pointless stuff out of me, but wasting my time to look after these mental midgets sounded like the definition of wasting someone's time. "There's almost no Academia around these places and there are four of them, of which one's ace has effects that negate other monsters, so they should be in the safe."

"It's not their safety that I'm worried about. Don't Yuya and his counterparts go berserk when they are near one another? Yet, he's completely normal with Yugo around, and your pendulum is glowing just like mine, so it makes me thing that it could be possible your pendulum is the one putting their rage under check."

Oh! Now I was getting what my brother wanted to do. A small experiment to see if they would lose control after my brother's pendulum went out of range. Of course when the Yu-boys lost control I could hear their dragons desires, but the monsters were silent now, so their sudden berserk moments could be a result of the dragons influence, in which case my pendulum's glowing would be just a cool effect.

"What about you?" I asked my brother. "Are you planning to go look for Elizabeth on your own?"

"Yeah." I sighed; he was putting her in front of me again.

"Please, be careful." I warned him, but stopped myself from adding 'from your feelings.' to that sentence. If I told him that, then he was probably going to start to worry about my 'feelings' as well, and I didn't want to be an obstacle in his way.

I placed a hand on my chest and kept looking at his back. He was beyond my help. Even though it was my brother who taught me everything, through whom I learned to become independent from that pile of faceless dolls known as humanity, his feeling of responsibility toward Elizabeth never disappeared. His warm care. Even though I didn't need him to babysit me anymore, even though I became much more skilled and independent than my older sister, was it greedy to want him to spoil me like he was doing with her? Was it wrong to want from him to finally close that door toward humanity and join me in our own little space?

"Hey, what are you doing with my D-Wheel?!" I snapped back to reality after Yugo yelled again and turned around. The Yuya look-alike was pulling on my brother's arm while the later was sitting on the white motorcycle.

"I must find someone and using your D-Wheel would be the fastest way around." My brother explained and pulled Yugo's helmet off the duelist's head, which only made the Synchro counterpart to get more vocal in his protests.

"Just let him borrow your D-Wheel for a moment." Yuya joined in, pulling Yugo off my brother's arm.

"What!? Why? Let him use his own D-Wheel instead of stealing mine!" Yugo yelled again and began to push against Yuya.

"That's enough!" Both of them stopped fighting and looked up at my brother after he raised his voice. "Didn't you say that you were looking after a friend of yours, Rin? Tell me, did you feel helpless when you couldn't find her? Did you worry what happened to her? Were you scared about her well-being!?"

Wow. Yugo actually seemed to be sorry, I couldn't tell from his face, but after he looked away from my brother, I was sure that there was some guilt inside of him now.

"Fine, I'm going to let you borrow it." Yugo muttered. "Just don't get it damaged, ok? Also, if I see you fall from it, I'm going to kick you in the guts and take it back, understood!"

My brother didn't respond and just gave the right handle a twist, causing the engine to roar. He had never driven a motorbike in his life so it was only natural for me to feel worried about him, right? While I was thinking that, I heard the sound of the engine again and my brother speed before me, managing to get a whole fifty meters!

After which he lost balance and fell sideways so hard that I was glad that blood was censored in this show. Oh wait, that was only with the dubbed version, right?

"MY D-WHEEL!" I heard Yugo yell and then he ran off…

Wait, didn't he say that he would kick my brother in the guts if he fell from the D-Wheel? Shit!

"Yugo, stop!" I yelled as well and ran after the Synchro counterpart.

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"Hello! Anyone!"

I was trying to get back to Avice after I suddenly appeared in the Ruins, but I just couldn't find the exact same spot; all of the forest looked the same to me! So, I tried to scream instead, and even if Academia's agents were to find me instead of a friend, it would be still good for me because Hema could use their Duel Disks.

Probably.

I kept looking around, but no one was answering back, even my other personalities were starting to tell me that it was best to just sit down and wait until the Solid Vision Field was deactivated. I was starting to agree with them, all I was able to do until now was to get myself tired from all the walking and screaming. But it was then, just when I was about to give up, when someone actually showed up, coming from the other way. I was happy for a moment, until I fully saw that the man (so I assumed) coming toward me was wearing a full set of black armor with spikes coming out of it. His look gave me the chills.

Actually, I think I have seen that one before. He was from one of the previous Yu-Gi-Oh! animes that my brother watched, but I couldn't remember the name of the anime, nor who this guy was. All I remembered about him was that his armor looked kind of edgy. It still looked that way to me.

"What's your name?" He asked me, his voice sounding strict.

"Um…" Was there a way that I would get screwed if I told them my real name? "Elizabeth. Elizabeth Greyson. And you?"

"I see…" Oh come on, they weren't going to introduce themselves after asking for my name? "Elizabeth Greyson, almost the one that I'm after."

"Oh come on!" I wasn't even from this universe, the amount of people that were after me was already becoming ridiculous! "Did you came to kidnap me or something like that?"

"No." Ah, thankfully. "The one I'm after is your brother, but since I couldn't find him anywhere, perhaps endangering his sister's life would make him show up."

Aaaaand back to being ridiculous again. Just great. Was it the name Greyson that caused everyone from across all four dimensions to be after us? I couldn't tell if this was real or a joke anymore.

" _You don't stand a chance to defeat him."_ Hema's spirit appeared before me. _"Let me take over."_

"Excuse me?" She didn't suggest to take over while I walked, but now?

" _Let's not have an argument now! Even I won't be able to do anything more than to buy some time, so sit back and hope that someone's going to come soon!"_ Hema shouted at me and in the next moment I found myself staring down at my own body – I mean Hema's body. I mean OUR body!

"Changed appearance?" the knight wondered. "So that's the ability you obtained."

"Believe me, the look isn't the only thing different about me." Hema replied and activated my/her Duel Disk. "I got no idea who you are, but you make three fatal mistakes. First, you choose to go after my host. Second, you choose to go after the sister of your target, which will only result in your experiencing a fate worse than a thousand deaths. Third, for whoever you think that you are, your lack of knowledge about my existence in this body shows that you didn't do your homework before coming here."

"All opponents are the same for me." The knight shrugged. "But since you raised the topic about researching your enemy before engaging, it might be a good idea to introduce myself as well. I'm the reborn spirit of Haou, but people only call me by my eternal title, the Supreme King!"

The Supreme King threw his left arm upward, a black circular Duel Disk on top of it. The device suddenly began to spin around, activating a golden blade that surrounded the Duel Disk from all sides.

"We are at a big disadvantage here." Yuki and Sunny joined in.

"Facing off against the Supreme King, it's giving me the chills." Even Sunny, who was the most positive of my personalities was trembling in fear before this Duelist. I couldn't imagine how Hema must be feeling, facing him by herself.

"DUEL!" they both shouted at the same time.

 **『** **Hema LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Haou LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first move!" Hema exclaimed, taking a card from her hand. "I activate the Spell Card: _**Burning Fusion**_ to Fusion Summon a FIRE monster from my Extra Deck! For that I'm going to use _**Cinder Forest MagRock**_ and _**Cinder Forest Undying**_ from my hand as materials!"

* * *

 **Burning Fusion (Spell) Normal**

 **Fusion Summon 1 FIRE Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck or Graveyard, using monsters from your hand or your side of the field as Fusion Materials. Once per turn, except during the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can pay 800 LP; Set this card on your side of the field but banish it when it leaves the field.**

* * *

The first monster that appeared from Hema's cards was a black rock with red runes drawn over its chest and head. The monster didn't have either arms or legs, instead having wings made of flames that flowed out of the sides of its rock body.

* * *

 **Cinder Forest MagRock**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If this card is sent to the Graveyard, except by being destroyed or Tributed: You can target 1 "Burning" Spell/Trap in your Graveyard; Set that target to your field. If this card is Special Summoned: You can inflict 400 damage to your opponent, and if you do, gain 400 LP. You can only use each effect of "Cinder Forest MagRock" once per turn.**

* * *

The second monster was even simpler in design, being a simple red flame with a shadow standing in the center of them, staring into the distance with its yellow eyes. After this monster appeared as well, both its and MagRock's flew into a vortex of red, orange and yellow flames, merging into a singular being.

* * *

 **Cinder Forest Undying**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 400/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If this card is sent to the Graveyard, except by being destroyed or Tributed: You can Special Summon this card. You can Tribute this card gain 200 LP, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 "Cinder Forest" monster from your Deck in Defense Position, but its effects cannot be activated this turn. You can only use each effect of "Cinder Forest Undying" once per turn.**

* * *

" _Inhabitants of the scorched forest hidden in the mysterious night, burn your souls to their limits and from your embers shall raise the fog separating life from death! Fusion Summon! Level Six! Archer of blazing stars,_ _ **Cinder Forest Dryad - Dayana**_ _!_ "

Out of the flames came a cry followed by a silhouette that ran through the fire and landed in front of Hema as a black tree. The monster's orange leaves went into flames and its body began to change, its roots transforming into four legs, with its trunk bending forward. Its lower branches turned into two arms and the crown went into massive flames, the branches and twigs tied together to form the body of a woman with crossbows for wrists and the burning leaves flowing behind her like a long golden hair. The monster opened its eyes and yellow flames came out of them.

* * *

 **Cinder Forest Dryad - Dayana**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2200/DEF: 800**

 **2 FIRE Effect monsters**

 **Effect: If this card is Fusion Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower FIRE monster from your Graveyard, but it can't attack during this turn. Once per turn: You can inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each FIRE monster on your field, and if you do, other monsters you control cannot attack during this turn. If this card is Fusion Summoned from the Graveyard: Destroy all Attack Position monsters your opponent controls.**

* * *

"Now I activate MagRock's effect! Since it was sent to the Graveyard, except by being destroyed, I can set Burning Fusion back onto my field!" Flames raised in front of Hema before dying down to show a set card. "And when Undying is sent to the Graveyard, I can revive it!"

Another flame raised from the ground and this time it transformed into Undying who lied on Hema's field in Defense Position.

"And at last, Dryad's effect activates! When she is Fusion Summoned, I can revive one of my FIRE monsters from the Graveyard. The only one I have is MagRock, so raise again!" Dayana aimed her crossbow down and fired a fire arrow that burst into flames, which transformed into MagRock. "And MagRock's effect activates! If its Special Summoned, I can inflict four hundred damage to you and gain the same amount as Life Points!"

MagRock's fire wings spread out toward the Supreme King, forcing him to jump back in order to avoid getting burned alive while a second weaker flame surrounded Hema.

 **『** **Haou LP: 4000 – 400** → **3600** **』**

 **『** **Hema LP: 4000 + 400** → **4400** **』**

"Amazing…" My chin dropped. Not only did all three of the cards that she used came back to her, but she also already had a 800 Life Points advantage over the Supreme King and all of that happened in turn one!

"I'll now activate Undying's second effect!" There was even more to that!? "By releasing Undying I'm able to not only gain two hundred Life Points, but also Special Summon a different Cinder Forest monster from my Deck! Come out, _**Cinder Forest Ash Maiden**_!"

Undying's flames raised and transformed into a gate with a new monster jumping out of it. It had the appearance of a woman made from dark wood with yellow runes drawn over her forehead, arms and legs. The monster had sharp red nails on its fingers and two branches covered in flames were sticking out of her back. Just like Dayana, the new creature had hair made from fire, which was sticking upward with two twigs jutting from her forehead as horns.

* * *

 **Cinder Forest Ash Maiden**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1700/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If you control no monsters, you can target 1 "Cinder Forest" monster in your Graveyard: Discard this card, and if you do, Special Summon that target. During each of your Standby Phases, if you control a "Cinder Forest" monster, gain 200 LP for each FIRE monster on your side of the field.**

* * *

"And due to Undying' I also gain two hundred Life Points." Hema said.

 **『** **Hema LP: 4400 + 200** → **4600** **』**

"Whelp, now I'm glad that Fusion is on your team." Yuki commented while the three of us watched Hema's duel. I said nothing, but I had to agree with Yuki, we were lucky that Hema was with us and not a part of Academia.

"Next I activate Dayana's effect! Once per turn, I can inflict three hundred points of damage to my opponent for each FIRE monster on my field!" The Fusion's lower arms casted two fire arrows and loaded them into the crossbows that were her upper arms. "There are three FIRE monsters, so you take nine hundred points of damage!"

The Fusion fired both arrows at the Supreme King, causing a loud explosion that launched the duelist into the air. But even without a ground under his feet, his reaction was something else entirely. Instead of falling onto the ground like a rock, the Supreme King made a backflip in midair and landed on his feet, dusting off his cape like nothing just happened!

 **『** **Haou LP: 3600 – 900** → **2700** **』**

"I barely felt that." That man, his presence alone was so overwhelming…

"Then I'm going to make you feel it!" Hema yelled. "I activate my set Burning Fusion to fuse together Ash Maiden, Dayana and MagRock!"

All three of Hema's monsters turned into flames that flew around one another, creating another whirlwind while Hema clapped her hands together and began to chant.

" _Burning protector of the forest, become one with the spectral flames of life and from your embers shall raise the giant watching over the spark of life! Fusion Summon! Ancient watcher of the burned land,_ _ **Cinder Forest Ent – Fortreos**_ _!_ "

A giant grey tree appeared out of the portal. The monster's roots were tied around, creating two feet that it used to remain standing while its truck had a large hole in the center with flames coming out of it. The inside of the monster appeared to be empty, the flames raising between the naked branches of its crown, creating a ghostly face of a demon with half opened eyes and a frown. The monster's lower branches were bent and merged into two groups of tree branches that formed the tree-monster's sharp claws.

* * *

 **Cinder Forest Ent – Fortreos**

 **Level: 9/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2800/DEF: 1100**

 **3 "Cinder Forest" monsters**

 **Effect: When this card is Fusion Summoned: You can inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each "Cinder Forest" monster with a different name in your Graveyard, and if you do, gain LP equal to the damage dealt to your opponent by this effect. Once per turn: You can target 1 "Cinder Forest" monster in your Graveyard: Shuffle that target in your deck, and if you do, this card gains 300 ATK until the end of next turn. If this card is Fusion Summoned from the Graveyard: You can Special Summon up to 2 Spellcaster-Type monsters from your deck, whose total Levels are 8, but they cannot attack, also send them to the Graveyard during the End Phase of this turn.**

* * *

"I activate Fortreos' effect! When its Fusion Summoned, I can inflict three hundred damage for each Cinder Forest monster in my Graveyard, and then regain the same amount in Life Points!" Another burning and life recovering effect!?

Several red roots came out of the ground and wrapped around the Supreme King's armor, holding him in place as another set of roots wrapped around Hema began to transfer the King's Life Points over to her.

 **『** **Haou LP: 2700 – 1200** → **1500** **』**

 **『** **Hema LP: 4600 + 1200** → **5800** **』**

"Cheap tricks." The Supreme King grunted and pulled at the roots. A black aura surrounded his arms and he tore the roots that were restraining him! "If that's all you are going to do, then this duel isn't worth my time."

"Why you… I activate Fortreos' second effect! I shuffle MagRock back into my deck and then Fortreos gains three hundred attack points until the end of next turn!" MagRock's spirit appeared before Fortreos and then turned into a flame that flew inside the large tree's chest, heating it up.

 **Cinder Forest Ent – Fortreos, ATK: 2800 + 300** → **3100**

"With this, I'm ending my turn!" Hema finished and stepped back. "It's your turn to show me what you got!"

"Two turns." The Supreme King raised his hand and touched his Duel Disk. "You are going to barely survive this, and your lost will be sealed on my second turn! DRAW!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Haou] LP: 1500, Hand: 6** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my field, I can Special Summon _Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy (Lv.2, ATK: 300)_!" An insect-like humanoid creature appeared on the Supreme King's field. "Next, if my opponent controls a monster, I'm able to Tribute Summon this specific card with only one tribute. I release Infernal Prodigy to Tribute Summon _Evil HERO Malicious Edge (Lv.7, ATK: 2600)_ "

A dark purple/black humanoid covered in blades and other sharp objects appeared on the Supreme King's field and crossed its arms with a smug smirk on its face. That guy… To be counting on Tribute Summoning at a situation like this one, he must be having a lot of nerve.

"And now, I'm going to show you the true terror of my deck." The Supreme King declared. "I activate the Spell Card – Dark Fusion! With this card, I'm going to fuse together the two monsters in my hand!"

A darker version of the usual Fusion portal appeared behind the Supreme King and two of his cards dropped inside of it. I couldn't see or tell which monsters he was fusion together, but I sensed something coming out of that portal. Even though I was a spirit at the moment the presence of the monster inside the portal was able to send chills down my spine…

" _Dark heroes of lightning and rock. Now become one and rule the world with an iron fist! Dark Fusion Summon! Come forth, Evil HERO Lightning Golem (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)!_ "

I remembered now. I remember seeing that monster being summoned in the anime that my brother watched, I knew what its effect was as well, which meant that Hema was…

"I activate Lightning Golem's effect!" the Supreme King continued. "Once per turn, I can destroy a monster on the field! I choose to destroy Fortreos! _Voltic Volley Assault_!"

Black lightning came out of the Fusion's palm and stuck Fortreos' body, piercing right through it like a hot knife. Fortreos' body fell apart and the pieces went into flames that expanded to cover the trees around us as well. Now the whole place was on fire!

"Battle." The Supreme King stepped toward us with the Evil HEROes following after his steps. "Attack her directly!"

Both monsters flew toward us and I closed my eyes out of fear.

* * *

 **3rd POV**

Avice was trying very hard not to groan while she followed after Yuya, Gongenzaka and Yuzu. Why Yugo wasn't with them? Well, after she managed to stop him from beating the crap out of Evan that suddenly made her brother realize a small detail that he missed when he thought of leaving Yuya and Yugo to check if they would go berserk around Avice's pendulum. That little oversight of his was Yuzu's bracelet. For, since it was Evan's pendulum that stopped the magical bracelet from doing its usual teleportation shenanigans, Yugo was going to get teleported away the moment that Avice's brother went out of range to block Yuzu's jewelry.

Because of that they choose to instead have Yugo drive Evan around while Avice followed the others to make sure they wouldn't get into too much trouble. Following Yuya and Yuzu around was less that exiting for the girl, but she would endure it because that was a request from her brother after all.

"Now that you are all back together, I suggest we go somewhere safe instead of walking slowly in the open waiting to get ambushed by another group of Academia soldiers." Avice said, looking around.

For whatever reason, the group had chosen to go back to the volcano area even though the show was a much better place to hide. There weren't also many high spots, which meant that duelists would be able to spot them from far away and because of the lava flowing around them, running away would be tricky as well.

"I, the man Gongenzaka agree." Gongenzaka nodded. "After reuniting, we should try to avoid getting separated again."

"And while we're on the topic of separation, why are you wearing the clothes of your look-alike, Yuzu?" Avice asked, looking over the pink haired girl.

"Huh? Look-alike?" Yuya looked between Avice and his girlfriend. "Did you find someone that looks like you, Yuzu?"

The Fusion user looked away for a bit, feeling embarrassed about it, but she slowly nodded to Yuya's question. Though, she couldn't tell why, but she felt a little insulted that he didn't notice her change of clothes. She then glanced over to Avice who was glaring hard back her, wanting an answer to her own question.

"I talked to Serena and was able to convince her into talking with Kurosaki about the invasion of the Xyz Dimension." Yuzu explained. "I believe that she would have a different view if she heard both sides of the conflict."

"I see." Avice sighed. "Hopefully they won't end up killing each other since Shun doesn't like Fusion users all that much either."

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the volcano area, Ventus and Koharu were sitting against a rock, recovering from their duel while the field before them was being slowly devastated by continuous explosions.

"Battle! Raidraptor - Rise Falcon attack Lunalight Cat Danger!" A completely level-headed and open-minded yelled sending his bird of death toward Serena and her monster.

The Fusion counterpart cried after her monster was destroyed and her body was thrown against a rock, smashing it to pieces. Despite the wounds and broken bones, Serena slowly stood back up and raised her Duel Disk again, a smirk forming on her face.

"Heh, have you finally gotten serious?" she asked. "Turning you into a card will show the Professor how strong I truly am!"

* * *

"Eh, I'm probably overthinking it." Avice shrugged. "Let's get you three somewhere where no guys with weird masks are sure to search for survivors. Although I'm not sure what place exactly would work for that purpose..."

"Target spotted."

The group stopped in their tracks, a group of three Obelisk Force duelists stepped from behind a corner and walked in front of the Standard Duelists.

"We were sent by the professor to take you back home, Serena-chan." The Obelisk Force with a green gem on his helmet addressed Yuzu. "We offer you to come with us peacefully or else we will be forced to use force."

"Aw, that's so cute." Avice commented with a grin on her face.

"Do you think this is a game, girl?" the Obelisk Force with a red gem hissed. "Maybe this will change your mind."

The Obelisk Force pulled three cards from the back of his Duel Disk and threw them in front of the group. Yuzu gasped in shock while Yuya and Gongenzaka's faces showed repulsion and anger. Only Avice gave the cards half of a glance, just enough to acknowledge their existence. The cards on the ground showed the horrified expressions of Mieru, Michio and Teppei, all of them locked inside their eternal prisons. Avice didn't care much about them, but it seemed that the other three of her group had some sort of history with the Obelisk Force's latest victims.

"You bastards…" Yuya gritted his teeth, a dark aura beginning to form around his body.

"Three against four, this seems a little unfair. Care if I join?"

At the sound of the familiar voice, everyone from You Show (and Gongenzaka of course) turned toward the direction it came from. Standing on top of a rock, with a sinister smile on his face, was no other but Sora himself.

"Sora!?" Yuzu exclaimed. "Why are you here?"

"He's been leading the Obelisk Force here." Yuya explained. "He was the one behind this whole invasion."

"That can't be true!" Yuzu shook her head. "He's our friend, Yuya!"

"Jeez, your friendships talk is so annoying." Sora retorted. "I came here for the same reasons as my comrades, to fulfil the Professor's orders! However, before I do that…" Sora paused to glare at Yuya. "You took away my victory against that Xyz Summon and then humiliated me. I want a rematch with you while my friends deal with yours!"

"You don't have to do this, Yuya." Gongenzaka commented.

"Let him do it." Avice said, catching the other's attention. "If you all believe that Sora can still be brought back to being your friend, then the one who has the most chance to turn him back would be his teacher, right?"

"Hmm, that's right." Yuya nodded with a smile, his dark aura dying down. "Alright Sora, I accept your challenge!"

"Let's go somewhere more private." Sora told the entertainment and jumped off the rock he was standing on before turning around to lead Yuya.

"And while Yuya's busy getting your friend back, we're going to clear this place from the remaining Obelisk Foce." Avice told the other two duelists.

"That's right!" Yuzu and Gongenzaka nodded, activating their Duel Disks.

"Fine, then we are going to crush you!" one of the Obelisk Force exclaimed.

"DUEL!"

* * *

Yuya followed Sora into the cave that the latter choose for their rematch. The two of them stood across from each other with a single rocky bridge connecting their two fields and a sea of lava flowing under their feet. Yuya looked down at his hand and then closed his eyes. He had to remember. He had to remind himself what he was doing this for. Yuzu, Gongenzaka, Avice, Yuto, he was fighting for all of their wishes. He was fighting to bring his friend back, to fulfil Yuto's request and bring an end to this conflict by taking back his friend from the narrow mindset programmed into him by Academia.

"DUEL!" they both shouted at the same time; Duel Disks coming to life.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Sora LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" Sora exclaimed. "I activate the Continuous Spell: _Toy Vendor_!"

The large toy machine appeared behind Sora who began to explain its effect.

"Once per turn, this card allows me to send a card from my hand to draw a card! I send Fluffal Wings to the Graveyard and draw!" Sora looked at the card that he got and then showed it to Yuya. "I drew _Fluffal Dog_ , so I Special Summon it!"

A little fluffy dog with fairy wings tied to its back appeared out of the Toy Vendor and landed in front of Sora with a loud bark.

"When Fluffal Dog is Summoned, I can add a Fluffal or Edge Imp card from my deck to the hand." Sora explained pulling a card from his deck. "I add Fluffal Bear and then I activate Polymerization to fuse together Fluffal Bear and Edge Imp Sabres!"

Two of Sora's monsters appeared beside one another and flew into a vortex of different colors while Sora jumped in front of it and began to chant.

" _Claws of the demon! Fangs of the beast! Become one and reveal a new form and power! Fusion Summon! Appear, horrifying beast that shreds everything! Frightfur Bear (Lv.6, ATK: 2200)!_ "

The Fusion monster jumped out of the portal and let out a malicious laughter.

"I set a card and end my turn." Sora finished, placing a card on his field. "I've been holding back on purpose last time we duel so I don't raise too much suspiciousness, but this time I'm going to go all out against you, Yuya!"

"Same." Yuya replied and looked at his Duel Disk. "I've grown a lot since the last time we dueled, I learned a lot from those around me, including you! This deck, it holds the proof of our friendship! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Yuya] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Using the Scale One, Stargazer Magician, and the Scale Five, Wisdom-Eye Magician, I set the Pendulum Scale!" the two spellcasters raised behind Yuya along with the large pendulum swinging between them. "Next, I activate Wisdom-Eye Magician's effect to destroy it and set Timegazer Magician from my Deck directly into my Pendulum Scale!"

The former magician shattered and Stargazer's companion raised in its place, looking at the duel with a bored expression.

"With this, I can Pendulum Summon monsters whose levels are from two to seven! Pendulum Summon! From my Extra Deck, _Wisdom-Eye Magician (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_ and from my hand, _Dharma-Eye Magician (Lv.7, ATK: 2000)_ and _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!"

The two magicians with golden ornaments on their cloaks appeared at each side of the large crimson dragon. Yuya looked at his monster and then took a deep breath.

"Using Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dharma-Eye Magician, I overlay!" The two monsters turned into a purple and yellow stream of energy respectively before lying into the galaxy portal that opened above Yuya's head.

"A Rank Seven!?" Sora gasped; he knew that Yuya has learned Xyz Summoning, but to think that he would have a Rank 7 in his Extra Deck…

" _The subzero dragon with diachronic eyes, revive from the depths of the infinity abyss and become the freezing shield of rectitude! Xyz Summon! Rank Seven! Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon (Rank: 7, ATK: 2800)!_ "

The pitch black dragon landed on Yuya's field with a loud roar that caused Sora to shiver. The new monster's aura was icy cold!

"An Odd-Eyes Xyz Monster?" Sora muttered, looking at the new dragon. "It's just like that time you dueled Evan. First an Odd-Eyes Fusion Monster, now an Odd-Eyes Xyz Monster."

"This is the power of the bond I share with all of you!" Yuya exclaimed. "Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon was born from my friendship with you and Yuzu, Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon was born to oppose the things that Academia does because they are wrong!"

"Shut up!" Sora yelled back, surprising Yuya. "Academia's mission is to bring humankind to a better future by uniting our worlds!"

"Uniting the worlds through force is wrong!" Yuya retorted. "Battle! I attack Fluffal Dog with Wisdom-Eyes Magician!"

The Spellcaster flew into the air and casted a spell, opening several magical circles that fired toward Sora's monster.

"Wisdom-Eye is weaker than Fluffal Dog, so you must be planning to power it up with an Action Card." Sora commented before jumping onto one of the small islands sticking out of the lava to grab the Action Card on it. "I activate the Action Spell: _Flame Chain_! This card reduces your monster's attack by four thousand!"

 **Wisdom-Eye Magician, ATK: 1500 - 400** → **1100**

"I activate Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon's effect to detach a Xyz Material and negate Wisdom-Eye' attack!" Odd-Eyes bit onto one of its materials and then a column of ice raised from the ground, absorbing Wisdom-Eye' magical attack.

"What was the plan with that move, Yuya?" Sora sneered. "Or were you just acting on instinct?"

"When Odd-Eyes negates an attack by its own effect, I can Special Summon an Odd-Eyes monster from my Graveyard or hand! Come back, _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!" A portal appeared in front of Absolute Dragon and its Pendulum counterpart raised.

"Now I attack Frightfur Beat with Odd-Eyes Dragon!" Yuya shouted and jumped onto a rock, grabbing an Action Card. "I activate the Action Card: _Flame Surge_ , increasing Odd-Eyes' attack by four hundred!"

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, ATK: 2500 + 400** → **2900**

"When Odd-Eyes battles a Level Five or higher monster, the damage is doubled! Reaction Force!" Odd-Eyes opened its mouth and fired a spiral of flames that pierced through Frightfur Bear's chest, destroying it and knocking Sora back.

 **『** **Sora LP: 4000 – 1400** → **2600** **』**

"Next I attack Frightfur Dog with Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!" the dark version Odd-Eyes fired an ice beam from its mouth, freezing the Fluffal monster before smashing it with its tail. The shockwave threw Sora back.

 **『** **Sora LP: 2600 – 1100** → **1500** **』**

"I end my turn. At this moment, Flame Surge's effect ends and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's attack returns to normal." Yuya finished and looked at Sora. "This is how we became friends back then, right? Through dueling each other."

"Ngh," Sora gritted his teeth and slowly rose back up. "Why won't you just get it? It was just to keep my disguise! That's why I joined You Show, not to become your friend!"

"So, we are not friends?" Yuya asked him.

This time, the Fusion Duelist averted his gaze. "My turn."

 **『** **Turn 3 [Sora] LP: 1500, Hand: 1** **』**

"I discard Fluffal Wings to activate Toy Vendor's effect again!" Sora exclaimed, drawing a new card. "I Special Summon _Fluffal Owl (Lv.2, ATK: 1000)_!" A little yellow owl with glasses flew out of the Toy Vendor. "I activate Fluffal Owl's effect to add Polymerization from my deck to the hand. Next, I activate Fluffal Wing's effect from my Graveyard to banish both copies of it and draw two cards! Also, by Tributing Toy Vendor, I can draw another card!"

"Drawing three cards at once…" Yuya bit his lip; Sora was really getting serious.

"I Normal Summon _Fluffal Mouse (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_." An aqua green mouse with fairy wings appeared in front of Sora. "Fluffal Mouse's effect activates, Special Summoning two more copies of itself when it's in Attack Position! Next, I activate the Continuous Spell, _Edge Nightmare_! When this card is in play, I can once per turn revive an Edge Imp from my Graveyard and the one I choose is _Edge Imp Sabres (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_!"

"Now I activate the Spell Card, _Polymerization_! With it, I fuse all five of my monsters!" A fusion portal appeared behind Sora and all the Fluffal monsters he controlled, along with Edge Imp Sabres, flew inside of it.

" _Demonic claws, sharp fangs! Become one in the mystic vortex and show us a new form and power! Fusion summon! Show yourself! Mystical jungle beast that rips everything to shreds! Frightfur Tiger (Lv.6, ATK: 1900)!_ "

The green beast with scissors coming out of its belly appeared on the field and roared at Yuya.

"Since you came to interrupt my last duel after I have already summoned this guy, you didn't get to see its effect, did you?" Sora's face twisted into a disturbed grin. "When Frightfur Tiger is Fusion Summoned I can destroy a card for each of the Fusion Materials used! I used five, therefore I destroy all five of your cards!"

The tiger's scissors reached out, surrounding Yuya's cards from both sides and then the blades closed, cutting Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, Wisdom-Eye Magician, Stargazer Magician and Timegazer Magician.

"When Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon leaves the field, its effect activates!" Yuya shouted. "Come out, _Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon (Lv.7, DEF: 3000)_!"

"Vortex Dragon you say?" Sora looked at the green Odd-Eyes monster. "You are probably going to activate its effect now, won't you?"

"Yes." Yuya nodded. "When Vortex Dragon is Special Summoned, I can target one Attack Position monster you control and shuffle it into the deck! You got only one monster, so Frightfur Tiger is gone!"

"Not so fast!" Sora exclaimed. "Counter Trap activate: Frightfur March! When a monster I control is targeted by your card effect I can negate that effect!" Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon's eyes stopped to glow and it lowered its head. "Then, I can send the Level Six Frightfur Wolf from my Extra Deck to the Graveyard and Fusion Summon a Frightfur Monster from my Extra Deck! Come forth! Wild ghost-cave beast that bares fangs at all! _Frightfur Sabre-Tooth (Lv.8, ATK: 2400)_!"

A dark blue beast with pink blades coming out of its entire body appeared next to Frightfur Tiger.

"You are finished, Yuya!" Sora exclaimed. "Due to Frightfur Tiger all my Frightfur monsters gain three hundred attack for each Frightfur on my field and Sabre-Tooth increases their attack the same way but with four hundred more attack points instead!"

 **Frightfur Sabre-Tooth, ATK: 2400 + 600 + 800** → **3800**

 **Frightfur Tiger, ATK: 1900 + 600 + 800** → **3300**

"Let's battle!" Sora's grin spread out, becoming bigger. "I attack Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon with Frightfur Tiger!"

The dark beast jumped onto Yuya's Fusion monster and crushed it, leaving the performer completely defenseless.

"And now Frightfur Sabre-Tooth will attack directly!" Sora exclaimed, his second Fusion Monster jumping on top of Yuya.

The entertainment screamed out and Sabre-Tooth threw him across the field, his limp body slamming into the hard ground.

 **『** **Yuya LP: 4000 – 3800** → **200** **』**

"I set a card and end my turn." Sora finished. "Was that enough to learn that I'm not coming back?!"

"N-no…" Yuya put his hands on each side of his body and weakly raised himself back onto his knees. "Even if you act like this, I know that deep down, you still think of us as friends!"

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"Hhhyyyyaaaaaaaaa!" I cover my ears with both arms and closed my eyes to try and silence Heam's screams.

 **『** **Hema LP: 5800 - 2600** → **3200 – 2400** → **800** **』**

I opened my eyes after all of the attacks were done, sure that my body would have collapsed from all of the damage and pain. But I was wrong. I'm not sure what was giving Hema this strength, but she remained standing even after taking 5000 damage. Maybe it was just her will to keep going, or maybe it was something that I just couldn't understand, but she kept pushing herself even with blood flowing freely from her shoulders and stomach. Actually, it was our shoulders and stomach, which meant that I would be in a lot of pain once I get back control of my body.

If I had the chance to do that of course.

Despite how strong Hema's will was, even I could tell that she was already at her limits. Our legs were trembling and the heat coming from the forest burning around us was intense enough for me too feel it as well. In addition, this place should be filled carbon dioxide for the same reason.

"That's enough punishment for a turn." The Supreme King stated. I couldn't tell what kind of expression he was making because of his helmet, but it couldn't any colder than his tone. "I set a card and during the End Phase of this turn, the effect of Infernal Prodigy lets me draw a new card."

"I'm going to make you regret not finish me off on your last turn." Hema gritted her teeth and reached for her deck.

She had no chance of winning like this! I had to do something, but what could a disembodied spirit do? Wait! Weren't the other personalities changing my deck into their own? Shouldn't that ability work both ways?

" _Wait!"_ I shouted, catching Hema's attention. _"For this battle… I want you to use my strength, ok?"_

Hema didn't need to come out and fight in my place, but she still did it and I couldn't just watch her getting beaten like this because of me. Even if with just a card, I wanted to make it up to her, to help her in this fight and I knew exactly which one of my cards would be good enough to help her in this fight!

"Elizabeth…" Hema looked toward my direction and smiled. "This one's for you, Elizabeth! I can feel your strength inside my deck and I'm sure to respond to your feelings with it! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Hema] LP: 800, Hand: 3** **』**

"It's here!" Yes, it worked out! "From my hand, I activate Monster Reincarnation to discard a card and add a monster from my Graveyard to the hand! I discard Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer to add Cinder Forest Undying and then I Normal Summon it!"

The flame monster appeared before my Fusion counterpart and grinned.

"Next I release Undying to Special Summon _Cinder Forest MagRock (Lv.3, DEF: 200)_ from my deck and gain two hundred more Life Points!" The rock monster appeared in place of the living flame while Undying's spirits moved around Hema' healing her up a little.

 **『** **Hema LP: 800 + 200** → **1000** **』**

"Finally, I activate the Spell Card _Monster Reborn_ to revive Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer from my Graveyard!" A portal appeared on the ground below Hema and my monster raised from it, standing next to MagRock.

"You choose to revive that one?" The Supreme King sounded confused. "If you have chosen either of your Fusions, they would have at least been able to deal some damage to me, but this one's too weak to defeat my Evil HERO monsters without suffering the same fate."

"That's where you are wrong." Hema clenched her fist. "I activate Burning Fusion's second effect from my Graveyard! By paying eight hundred of my Life Points, I'm able to set it on my field, but as a cost for that it's going to be banished when it leaves the field!"

 **『** **Hema LP: 1000 - 800** → **200** **』**

Flames burst from Hema's left arm and she screamed in agony before falling onto the ground. All I could do was watch from the side speechless while she used herself to pay the cost of the card. The flames that covered her skin slowly crawled to her wrist and transformed into Burning Fusion.

"I… I activate Burning Fusion" to fuse together Tempest Sina the Pendulum Sorcerer and Cinder Forest MagRock!" Both of our monsters turned into flames, this time my monster into a blue flame while MagRock into the regular red one, as they both flew together, creating a portal of purple flames behind Hema's body.

" _Magician protecting all life, become one with the spectral stones moving in the ash and from your embers shall raise the crimson magician of cinder! Fusion Summon! Red magician burning with life_ , _**Cinder Forest Sorceress – Pyrose**_!"

A giant red flame with a magical rune appeared on the field. The ends of the flames began to bend, prolonging into limbs made of flames. The fire began to take a more slim appearance forming a body and a head to go with the limbs. After the silhouette of what looked like a human female was formed, the flames began to retract themselves toward the magical rune resting on the center of the creature's chest. Returning, the fire first uncovered the smooth skin of the monster's arms, which had long loose-fittings red sleeves which ended at her elbows, using a tight golden loop in the shape of vines to hold the sleeves from falling, while her shoulders and upper back remained uncovered.

The flames produced a tight dress made of two layers. The first one was purple covering the monster's front and lower back with glowing golden vines sewn into her dress, most noticeably around the V-neck collar and near her lower back. The upper layer of the dress was made of two black pieces, with the first one being sewn over the lower part of the purple layer, covering the woman's legs with two gold-colored straps connecting the left and right halves of her skirt. The woman didn't wear any footwear, instead her feet were covered in red runes with black vines tied around her left angle.

Oh, also, the second piece of the second layer of her dress was attached to the collar of the first one, creating a second, larger collar that stood arranged in a form that made it very similar to black petals that surrounded the side and the back of the monster's head. The flames covering the monster's head were the last one to retread, but unlike the other fire, they moved upward, revealing that more red runes covered the magician's cheeks and forehead, while her long hair was glowing in a bright orange-reddish color.

After finishing her transformation, the magician pressed the rune on her chest and a black wooden wand covered in red feathers, with a dragon-head accessory on the top, appeared in front of her.

* * *

 _ **Cinder Forest Sorceress – Pyrose**_

 **Level: 8/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2700/DEF: 2200**

 **1 Spellcaster-Type monster + 1 FIRE monster**

 **Effect: If this card is Fusion Summoned, you can target 1 face-up monster on the field with lower original ATK that this card's. Destroy it, and if you do, gain Life Points equal to half that monster's ATK. Once per turn, if you gain Life Points, you can have this card gain the same amount of ATK until the end of this turn. If this card is Fusion Summoned from the Graveyard: Destroy all other cards on the field, and if you do, inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each of their cards destroyed by this effect.**

* * *

' _This card looks…_ ' I looked it all over, it looked like what I would imagine a Fusion of Sina to be like.

"Pyrose's effect activates!" Hema cried out and pointed toward her monster. "When she is Fusion Summoned, I can destroy one of your monsters with lower attack power! I choose Evil HERO Malicious Edge! _**Burning Will**_!"

Pyrose spread out her blades and their burst into flames, shooting out several whips of fire that cut through the fiend, burning in into ashes.

"When a monster is destroyed by Pyrose' effect, I gain half its attack points as Life Points and Pyrose gains the same amount as attack power!" Pyrose's body ignited into flames her magical whips surrounded Hema, healing her once more.

 **『** **Hema LP: 200 + 1300** → **1500** **』**

 **Cinder Forest Sorceress – Pyrose, ATK: 2700 + 1300** → **4000**

"It's over for you now!" Hema cried out and threw her fist forward. "Battle! Pyrose, attack Evil HERO Lightning Golem! _**Broken Hell**_!"

Pyrose flew toward the other Fusion and swung her blades, summoning two crimson whips that she then swung down onto the Fusion Monster. She… She was actually going to win this duel!

"Quick-Play open! _Battle Fusion_!" Supreme King's set card flipped face-up.

"B-Battle Fusion." Hema's expression suddenly went pale.

"When a battle that involves a Fusion monster of mine is ongoing, this card increases that monster's attack power by that of the opponent that it battles. In other words, Lightning Golem gains your monster's attack power!"

 **Evil HERO Lightning Golem, ATK: 2400 + 4000** → **6400**

" _N-no…"_ this couldn't be… We were so close to victory and yet…

Evil HERO Lightning Golem grabbed both of Pyrose' whips with one arm and charged a black lightning in the other, firing it toward our Fusion monster. It was too late to look for an Action Card as well…

…I lose again.

"Elizabeth!"

No way, that's…

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"Damn it! Why must I be your driver!?"

Merciful Ra, why? Yugo's been complaining about this since I grabbed him to come with me and I'm starting to lose my cool with that bastard already! He was so annoying that walking on foot through the entire city yelling my sister's name at inanimate objects would be much better than to try and keep myself from strangling this annoying little,

"Hey, what's that?" Yugo pointed toward the distance.

I looked there and… It was a forest fire?! That definitely wasn't normal. The entire field was made from Real Solid Vision, which was invincible. The only thing that could damage Real Solid Vision would be another construct made from Real Solid Vision, which reduced the possible causes to only one.

"A duel…" Someone was dueling there. "We're going to check that out!"

"Huh?" Yugo looked back at me. "What are you saying? The tires of my D-Wheel are going to melt if we go there."

"What?" I glared at the Synchro counterpart. "We aren't going to drive through the flames, are your tires made from China or some shit?!"

"They are cheap!" Yugo retorted. "Try living in the slums and we'll see if you're gonna be able to get anything better!"

"Then just drive me as far as you think is safe for your D-Wheel, jeez!" I was starting to question whenever Rin was really kidnapped or she choose to go voluntarily seeing how much this idiot cares about his D-Wheel.

Much to my surprise, this time the Synchro counterpart didn't try to retort and actually followed my orders, turning his D-Wheel toward the forest. Lucky me, there was a path through the forest, so I didn't have to pray that Yugo wouldn't get us both killed while driving around the trees

As we came closer, I noticed that the flames seemed to be in some sort of controlled environment because they weren't getting too far from… some girl that looked like Elizabeth and her opponent!

"Who's that?" Yugo asked again.

"Elizabeth!" I yelled at the girl to check for any response.

And she actually turned back, looking me in the eyes. Her face was covered in bruises and a single tear ran down her cheek. She mustered to give me a weak smile and then closed her eyes. At that moment, I saw Evil HERO Lightning Golem firing a black lightning at some red magician, destroying the monster. This attack send the girl flying into the air and then she crashed face-first on the ground a few feet away from us.

"Whooa!" Yugo shouted and kicked the brakes with all of his strength, the front wheel of his D-Wheel stopping just a few centimeters from my sister's head.

I didn't even bother yelling at Yugo about this and just jumped off the D-Wheel, throwing away the helmet, and kneeled down next to my sister, taking her into my arms. I didn't even bother to check what she looked like (not that I had to because whichever personality was in control, it gave up control after the attack hit). Her eyes remained closed and her breathing was very weak, looking down, I also saw several deep cuts on her shoulders and mostly on her stomach. She was bleeding and I had no idea what to do about it!

"Is she your sister?" I ignored Yugo's question and raised my sister's body, moving it toward the D-Wheel. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Running away with your sister?" I stopped and turned around.

Walking out of the flames, a knight in familiar black armor came before me. The Supreme King; that would explain why I saw an Evil HERO fusion just a moment ago. That bastard was the one who did this to my sister! I felt the hatred building inside of me from the mere sight of this individual. A desire to defeat, to destroy, it was like a wildfire burning inside of my chest, I couldn't control it.

And really, I didn't want to control it either. He hurt my sister, he dared to do this to one of the two most important beings in my life. He had to pay for that! He had to taste hell and I was going to be the demon who's going to drag him down there!

"Yugo!" I shouted, catching the boy's attention. "Take my sister and drive away. I'm going to deal with this one personally."

Again, no complaining from Yugo. The Synchro duelist took my sister and gently put her on his D-Wheel. At the same time, I pulled out my Duel Disk and activated it, stepping toward the Supreme King.

"Why did you do that?" I only wanted to know one simple thing before I ended him. "Why did you go after my sister?"

"To draw you out." The Supreme King pointed at me. "You, the holder of True Darkness, and me, the one born with the Gentle Darkness, it's our fate to fight against one another and find which one is the superior one."

"True Darkness?" I have never heard of this thing before. "There's no way I could have something like this inside of me!"

"Of course, that's true." The Supreme King answered. Ok, now I was starting to lose what he was saying. "True Darkness hasn't chosen a new human host for the last twenty or so years and there's no chance that it would choose someone who isn't from this reality, so naturally you shouldn't be able to wield its power."

"Then doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of going after me?" I just couldn't make sense of this. Or was that guy trying to make a fool out of me?

"Oh, but you are. True Darkness always chooses two hosts, a human and a spirit. You might now be a chosen, but you are holding a monster that is." The Supreme King pointed toward my deck. A monster that I was holding…-!

"Phantomus!" That must be it! The reason why Odd-Eyes spirit was able to recognize it, why so some of the enemies that I faced knew about him, why he was always present when I used Darkness' power…

"Even if gifted such a power the one carried by your Phantomus, a spirit can't use it effectively without a host." The Supreme King continued to explain. "So many other Tracers appeared to this world before you, but the demon choose to make you its vessel. So I guess you could say that you are special. That's why I need to defeat you right here!"

"Well, that's a better explanation that the cliché of me being a natural chosen one." I sighed and raised my Duel Disk again. "But Phantomus has already grown to me, so I'm now going to destroy you for both my sister and my partner! Duel!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Haou LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'll take the first move!" Haou exclaimed. "I'm going to set two card and then Normal Summon _**Evil HERO Wild Mongrel**_!" A monster with dark skin and red tattoos across its chest and arms appeared on the field holding a two-handed stone axe with a single arm and covering its face with a human skull.

* * *

 **Evil HERO Wild Mongrel**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Fiend/Effect**

 **ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600**

 **Effect: (If used as material for a Fusion Summon, this card's name can also be treated as "Elemental HERO Wildheart"). If this card is added to your hand, except by drawing it during the Draw Phase: Special Summon this card. "Evil HERO" monsters you control are unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Trap Cards.**

* * *

"With this, I end my turn." Haou stated and turned to the side.

" _This looks bad."_ Foxy's spirit appeared beside me. _"I get an itchy feeling in my fur from this one. Process with caution."_

"I'll." I was pissed off, but I wasn't an idiot. And that monster that he summoned, an Evil HERO counterpart of Wildheart means that the deck he's playing probably isn't the same as the one from the anime.

"My turn. Draw!" I shouted.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Unknollow (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_!" the little shadowy reptile wrapped its body around my arm, its body resting against my shoulder. "Next, I activate Unknollow's effect to Special Summon _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_ and then Unknollow's effect changes its own Level to become the same as Protector Golem's!"

 **ChronoDevil Unknollow, Lv.1** → **3**

"Next, I overlay my Level Three Protector Golem and Unknollow!" my monsters fell into the portal and a purple lightning shout of it, the shadowy form of my monster raising from the deep abyss.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)!_ "

"So, you already brought out an Extra Deck monster." The Haou commented. It almost sounded like he didn't expect me to do that.

"I activate Void Lancer's effect! By detach a Xyz Material, I can lock down one of your set cards! I choose to use both of its Xyz Materials to get both of your set cards locked while Void Lancer is on my field! _Voided Zone_!"

My monster raised its lance, creating two additional spears of dark energy which then pierced into Haou's set cards, preventing them from activating and effectively giving me a clear way to his Life points. But even so, I shouldn't give him too much time to reorganize himself.

"I activate Protector Golem's effect to revive it as there's only a DARK monster on my field." The ground opened and my golem raised next to Void Lancer with 1200 ATK. "Finally, I activate the Scale Five, _ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost_ in my Pendulum Scale! Its Pendulum ability activates, raising the attack of all my DARK monsters by five hundred!"

 **ChronoDevil Void Lancer, ATK: 1800 + 500** → **2300**

 **ChronoDevil Protector Golem, ATK: 1200 + 500** → **1700**

"Let's battle now!" Void Lancer swung its spear, ready to land the first strike. "I attack Evil HERO Wild Mongrel with Void Lancer!"

My monster threw its lance at Evil HERO Wild Mongrel, its weapon piercing through the other one's chest and even going past that to graze Haou's black armor.

 **『** **Haou LP: 4000 – 800** → **3200** **』**

"I didn't even feel that." The damn bastard just wiped the spot on his armor like it was nothing and turned back toward me. "If that's your best then,"

"Protector Golem, attack him directly!" I didn't wait for him to finish before ordering my second attack. Protector Golem swung its weapon and brought it down onto Haou's head with enough force to crush it.

But it didn't happen.

Instead, a dark aura flew out of that bastard's body and moved in front of his face, blocking Protector Golem's attack. The dark energy practically functioned as a shield, although not an absolute one because the attack still sent Haou sliding backwards a few centimeters before he was able to completely stop it.

 **『** **Haou LP: 3200 – 1700** → **1500** **』**

"Bloodlust." Haou raised his head again and looked at me. "Your power is supposed to be the neutral one, but you are using it only with negative feelings, immature like a human. You haven't grown up from that corrupted nature."

"Shut up!" I wasn't like the rest! I wasn't better than the others! "I'm done. It's your turn now!"

"Are you angry because of your sister, or because I just said?" I bit my lip. It was official folks, this ancient king wanted to be killed off so badly that he pissed me off to do it. "You don't have to answer, I already know the answer. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Haou] LP: 1500, Hand: 3** **』**

"I'm going to start by calling out _**Evil HERO Raptor**_!" Another humanoid monster appeared, but this time it was covered in greyish brown feathers with metal wings on its back and claws instead of hands.

* * *

 **Evil HERO Raptor**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: WIND/Type: Fiend/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000**

 **Effect: (If used as material for a Fusion Summon, this card's name can also be treated as "Elemental HERO Avian"). You can discard 1 card: Destroy 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field. If this card is Special Summoned: You can discard 1 "HERO" monster from your hand; draw 2 cards.**

* * *

"I activate Raptor's effect!" By discarding a card, I can destroy a Spell or Trap on the field, I choose your Pendulum Card!

Haou sent a card to his Graveyard and his monster flew into the sky, firing several sharp metal feathers out of his wings. The effect hit ChronoDevil Timefrozer Ghost and my Pendulum Card was destroyed.

"Destroyed Pendulum Cards go to the Pendulum Zone." I explained to him. "And because Timefrozer Ghost, all of my monsters lose five hundred attack points."

 **ChronoDevil Void Lancer, ATK: 2300 - 500** → **1800**

 **ChronoDevil Protector Golem, ATK: 1700 - 500** → **1200**

"Next, I activate Raptor's effect once more to destroy my left set card!" Wait, what!? The wingman turned around and fired another barrage of metal feathers that destroyed Haou's own card. "At this moment, the effect of the discarded _**Houndbull**_ activates. When this card is sent to the Graveyard because of a card effect, I can target an Evil HERO and a Dark Fusion in my Graveyard, then add them to my hand."

* * *

 **Houndbull**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 1200**

 **Effect: If this card is sent to the Graveyard because of a card's effect: Target 1 "Evil HERO" card and 1 "Dark Fusion" in your Graveyard; add both those targets to your hand.**

* * *

"Naturally, the ones I choose are the Wild Mongrel that you destroy and the Dark Fusion that I sent to the Graveyard through Raptor's effect." Haou continued. "And when Mongrel is added to my hand, it can be Special Summoned on the field by its own effect!"

Just a turn after I got rid of it, the skull headed monster appeared back once more, roaring at me.

"Next, I activate the effect of the card that I destroyed myself, the Trap Card - _**Hero's Revenge**_!" A card in Haou's Graveyard began to glow. "When it gets destroyed, I can Special Summon an Evil HERO monster directly from my deck!"

* * *

 **Hero's Revenge (Trap) Normal**

 **When a monster you control is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Evil HERO" monster from your hand or Deck. If this set card is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Evil HERO" monster from your Deck.**

* * *

"Come out, _**Evil HERO Deluge Man**_!" A man in a blue suit with large spikes coming from his shoulders and the side of his head appeared on the field with two water blasters attached to each of his wrists.

* * *

 **Evil HERO Deluge Man**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: WATER/Type: Fiend/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 1200**

 **Effect: (If used as material for a Fusion Summon, this card's name can also be treated as "Elemental HERO Bubbleman"). When this card is Special Summoned: Draw a card for each face-up "Evil HERO" on your side of the field. During your opponent's turn: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; negate the next attack this turn from a monster your opponent controls.**

* * *

"Deluge man's effect activates!" Haou continued. "When its Special Summoned, I can draw a card for each Evil HERO on my field! There are three, so I draw three new cards!" He looked over his cards and then toward me. "I activate _Dark Fusion_ to fuse together Evil HERO Raptor, Deluge Man and Mongrel!"

A dark vortex appeared behind Haou and all three of his monsters jumped into it, turning into shadowy figures that merged together. I have never seen a triple Evil HERO fusion in the anime, so this one should be a new one as well.

"The metal predator of the sky, the crazy killer hunting in the shadows of the forests, the smooth criminal of the abyss, merge together and become an unforgiving enforced of the law! Dark Fusion Summon! The titan ruling everything above the ground! _**Evil HERO Hurricane**_!"

This was probably the Evil HERO counterpart of Tempest. The monster had dark skin with a black leather outfit covering its chest and legs. A dark metal plating covered the evil hero's upper chest and two wings with sharp nails in place of feathers spread behind it. The monster's head was covered by a black helmet with a red visor and three sharp blades sticking from the back of it. Hurricane's suit was covered in blue bells that held explosives, its arms ended with prolonged metal claws, each of which had a blasted attached to the back of them.

* * *

 **Evil HERO Hurricane**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: WIND/Type: Fiend/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 2800/DEF: 2800**

 **3 "Evil HERO" monsters**

 **Effect: Must first be Special Summoned with "Dark Fusion". You can send 1 other card you control to the Graveyard: Destroy 1 card on the field. The first time this card would be destroyed by battle or card effect each turn, it's not destroyed.**

* * *

"I activate Hurricane's effect! I send my other face-down card to destroy Void Lancer!" I bit my lip. Hurricane flew upward and several bombs fell from its wings, blowing up my Xyz Monster. "Next, my monster is going to attack Protector Golem! _**Hell Hurricane**_!"

The Fusion monster flew over me and fired several beams that fell on top of my Golem, blowing it up. I collapsed on the ground, feeling the full strength of that attack running through my body. Just… How did that bastard manage to ignore the pain?

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 1600** → **2400** **』**

"During the End Phase of this turn, the effect of _**Evil Medallion**_ activates from my Graveyard." Haou continued. "During the End Phase of the turn in which it was sent to the Graveyard, I can banish it to set another Trap Card directly from my deck!"

* * *

 **Evil Medallion (Trap) Normal**

 **When activated, return this card back to your hand. During the End Phase, if this card was sent to the Graveyard during this turn, banish this card: Set 1 Normal Trap from your Deck.**

* * *

So that was his plan? His last turn was just to provoke me. He knew that if I get serious I would summon Void Lancer and try to lock down his set cards, which is why he choose to set cards whose effects activated when they leave the field. Because I failed to realize that, I got to stare down a powerful fusion that can't be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn and a set card that would probably be troublesome to deal as well. If I got any idea about what this new Evil HERO deck is like, I expect some twisted more powerful version of the regular HERO trap cards.

"My turn, draw!" No matter what he had, I would beat through it!

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 2400, Hand: 4** **』**

"At this moment I'm going to activate my Trap Card!" Haou announced. " _ **Arms of Hollow Abyss**_! Now, each time one of us summons a DARK monster, this card will inflict three hundred points of damage to them! Also, it cannot be destroyed while there's a DARK monster on the field, and if it's destroyed, neither of us will be able to summon any DARK monsters during that turn."

* * *

 **Arms of Hollow Abyss (Trap) Continuous**

 **Each time a DARK monster is Normal or Special Summoned, inflict 300 damage to its owner. This card cannot be destroyed by a card effect while there's a DARK monster on the field. If this card leaves the field, neither player can Normal or Special Summon DARK monsters for the rest of this turn.**

* * *

"An anti-DARK card?!" This isn't something that you would find in the deck of the host of the Gentle Darkness.

"Surprised, are you?" Haou asked me. "I did my research on, on your deck. Phantomus, the ChronoDevils, every single monster in your deck is DARK attribute. Buried by your own monsters, that's the fate that awaits you."

"Bastard…" turning my deck into a weapon against me; that was playing dirty!

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"He…, a… …ou th..e?"

I heard some sound. Was it a voice talking to me? I tried to open my eyes and looked at the source of the voice, but my vision was blurry. What happened after my duel with the Supreme King? My entire body feels numb and my head was ringing. I tried to stand up, but the moment I put my hand on the ground and tried to use it as support, a sharp pain ran through my entire right arm and shoulder, causing me to drop back down.

"Don't push yourself!"

I heard that voice again. Someone was standing above me, I couldn't make out the details, but his head looked to be yellow with some blue to it. As for the face, I couldn't even make out the color of his eyes, let along get into any more details about it. Whoever that was, he wasn't wearing a black armor, which meant that somebody must have picked my body while I was still unconscious.

"What's your name?" I asked the person.

"Yugo, but don't worry about that right now." The blurry figure responded and seemed to move back, his head turned toward the side. "Your brother told me to take care of you."

"My… brother…?" Evan? Yes, he must be talking about Evan. "Where is he right now? Could you call him?"

"He's not here." Yugo responded. "He's still fighting that black bastard."

"He's what?!" I was about to jump up, but the pain quickly reminded me to stay down. "Yugo… Help me to stand up."

"What are you planning to do?" I ignored his question. Didn't have time to deal with that, I had to go see my brother!

"Just do it." I repeated and turned my body to try and get up somehow myself, but the more I moved, the more was the pain inside my body increasing.

"Ok, ok!" I heard him yell and then two arms grabbed my shoulders. "Just stand still to not get yourself hurt any more. Ah, your brother is seriously going to kill me for that, you know!?"

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

In the Volcano area six duelists were facing against each other in groups of three. The Obelisk Force all had a Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound with 1800 ATK out on the field and one of them was controlling a face-up Fusion Trench, which stopped all non-Fusion monsters from declaring an attack.

On the other side were Avice with Astral Angel Hawking Turret, which had 1800 ATK, and a single face-down card. Gongenzaka was controlling a defense position Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei and last was Yuzu with her new Fusion Monster, _**Bloom Diva the Melodious Saint**_ ; a monster that looked almost exactly the same as Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir, but with the flower that surrounded her body being larger and the fairy itself looking a bit more mature.

* * *

 **Bloom Diva the Melodious Saint**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 1000/DEF: 2000**

 **1 "Melodious Songstress" monster + 1 "Melodious Maestra" monster**

 **Effect: Cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, also you take no battle damage from attacks involving this card. While this card is face-up on the field, other Special Summoned monsters cannot attack. If this card battles a Special Summoned monster, after damage calculation: Send that monster to the Graveyard, then inflict damage to your opponent equal to its original ATK.**

* * *

"It's my turn!" Gongenzaka declared, drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 10 [Gongenzaka] LP: 2600, Hand: 3** **』**

"I Normal Summon the Tuner monster, _Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter (Lv.2, ATK: 300)_." The tiny red robot appeared next to Big Benkei. "I tune the Level Eight, Big Benkei to the Level Two Trumpeter!"

A beam of light shot behind Gongenzaka, as the man began to chant.

" _Raging deity, ruling over a wasteland of fallen warriors, come forth in a spiraling storm of flames! Synchro Summon! Now come before us, Level Ten! Superheavy Samurai Ruler Susanowo (Lv.10, DEF: 3800)!_ "

"I activate Susanowo's effect!" Gongenzaka declared. "I discard a card, to destroy the left Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound and then inflict damage to you equal to its level times two hundred!"

Susanowo swung its katana and unleashed a wave of wind that cut the three-headed machine in half and threw the Obelisk Force duelist on the ground.

 **『** **Obelisk Force #2 LP: 4000 – 1400** → **2600** **』**

"With this, I end my turn." Gongenzaka finished.

"Then it's my turn!" The third Obelisk Force member yelled. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 11 [Obelisk Force #3] LP: 4000, Hand: 1** **』**

"I activate Fusion Recovery to return Ancient Gear Hound and Polymerization to my hand, then I activate Polymerization!" The Fusion portal appeared behind the soldier.

" _Mechanical hounds who carry on the ancient spirits, flock together and become one with new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth, the Level Nine, Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound (Lv.9, ATK: 2800)!_ "

The large, multi-headed mechanical dog appeared on the field and howled.

"When Ultimate Hunting Hound is Fusion Summoned, all opponents have their Life Points halved!" The beast opened its mouth and fired three blasts, knocking Gongenzaka, Avice and Yuzu back.

 **『** **Gongenzaka LP: 3000/2** → **1500** **』**

 **『** **Avice LP: 2200/2** → **1100** **』**

 **『** **Yuzu LP: 4000/2** → **2000** **』**

"Due to Bloom Diva the Melodious Saint, you can't declare an attack!" Yuzu exclaimed, her monster's clothes emitting a brilliant light that blinded the hound's vision.

"Tch, it's your turn then." The Obelisk Force duelist hissed.

"Then it's time to finally end this." Avice sighed and took a step forward. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 12 [Avice] LP: 1100, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate _Pot of Wishes_ to draw two cards and banish five from my deck!" Avice looked at the card that she drew and then over her opponent. The girl closed her eyes and imagined the board.

A line came out of a card that was inside Avice's hand, went through her facedown card and then reached the Ancient Gear monsters, showing the girl her path of victory.

"Found it!" Avice grinned and took a card from her hand. "I activate Selig Transform to transform Astral Angel Hawking Turret!"

At those words the monster's body fell apart and its core was left exposed before starting to create a new body, materializing grey armor that began to take a new shape.

" _Magical turret of blazing stars! Change into a whirlpool of light and master the secrets of the ancient moon! Transformation Summon! Level Eight! Great Master of Illusions! Astral Angel Moonstone Magician (Lv.8, ATK: 2700)!_ "

The female robot appeared on the field and swung her wand, creating a trait of light that followed after her body.

"Transformation Summon!?" One of the Obelisk Force duelists exclaimed.

"I have never heard of this way of Fusion Summoning before." Another added.

"Moonstone Magician's effect activates!" Avice exclaimed. "I turn two of my banished LIGHT monsters face-down in order to negate all of your monsters' effects and reduce both their attack and defense values to zero! _Full Moon Circle_!"

Moonstone Magician raised its staff toward the Ancient Gear monsters and fired a red beam, turning it all of them into unmoving statues.

 **Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, ATK: 1800** → **0, DEF: 1000** → **0**

 **Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, ATK: 2800** → **0, DEF: 2000** → **0**

"Then I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Silver Ring (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_ and activate my facedown card, the Continuous Trap – _Skill Drain_! By paying a thousand Life Points, this card will negate the effects of all monsters on the field, including ours!"

 **『** **Avice LP: 1100 - 1000** → **100** **』**

"Why would you negate our monsters' effects?" Yuzu exclaimed in confusion.

"Since the effect of Skill Drains negates the effects of all monsters, Bloom Diva's effect that stops other Special Summoned monsters from declaring an attack is negated as well, allowing Avice to declare an attack." Gongenzaka realized.

"This is the final turn!" Avice declared. "Battle! Silver Ring attacks Triple Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!"

The silver monster flew through the machine, cutting through its body, blowing it up in an instant.

 **『** **Obelisk Force #1 LP: 4000 – 1700** → **2300** **』**

"And now, I attack you directly with Moonstone Magician!" Moonstone Magician raised its staff and three orbs of yellow energy formed at the tip, forming a triangle. They started to rotate as the Spellcaster threw them toward, hitting the Obelisk Force with enough strength to knock him down.

 **『** **Obelisk Force #1 LP: 2300 – 2700** → **0** **』**

"I activate Astral Angel Zerstörer Flügel's effect from my hand!" Avice exclaimed. "When a monster I control battled this turn, I can equip this card from my hand to it and allow Moonstone Magician to attack again!"

A robotic armor connected to Moonstone Magician's body, giving the monster a new layer of protection along with an attack boost.

 **Astral Angel Moonstone Magician, ATK: 2700 + 800** → **3500, DEF: 2000 + 700** → **2700**

"Before I finish this, I'm going activate the Quick-Play Spell, _Dimension Overlap_! I release Silver Ring to give all of its attack power to Moonstone Magician and the ability to attack you once more after this!"

Silver Ring flew on top of Moonstone Magician's wand and connected to it, turning the magical item into a spear with a halo rotating around it.

 **Astral Angel Moonstone Magician, ATK: 3500 + 850** → **4350**

"Now end this, Moonstone Magician!" Avice yelled. Her monster swung its new spear and smashed it into the ground, unleashing a wave of red energy that flew toward the remaining two Obelisk Force members. Both duelists cried out in pain and their bodies here flung backward, smashing into the nearby rocks.

 **『** **Obelisk Force #2 LP: 2600 – 4350** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Obelisk Force #3 LP: 4000 – 4350** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice, Yuzu, Gongenzaka** **』**

Avice deactivated her Duel Disk, causing Moonstone Magician to disappear, followed by Yuzu and Gongenzaka doing the same. The bodies of the defeat Obelisk Force duelists began to glow and then they faded away, most likely having been retreated after they got defeated to make sure that no information about Academia's plans would be leaked. Avice attached her Duel Disk onto her belt and then looked around, spotting another group coming toward them. This time it wasn't Academia's forces.

"Looks like we weren't the only survivors after all." Sawatari commented.

"Weren't you disqualified after losing to Yuya? What are you doing here?" Avice asked, causing the boy to avert his eyes.

"I was asked by Reiji himself to come and help the Lancers defeat the invading forces." Sawatari replied with a smug tone in his voice. "I can't really blame him, when I came here the first thing I saw were these two dueling to the dead."

Saying that, the boy gestured toward Kurosaki and Serena, both of them were covered in dirt and bruises. Their clothes were damaged as well, but surprisingly, they didn't seem to be minding each other's company anymore.

"To correct Sawatari, they were dueling away their differences when he suddenly jumped out of nowhere to stop them." said Ventus. "But everything is fine now, how about you?"

"We just took down a group of Obelisk Force." Avice replied and gestured toward the spots where the defeated duelists were lying a moment ago. "However they were able to teleport away before we could stop them. It seems that Academia is automatically retreating their duelists after they lose."

"Strange, they didn't do the same with Shiunin when your friend defeated him." Kurosaki commented.

"So that's why Sora challenged Yuya to a rematch?" Avice wondered.

"Wait!" Sawatari shouted. "You saw Shiunin!? Where's that bastard!"

"He and Yuya went off to duel somewhere." Yuzu responded. "But he's acting very differently from his usual self, I don't know how to approach him anymore."

"So he finally showed his true colors?" Koharu asked.

"That's not Sora!" Yuzu yelled back. "He's a friend of ours, we should know him! I don't know what happened to him when he was away but we must help him!"

"I believe you should tell them." Tsukikage told the others.

"Tell us what?" Gongenzaka looked over the duelists. Shun and Koharu only narrowed their eyes while Ventus and Sawatari all looked away.

"During the Battle Royale…" Sawatari began. "Academia attacked the stadium and… Your father and the rest of You Show were in the center of it…"

Before Sawatari could finish, Yuzu's body collapsed on the ground, devastated. Tears running down her checks and her hands instinctively went to cover her mouth. Gongenzaka clenched his fists and looked down at the ground while Avice rolled her eyes and put her rabbit hood on top of her head.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

"You might have written your homework, but that doesn't mean that you know everything about me or my deck!" I yelled and slammed a card on my Duel Disk. "I Normal Summon _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

"Due to Arms of Hollow Abyss you take three hundred damage." My shadowy demon appeared on the field and immediately a dark wind flew past me, dropping my Life Points.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2400 – 300** → **2100** **』**

"That's not enough…" This wasn't enough to beat me! "I activate Stream Supporter's effect to reduce its attack power to zero and Special Summon a DARK monster from my deck! Come out, _ChronoDevil Marauder (Lv.4, DEF: 1000)_!"

My warrior-like monster appeared on the field, crossing its arms in front of its body while another dark slash came out of Haou's Trap Card and hit me in the chest.

 **『** **Evan LP: 2100 – 300** → **1800** **』**

I felt a stinging sensation and touched the area that got hit by the dark slash. My fingers were covered in crimson… But no, a little blood didn't scare me, it wasn't enough to extinguish the anger. "I use my two Level Four monsters to Xyz Summon!"

"A Rank Four monster?" Haou put a hand under his chin. "I haven't heard of you having one before."

"That's because my deck changed while I was here, and even when I wasn't. The monster that I'm going to call right now is one that crossed time and space in order to fight beside me!" I shouted back and the galaxy portal appeared in the sky, absorbing my two monsters.

" _The dragon guardian of the space, hear my command! Let the foolish challengers know the wrath of thousand stars! Xyz Summon! Come, Beta Spike – Space Dragon (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

The pitch black dragon flew from the portal and landed in front of me with a deafening roar. I didn't often call out Beta Spike due to the dragon always trying to act like a moral compass for me, but this time I'm sure that he would sympathize with my desire for a retribution.

"Beta Spike…" Haou muttered. "Due to Arms of Hollow Abyss you take damage again!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 1800 – 300** → **1500** **』**

"Battle!" I yelled. "Beta Spike – Space Dragon attack Evil HERO Hurricane!"

"I banish Evil HERO Deluge Man from my Graveyard in order to negate that attack!" Say what!?

A large wall of bubbles appeared between Hurricane and Beta Spike, stopping my monster's attack. Beta Spike roared and flew back onto my field, lowering its head.

" _He predicted that you would use my ability!"_ Beta Spike growled. "Well, that's the Supreme King for you I guess, he doesn't leave anything to chance."\

"He'll." I reassured my dragon and took a card from my hand. "I'm throwing a facedown and end my turn."

"It appears that I underestimated you after all." Haou responded. "Beta Spike, like you said such a creature shouldn't exist in this timeline. And while I have no idea how you were able to acquire it, I'm going to give you credit for doing something that I didn't predict. Question now is, how long are you going to be able to keep up with me? My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Haou] LP: 1500, Hand: 4** **』**

"I'm going to Normal Summon _**Evil HERO Dark Flare**_!" A female monster wearing a latex red bodysuit with multiple belts wrapped around her arms, legs and even her chest appeared on the field. The monster had sharp metal nails that were producing fire from the tips and long black hair floating behind her body. Most of her head was covered by a red latex mask that covered everything except for her mouth.

* * *

 **Evil HERO Dark Flare**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Fiend/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 800**

 **Effect: (If used as material for a Fusion Summon, this card's name can also be treated as "Elemental HERO Burstinatrix"). When this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can add 1 "Evil HERO" monster from your Deck to the hand. During your Standby Phase, if this card is in your Graveyard and was sent there because of a card effect during the last turn: Special Summon this card in face-up Defense Position.**

* * *

"I activate Dark Flare's effect to add another Evil HERO monster from my deck to the hand" A card popped out of Haou's Duel Disk. "Next I activate Evil HERO Hurricane's effect! I send Dark Flare to the Graveyard and destroy Beta Spike – Space Dragon!"

Dark Flare turned into black flames that flew into Hurricane's cannons and the Fusion fired them at Beta Spike, piercing through my dragon's chest. Beta Spike roared and fell backward, bursting into sparks before hitting the ground. Just like I calculated.

"Battle!" Haou's monster flew over me and aimed its blasters toward me. "Evil HERO Hurricane attacks you directly!"

"Trap open, _Defense Draw_! This card makes the Battle Damage that I would have taken zero!" A barrier formed in front of me, absorbing Evil HERO Hurricane's attack. "Then, I draw a card."

"You avoided my direct attack." Haou looked away again. "But if you summon a monster again during the next turn, you are only going to get hurt more."

"You think that this matters to someone like me?" I asked him. "Even if it's going to cost me my own life, I'm going to protect and avenge my sisters!"

That's how it was, how it always was, how it was supposed to be. Even since I was able to remember, my parents kept telling me that it was my duty as the older brother to take care of my sister. At first it was only Elizabeth and our lives were more having fun together than actual responsibilities, but then Avice showed up and I was at the age when I had to start learning the responsibilities that came with being an older brother. I have always protected them from bullies, but this time I failed to do the same for Elizabeth. I failed to keep her safe and now I'm going to make up for that by destroying the man who hurt her!

"Brother!"

I paused for a moment. This voice… I turned around and sure, she was there, looking at me with a painted look on her face and a hand over her bleeding abdomen.

"What are you doing?" She asked me. "This place is about to burn down, you are in danger here!"

"Leave." I hissed at her and turned back to my duel.

"I won't leave without you." Damn you, Elizabeth!

I gritted my teeth. The smoke and heat weren't good for her in her current state, but I couldn't just run from this duel. Haou has come for me, so he wouldn't easily allow me to get away. I had to end it quickly!

"My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 1500, Hand: 4** **』**

I looked at the card that I drew. Jackpot! "When I control no monsters, I'm able to Special Summon _ChronoDevil Gear Tuner (Lv.1, DEF: 300!)_!" A black ball with two clock gears rotating around its body jumped happily on my field, while another dark slash came from Haou's Trap Card, cutting my shoulder this time.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1500 – 300** → **1200** **』**

"Brother!" I bit my lip and ignored Elizabeth's screams.

"When the only monsters on my field are DARK, I can revive _ChronoDevil Protector Golem (Lv.3, DEF: 2000)_!" The rock monster raised from the ground and another dark slash cut my right tight.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1200 – 300** → **900** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card – _Harmonic Waves_! This card changes the level of a monster to four until the end of this turn, I choose Gear Tuner!" My tuner monster jumped up happily three new stars appearing above its head.

 **ChronoDevil Gear Tuner, Lv.1** → **4**

"Now I tune my Level Three Protector Golem to my Level Four Gear Tuner!" The fluffy ball turned into four rings that surrounded the golem and a beam of brilliant light shot into the sky.

" _Fearsome beast breaking through the boundaries of time! Lead me toward the future! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)!_ "

My monster appeared with a loud roar and another dark slash hit my chest, but this time it failed to pierce the light armor that was covering my jacket; it was time for a counter attack!

 **『** **Evan LP: 900 – 300** → **600** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card – _The Beginning of the End_! When there are seven or more DARK monsters in my Graveyard I can banish five of them to draw three cards! I banish ChronoDevil Unknollow, ChronoDevil Marauder, ChronoDevil Stream Supporter, ChronoDevil Gear Tuner and Beta Spike – Space Dragon!"

The spirits of all five of my monsters appeared around me and then flew into my deck. This was it! I drew all three cards at once and looked them over.

"With the scale One, _ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy_ and the scale Eight, _ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" The two crimson columns raised behind me and the animal girls looked down at me with smug grins on their faces.

Now the question was, did I want to use Pendulum Summoning? If I did, my monsters still wouldn't be able to destroy Hurricane, but I was going to lose 300 more Life Points. I had to find a different purpose for my Pendulum Cards.

"I set two cards and end my turn." That's all I could do at the moment. Mystic-Flare was weaker than Hurricane, so I had to hope for a good card during my next turn.

"My turn, draw."

 **『** **Turn 7 [Haou] LP: 1500, Hand: 5** **』**

"During this turn's Standby Phase, the effect of Evil HERO Dark Flare activates, reviving on my side of the field in face-up Defense Position." A graveyard portal opened up in front of Haou and his Burstinatrix wannabe returned on the field. "And now I activate the Spell Card _**I – Inferno Blast**_. For every Evil HERO monster on my field, this card destroys a spell or trap card that you control. I can see through your Pendulum Cards so my target will be your set cards."

* * *

 **I – Inferno Blast (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Destroy Spell/Trap Cards equal to the number of "Evil HERO" cards you control. During your turn, except the turn this card was sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; banish 1 face-up card your opponent controls.**

* * *

Both of Haou's Evil HERO monsters fired a sea of flames from their weapons, or in Dark Flare's case, from their mouth.

"I activate Wolfy's Pendulum Effect!" I responded. "I target one Spell or Trap Card on my field and make it indestructible for this turn, I choose my left set card!"

A barrier formed around my set card, protecting it from the fire, but my other set card didn't have that kind of luck and shattered.

"Now that you used up your Pendulum's effect, I'm going to activate Hurricane's effect! I release Dark Flare to destroy Foxy!" Haou's dark Fusion absorbed the flames from the other hero and fired it toward my Pendulum card.

"I activate Foxy's Pendulum effect!" I threw my arm up. "I target Mystic-Flare to make it indestructible for the rest of this turn! Also, all damage I take from battles involving it are halved!"

"There ya go, boss!" Foxy shouted and threw a small shadowy gear onto Mystic-Flare just before Hurricane's effect destroyed her.

"Hmm, you managed to protect your set card and Synchro monster, but at what cost?" Haou asked me. "Now the only card that could protect your Life Points is destroyed in order to save a single set card. I activate _**V – Vile Slash**_! This spell increases the attack power of an Evil HERO by six hundred until the end of this turn, along with giving it the ability to perform piercing damage and my opponent can't activate cards or effects during its battle!"

* * *

 **V – Vile Slash (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 face-up monster you control; until the end of this turn, it gains 600 ATK, and if it attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing battle damage to your opponent. If the targeted monster attacks this turn: Your opponent can't activate cards or effects until the end of the Damage Step.**

* * *

Haou's Evil HERO Hurricane got pumped up with more attack points. That definitely wasn't a good sight for me.

 **Evil HERO Hurricane, ATK: 2800 + 600** → **3400**

"Battle! Evil HERO Hurricane attack Mystic-Flare!" The Evil HERO flew off and fired several rockets at my monster, but Mystic-Flare covered its body with its wings, taking the attacks.

"Aaargggghhh!" One of the rockets exploded next to me, knocking me on the ground.

 **『** **Evan LP: 600 – 500** → **100** **』**

"With this, I end my turn." Haou finished. "Due to V – Vile Slash' effect, Hurricane's attack returns back to normal."

 **Evil HERO Hurricane, ATK: 3400 - 600** → **2800**

"Evan, you have to stop this, you are hurt!" Elizabeth kept yelling at me.

Well, she was right, I was hurt, but I could still stand! I stood back up after the explosion knocked me down. Mystic-Flare was still standing in front of me as well, but its body was damaged. The wings that served as shields against the last barrage of rockets were torn into pieces with pieces of metal sticking out of them. Yes, I wasn't the only one fighting in this duel, was I? My chest was burning from all of this, I felt something deep inside my chest trying to come out on the surface; a flame of fury.

The trees around us kept breaking from the flames and burned branches fell around, but Haou wasn't reacting to them. Maybe he didn't need to. After all, his dark powers were able to protect him from my attacks, they should be also able to protecting him from the extreme heat and falling trees.

" _ **We are going to die like this!"**_ _He_ shouted inside my head.

' _Didn't you say that you wouldn't be able to help me out during this tournament?_ ' I asked the voice.

" _ **All that dark energy erupting from you gave me new energy!"**_ That was nice and all, but I couldn't just change here, in front of Elizabeth.

"Hey, look out!" Yugo yelled out.

I turned back to see what was going on. It was a tree. One of the burning trees was falling and my sister was right underneath it. She slowly turned around, but it was too late.

" _ **Quick! Switch let me save her!"**_

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Yuya looked up. There were two powerful Fusion monsters on Sora's field and a single face-down card. One wrong move could cost him the entire duel. Yuya took a deep breath and put his hand on top of his deck. This was it, the decisive last draw.

"My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Yuya] LP: 200, Hand: 3** **』**

"It's here!" Yuya smiled. "Using the Scale Three, Xiangke Magician and the Scale Eight, Xiangsheng Magician, I set the Pendulum Scale!" The new magicians looked forward from above the field.

"Pendulum Summon!" Yuya cried out, three beams shooting out of the sky. "Come back, _Wisdom-Eye Magician (Lv.4, DEF: 1500)_ , _Stargazer Magician (Lv.5, DEF: 2400)_ and _Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2500)_!"

"Since Pendulums go to the Extra Deck, you were able to revive a few of them." Sora commented. "But even your Odd-Eyes is a far cry from my monsters' attack points!"

"Maybe." Yuya looked at the last card in his hand. "But this card will change it! I release the Level Five Stargazer Magician to Tribute Summon _Odd-Eyes Advance Dragon (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!" A taller version of Odd-Eyes flew over the field and roared. "Next I activate Advance Dragon's effect! When it's Tribute Summoned, Odd-Eyes Advance Dragon can destroy a monster you control and inflict its attack points to you as damage! I choose Frightfur Sabre-Tooth! _Advanced Reaction Burst_!"

Odd-Eyes opened its mouth and fired a stream of multicolored energy toward Sabre-Tooth, vaporizing the monster.

"I activate my trap card!" Sora shouted back, his set card flipping face-up to form a barrier around him. "Fusion Fortress negates all effect damage I would take!"

"But because Sabre-Tooth is no longer on the field Tiger loses its boost." Yuya pointed out.

 **Frightfur Tiger, ATK: 3300 - 300 - 800** → **2200**

"Battle!" Yuya threw his arms forward. "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack Frightfur Tiger!"

"I won't let you!" Sora cried out and jumped onto another floating rock, grabbing an Action Card. " _ **Flame Shackles**_! This reduces your monster's attack by five hundred!"

* * *

 **Flame Shackles (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 monster your opponent controls; it loses 500 ATK.**

* * *

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, ATK: 2500 - 500** → **2000**

"I activate the Action Card: _Flame Surge_ , increasing Odd-Eyes' attack by four hundred!" Yuya countered by grabbing an Action Card himself

 **Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, ATK: 2000 + 400** → **2400**

Spotting an Action Card hanging from the ceiling, the two of them jumped to grab it, but…

The sound of an alarm echoed through the cave and the Action Card that the duelists were trying to reach shattered and the field was envelope into a bright light as it faded away. Yuya and Sora landed down on their feet and looked at each other. The duel ended with no result…

"Yuya!" Hearing a familiar voice, both duelists turned toward a stairway where Yuzu and everyone else from the Lancers were watching them.

"Yuzu…" Sora muttered before spotting something off about the group. "What are you doing with them, Serena?!"

"I chose to join them." Serena replied. "I found that this is better than going back to my prison in Academia."

"Even you fell for their sweet talk?" Sora gritted his teeth.

"You were sent here to capture both Yuzu and Serena, weren't you?" Avice asked. "How will Academia's higher ups react when you come back with empty hands?"

Sora looked down. How would he go back to Academia after failing his mission like this? And worse, what would happen to him once he went back there? His talk with Ryo spoke for itself. If he went back like this the Professor would surely order him to be punished or even worse than that…

Was there even a choice for him anymore? Who would defend him in front of Academia for his failure? Nobody.

"I… I give up." Sola fell on his knees.

His fight was over. He fought so hard for Academia, for what he believed was the right cause, but in the end he found himself completely alone, surrounded by those whom he betrayed, ready to give him a second chance of redemption.

* * *

Elizabeth was sure that she died after she saw that burning three falling in her direction. She couldn't run, she couldn't jump out of the way, all she was able to do was close her eyes and wait for her end. But nothing like this came her way. There was no pain, she didn't feel any heavy object smashing her body, nor did she feel her skin getting charred by the flames. Unsure of what she would see, the girl argued with herself for a few seconds whenever she should open her eyes. And when she finally got the courage to look again, she was met by a scene that her mind just couldn't process.

The first thing that she saw was a pair of golden eyes staring down at her. Then she took into account the whole figure before her. It was her own brother, his arms stretched to the side and two wings made of black energy coming out of his back, holding the falling tree.

"What is this!?" Yugo cried out from the side.

Haou tilted his head to the side in thought as well. He had seen the ability to manifest darkness in such a manner with only one of the opponents he faded through his life.

"Evan…" Elizabeth whispered and reached out, touching her brother's cheek. His golden eyes glaring coldly at her. "What have you,"

"I'm not Evan." 'Evan' spoke up, interrupting her. His tone was just as cold as his glare.

"But you are right here!" Elizabeth cried out back at him.

"No, I'm really not." 'Evan' clicked with his fingers and the black wings on his back burst with new energy, so much that they threw the burning tree back.

After removing the heavy object, 'Evan's' wings returned into his body and the darkness began to leak from his skin, transforming him. A shadowy object appeared on the boy's chest and it slowly materialized, transforming into…

"No…" Elizabeth quavered. "No! You can't be… This can't be!"

'Evan' kept looking at her with solemn silence while the darkness surrounded his body, the Nightshroud mask on his chest staring into the distance. His black jacket was the first one to transform, turning into a red version of itself. Following that, Evan's hair turned a darker shade of red with the white parts turning completely black and his ponytail changed, transforming into two much longer ones that reached his back.

"That's not possible… This can't be YOU!" Elizabeth suddenly yelled and pushed the boy's chest. "It can't be you! You can't be here! Disappear!"

Instead of responding, Nightshroud grabbed Elizabeth's hand and yanked it, pushed the girl to the side where Yugo caught her, helping her retrain her balance.

"Keep her save. I got a contract to fulfill." Nightshroud said and turned back to Haou, the two duelists facing each other with their respective darkness starting to come out of their bodies, creating a dark aura around each of them.

"So that's where you went after escaping the Fusion Dimension?" Haou wondered. "So you felt the dark force coming out of this human, didn't you?"

"Believe me, if I had a choice I would leave this body in an instant." Nightshroud replied and looked down at his arms. "Ever since I came into this body, everything has been fuzzy, I often feel like I'm floating on water, there are many things that I can't remember. Even you, Haou, I'm not sure if your name is my memory of this body's."

"Something went wrong, didn't it?" Haou asked knowingly. "Otherwise you wouldn't be wearing your mask like a cheap souvenir."

"You got no idea." Nightshroud shook his head. "I didn't realize it before, but this body, its filled with dark souls. The boy's monsters, they all live inside of his soul, fueling his desires, turning his emotions into energy, they are so numerous that any new soul who tries to enter would either get slowly corrupted by them, or, in case they have no use of you, they will start tearing your soul, eat it. I was already weakened so when I tried to possess him, the souls came to devour me. Most of my essence and memories were already consumed until I was almost erased. Weak enough to accept their offer."

"Offer?" Elizabeth asked. "What kind of offer would my brother make with you?!"

"It wasn't your brother that made an offer to me, it was his monsters that did it." Nightshroud corrected her. "As for the offer, it was simple. I had to do as your brother said. I was allowed to continue hunting my own enemies, but I had to enter a contract according to which I must protect his family and not put you in harm's way."

"You collapsed a rooftop on top of me!"

"It was collective damage."

"As if! You did it on purpose!"

"So what are you here for now?" Haou asked. "To get revenge?"

"No." Nightshroud shook his head. "The one that I used to be before is already gone, after most of my existence was consumed by the ChronoDevils, I had to bond with Evan's own soul in order to survive. His memories, personality, emotions they changed me. Really, I just haven't had the reason to come up with a new name before, but now that I think about it, maybe it wouldn't be bad to rename myself, a way to showcase that I'm now a new entity."

Nightshroud glanced back at Elizabeth. "Yes, I can see it already. From now, I'm going to call myself…

Yuksel."

"A new name doesn't mean anything." Haou retorted. "If you can't win, it's useless."

"That's where you are right." Yuksel nodded. "But I'm not going to lose here! Evan already set everything, the rest is now up to me. Our turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 8 [Yuksel] LP: 100, Hand: 1** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card: _Sacred Sword of Seven Stars_! I banish ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon to draw two cards!" the robotic dragon's body turned into a mist that faded away. "Next, I activate the Spell Card: _**Spell of Agony**_! For the rest of this turn, all effect damage that I would take is inflicted to you instead!"

 **Spell of Agony (Spell) Normal**

 **For the rest of this turn: When your opponent activates a card or effect that would inflict effect damage to you: Your opponent takes the effect damage from that card or effect, instead.**

"Next, I activate the Trap Card: _Anomaly in the Dark Dimension_! This card allows me to revive one of my banished monsters! Come back, _ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon (Lv.7, ATK: 2400)_!"

The dark dragon appeared once more, roaring proudly, it spread out its repaired metal wings.

"The effect of your trap should now inflict three hundred damage to be, but thanks to Spell of Agony, you are the one who's going to take damage instead!" Haou's trap shot another dark slash that Mystic Flare redirected back to the knight, cutting through the armor on his shoulder.

 **『** **Haou LP: 1500 – 300** → **1200** **』**

"When a monster is Special Summoned by the effect of Anomaly in the Dark Dimension, it gains eight hundred more attack, but at the end of this turn, Mystic-Flare is going to be destroyed!"

 **ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon, ATK: 2400 + 800** → **3200**

"Even if you do this, Hurricane can't be destroyed by battle or card effects once per turn." Haou pointed out. "Your attack won't be enough to defeat me!"

"Wrong again!" Yuksel gestured to the side. "I banish Breakthrough Skill to negate Evil HERO Hurricane's effect until the End Phase! Now it can be destroyed by Mystic-Flare's effect!"

A grey aura surrounded the evil Fusion Monster, weakening it.

"Let's battle now!" Yuksel shouted. "Mystic-Flare Dragon, attack Evil HERO Hurricane!"

The mechanical dragon flew through the flames and raised into the sky before aiming its cannons down onto Hurricane.

"I activate the effect of _**Evil HERO Cruel Reflector**_ from my hand! I release Evil HERO Hurricane to Special Summon it from my hand!"

A black portal formed underneath Hurricane and the monster flew through it, a new creature raising in its place. This time, the monster that appeared didn't look to be a corrupted human, it had no legs or arms, representing a huge dark green crystal with razor-sharp crystal blades covering its surface and two crystal swords floating beside it in the air.

* * *

 **Evil HERO Cruel Reflector**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fiend/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: During either player's turn: You can Tribute 1 "Evil HERO" monster you control: Special Summon this card in Attack Position, and if you do, send 1 "Evil HERO" monster from your deck to the Graveyard; this card's name becomes the same as the monster sent to the Graveyard by this effect. This card can't be destroyed by card effects. At the start of the Damage Step, if this card battles an opponent's face-up monster: You can make this card's ATK become equal to the current ATK of the opponent's monster it is battling, until the end of this battle.**

* * *

"Now you can no longer used Mystic-Flare's effect to deal damage to me." Haou pointed out.

"But I can still attack your monster!" Yuksel's monster fired its cannons. "ChronoDevil Mystic-Flare Dragon! _Electro Storm_!"

"When Cruel Reflector battles, its attack becomes the same as the monster that attacked it!" Haou shouted, his monster firing sharp blades from its wrists to counterattack.

 **Evil HERO Cruel Reflector, ATK: 0** → **3200**

The two attacks flew past each other and connected with their targets. Cruel Reflector burst into shards of glass and Mystic-Flare exploded form the blades that have pierced its core.

"You felt for it." Yuksel said. "Quick-Play Spell activate! _**Countdown of Purple Eyes**_! If two more monsters were destroyed at the same time and among them was a DARK dragon, both of us must Special Summon as many of those monsters as possible!"

* * *

 **Countdown of Purple Eyes (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Activate only during the Battle Phase, if 2 or more monster(s), including at least 1 DARK Dragon-Type monster, destroyed at the same time and sent to the Graveyard. Each player can Special Summon as many of their monsters that was destroyed at that time, but banish those monsters face-down during the end of the Battle Phase. This card remains face-up on the field until the end of the Battle Phase.**

* * *

The space between Haou and Yuksel began to bend and then both Mystic-Flare and Cruel Reflector reappeared on the field, facing against each other again.

"The effect of Arms of Hollow Abyss now activates, but due to Spell of Agony, the damage is inflicted to you instead!" Yuksel pointed at his opponent and Mystic-Flare fired a green fireball that knocked the dark knight back.

 **『** **Haou LP: 1200 – 300** → **900** **』**

"Now battle!" Yuksel ordered his dragon. Mystic-Flare and Cruel Reflector charged at each other again, hitting each other in the chest before blowing up. "And Countdown of Purple Eyes activates again, reviving our monsters!"

"Their monsters will keep coming back and back…" Elizabeth muttered in disbelief.

"An infinity loop!" Yugo realized. "And because of the combo of Haou's trap and this other guy's spell, the former is going to take three hundred damage every time Mystic-Flare is revived!"

"Argh!" Haou grumped, taking another hit from Mystic-Flare.

 **『** **Haou LP: 900 – 300** → **600** **』**

"I won't let you win with a cheap trick!" Haou shouted and stretched out his arm, calling his dark energy to grab an Action Card and pull it back to him. "I activate _Miracle_! This card negates my monster's destruction!"

"You are still new in this game, aren't you?" Yuksel jumped on Mystic-Flare Dragon's back and from there he leaped onto a tree, grabbing the Action Card lying on one of its branches. " _No Action_ negates your action card and destroys it!"

Mystic-Flare flew into Cruel Reflector again and the monsters exploded, knocking Haou back before they were both revived once more.

 **『** **Haou LP: 600 – 300** → **300** **』**

"And now the last one!" Yuksel shouted. " _Electro Storm_!"

Haou looked at the incoming dragon and then toward an Action Card lying next to a burning tree. Haou and Yuksel's gazes meet and the two duelists glared at each other before running of to grab the Action Card.

"I won't lose this!" Yuksel shouted.

"You can't defeat me." Haou responded.

Suddenly, at the sound of a loud alarm, the Action Card disappeared and with it the entire field as well as Mystic-Flare and Cruel Reflector, leaving the two arch-enemies standing in front of one another in the middle of a street.

"This should be fate." Haou commented, looking around himself. "It appears that this duel will have to be left unfinished for now. Until we meet again, True Darkness." The dark knight then turned around and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Yuksel yelled after him. "You can't just leave like this! Are you a coward?"

Haou paused for a moment and then turned back to look at the boy. "I'm just like you, Nightshroud. We both share a fate of darkness, our powers being used for others' benefits, while we remain unrecognized for our deeds. Here, take this!"

Yuksel raised his hand and grabbed the card between his fingers. He turned it around and…

"Your host has growing potential, I'm sure that he will be able to put this card to a good use." Haou pressed a button on his Duel Disk and his body disappeared.

Yuksel closed his eyes and Evan opened them, looking at the card that he was holding with a newfound curiosity. Dark Fusion… Why did Haou leave him his signature card like this?

* * *

 **Avice: Already can't come up with anything for the The More You Know section? Pathetic. At least I always have new previews for the readers, author-sama.**

 **Chapter 42: Tune of Daybreak!**

 **Summary:** Following the huge amount of destruction caused by Academia's invasion, the Miami Champion is canceled and Reiji announces to the public the creation of an elite squad of Duelists called "Lancers". However, the tension within the newly formed team only increases. While Levant and Reiji try to bring the group together, believing that only through dueling he would be able to make everyone understand the necessity of the Lancers, Evan challenges Shun to a duel.

 **Avice" Ha,ha, is that the same reviews as the last few times? Well... That's awkward.**

* * *

 **It's finally here! The moment that I was (sort of) building toward since last year,** **finally arrived! The change of the, the new ace, the more calm personality, I was trying to slowly build up to this and now** **Yuksel is (** **technically** **) back! Evan being the one bind Nightshroud's mask was kind of obvious, I wasn't trying to hide it, but man I do feel satisfied with this.**

 **Also a small, but important detail, Yuksel isn't a renamed Nightshroud. Actually, Yuksel here is a little of a paradox because he is neither Evan nor** **Nightshroud and at the same time he is both of them.**

 **Now for the rest of the chapter, first, I want to apologize that I gave you FOUR duels without results in TWO Chapters, hope you find it in your heart to forgive me for that. Writing the new Evil HERO monsters felt like cheating for the most part because they are, after all, corrupted versions of the Elemental HERO monsters, but hopefully you would like what I did with the Main Deck Evil HERO monsters.**

 **That's all I got to say about the chapter. Thanks to** Jordanscott2499 **for favoriting this story. And something that I NEVER dreamed of ever happening, thanks to** SPRGMR27 **for following and favoriting! I know that I already gave them a shoutout once, but I just LOVE their YGO story so much that I'm going to do it again! So go check** Yugioh Arc-0 **!**

 **Now onto the reviews!**

Ethan Kironus **: Koharu's "** **King of Wishes, Hope** **" is a retrained non-Number counterpart of Number 39: Utopia for whom I literally just took the Japanese name and removed the "Number 39" part, so Koharu is used a retrain, not the original.**

ScalchopWarrior **: Just a comment on what you said about Yuya being over-dramatic. I want to apologize if anyone else feels like he's acting like a Z in this ARC. Also, I believe that Yuya felt bad when Sora destroyed Odd-Eyes wasn't connected to the fact that Odd-Eyes was destroyed, but that he couldn't summon it anymore. He didn't get over it. He simply stopped caring because Pendulum Monsters are immortal. That's at least how I understood it.**

 **And that's all of it. I hope that the ending of this chapter didn't piss anyone off and till next time.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	42. Chapter 42

**So, welcome back. You might be wondering why there's an A/N here on the top instead of the bottom. Well, the actual A/N is down there, but there was something important I wanted for everyone who reads this to know, so that you won't miss it. There won't be a next chapter after this one.**

 **Evan & Crew: Hooorrrrraaaaayyyy!**

 **No, I'm not canceling/rebooting/putting on hiatus this story.**

 **Evan & Crew: Booooooooo!**

 **I choose that specially for managing to finish the Standard Arc, I should make something to celebrate it. That something is going to be a special chapter, that's going to come at some time, I'm just not sure when. But the special is going to be the NEXT chapter.**

 **Why's that so important?**

 **Well, because it won't be exactly a chapter (?) but more of a huge author note in which I'm going to talk about this story, its flaws, how I'm planning to fix some of them, what are my plans for the future of this story and etc. In other words I'm going to be tearing my own story a new one. There will be lots of self-loathing, depression, all the good stuff.**

 **So, this a warning for everyone who doesn't want to read my whining, to just skip the next chapter, and for those who feel like it, to give me their own opinions on what I should improve, ask me questions, do whatever the heck you feel like (except for spamming).**

 **So, now that this is done, I would like to put a small warning about the chapter that you are about to read after scrolling down.**

 **Ahem.**

 **WARNING : This chapter features a lot of girly whining. In other words its an Evan focused chapter.**

* * *

Tune of Daybreak!

 **Evan's POV**

I've been sitting outside, looking through my deck once again, trying to get my mind off the fact that I was sitting in the hospital with Yuya, Yuzu and all sorts of other people who I have never meet before.

Damn, everyone's silent serious faces were really making me feel weird on the inside. Usually, after the third round of the Miami Championship those who managed to make it through would be applauded and congratulated by the public, but this year it was completely different. Academia didn't act the way that Reiji had predicted, while the Lancers were in the city fighting against the squads there, another squad has hit the stadium with artillery fire and, well, you could guess how that ended, couldn't you? Yuzu's father and the little brats were pretty far away from the exits and, in the entire chaos, they got buried under the debris.

Oh don't worry, they were alive, a rescue squad was able to get in time, but they were all in critical condition. From what I was able to hear from the nurses, they were suffering from injuries to the spine or the brain, but I couldn't be sure if they were talking about our brats or some of the other people that got injured during the attack. Really, the entire hospital was on foot, doctors and nurses were running back and forth, those whose injuries weren't life threatening had to way outside, even though some of them had broken arms or legs.

"I don't get it!" Yuya shouted in frustration. "Why did Academia do that? Why did they fire to them, to a stadium filled with innocent people!?"

Well shit, I won't be able to focus on my deck with him whining next to me. I put my deck back into the holster and leaned back into my seat. Why was I here again? Ah, yes, because Yuya and Yuzu were official members of the Lancers, so they needed to come with the rest of the group. Reiji was too much of a coward to come and seek Yuya himself after how this little miscalculation his part ended up fucking the entire dimension and his Lancer plan. You could call me sick or a psycho for this, but I actually had fun watching how things ended up playing out with this dramatic change. Everyone else was hating Academia, other high class Duel Schools were starting to make their own programs for Duel Soldiers after Reiji announced his plan of using the Lancers to counterattack the enemy. I swear, the best parts of every war is the process of making it!

But that's as where my happy thoughts had to end. Going back to Yuya and Yuzu, both of them were pushing themselves for not being there to protect the brats, something that was giving me a good base to work with. Always trying to solve things with smiles and happiness, now they were experiencing the reality which is that their stupid ideals wouldn't work in a real situation.

"Stop complaining about Academia, will you?" I asked them. "You want to know why Academia did what they did? Because they could! Because no one was there to stop them from doing it! If you were in their place, if you had the chance to do something like this, to deal a critical blow to your enemies, you would have done the exact same thing as them."

"You are wrong!" Yuzu cried out. "I… We would never do something like this! Hurting innocent… there's no way that a human would ever do something like that!"

"They were not innocent." I said and stood up to leave. "Your father, the kids, none of them was innocent. That's how war is. In every war known to humankind the unarmed, the civilians, are those who take the biggest loses."

"Duel Monsters are not tools for conflict…" Yuya muttered. Funny, he has never seen the last four series then. "Duel Monsters aren't make to hurt people! Dueling has always been to make people smile!"

"I don't have any rights to tell you that your ideas are wrong, even if I believe that to be the case." I admitted. "But tell me something, you two, is it fair to blade the bad guys for doing something evil instead of questioning yourselves, the heroes, why you didn't stop them from doing it?"

As I expected, they didn't have an answer to this. It was easy, going around looking for your friends, trying to avoid fighting those who wanted to injure your closes people, and then complain when something bad happened. Oh well, after this Yuya and Yuzu hopefully would be able to realize what I was talking about. As the usual main characters, they already felt guilt for not protecting their friends, with those words I just changed the subject of their guilt.

"Instead of thinking why you weren't there to protect your friends, ask yourselves why you didn't try to defeat all of Academia when you realized that they invaded this dimension." They were still young, so they were easier to manipulate as well. "I alone took out two squads that would have done more damage to this dimension, how many did you stop?"

Should I count them? The only time that Yuya would fight anyone is that weird dark phase of his, since I didn't feel him awakening again after I left, that meant that the only group he fought was the one I found him fighting. From what Avice told me, she and Yuzu fought a group as well, so they both have stopped two groups in total, each of them has done half as much as I did alone.

"I…" Yuya clenched his fist. Go on, tomato head, retort and tell me that using card games to hurt people is wrong when that would save the lives of those you care about~!

"Just so you know, Reiji wanted every Lancer to come for a meeting at four. Come if you find it in yourselves."

Well, I did the best I could do to get Yuya and Yuzu into accepting to join the Lancers, now the rest was all up to them. And what of me? Well, I'm going to go home and rest for a bit before going to that meeting myself. Staying in this hospital made me feel dirty, I needed a quick shower to get that weird feeling off myself. Ugh...

* * *

"I'm home!" I informed my sisters, but no one responded. Weird, usually either Avice or Oni would come running and hug me, but nope.

I walked into the living room, everyone was there, Elizabeth and Oni sitting on the sofa, the former reading a book while the latter was staring at the black screen of the TV. Avice was sitting next to the kitchen box wearing her pajamas. The silent atmosphere wasn't anything new in our house, but it surely wasn't unnerving after everything that happened just a few hours ago. Everyone was probably trying to forget the scars that Academia's invasion left to us, there wasn't a single person in this room that didn't suffer some sort of injury during the attack. Elizabeth had the worst wounds, but thankfully they weren't deep and she went by with just a few sews. Oni had bandages wrapped tightly around her arms as well, turns out that during Academia's attack she tried to save Reira from falling glass, which resulted in her getting several cuts.

The only one who didn't want to talk about her injuries were Avice. I knew that she must have gone through some stuff when she showed up with tattered clothes, but I didn't care to ask her about it back then and the timing was just missing to start a topic about it now. Ah really, why was I thinking so much about it? Whatever happened; it was in the past.

"Knock, knock, can I enter?" I quickly turned around and spotted Graild standing next to the door.

"Aren't you already inside?" I wasn't in the mood to play his annoying games. "Why the heck are you here, creepy guy?"

"Well, Uriel was the one supposed to come here in my place, but introducing a new character was a pain in the ass, so we choose to let it for another time." That… had nothing to do with what I just asked him. "But don't worry, I'm not here to give you a two hour long plot dump or anything insignificant like that. Instead, I've got you a few gifts to use in the next dimension!"

Graild pulled out a huge box out of… nowhere actually, and slammed it on top of the table. Well, that was sure one way to handle a gift to somewhere, but if I did that I'm sure that those I gave it to would have immediately kicked me out of the apartment.

"Well, help yourselves." Graild gestured toward the box. "There's something next for all of you."

This box was now looking very ominous… I eyed my sisters and they returned my stare. It was a battle of wits here. This box could contain anything inside and I didn't want to be the one opening it if there's something life threatening inside of it.

"Are those new decks?" Oni asked, taking something out of the box.

"I want too!" I yelled and looked into the box. There was some white and green outfit inside with three deck holster lying on top of it. Of course the deck holsters were red, green and blue, making it obvious which one of them was meant for me. I took it and opened it to see what great new cards Graild has prepared for me, hopefully now a new deck entirely because I have already gotten used to the ChronoDevils.

"Yo, what bullshit is this!?" I yelled at Graild. "All the cards inside are blank! Did you forget to print the front?!"

"That's how they are supposed to be." Graild shrugged. "Since your first set of cards were created using your subconsciousness and memories as template, these new ones are meant to work in a similar way, although a little differently. These new cards that I give will evolve based on your experience so far, which means that their evolution will be much more flexible that the original set. Of course the cards need some time to get used to you, so they will probably take up their form when you enter the Synchro Dimension."

"You made them work this way, didn't you?" Avice glared at him.

"Is there any doubt about it?" Uh, could a God-like being be kicked out through the window? Because I was getting so tempted to just do that with this bastard right now.

"And the clothes?" Elizabeth asked.

"They are for your sister." Graild shrugged. "Since her previous set got destroyed in her fight against that clone,"

"Graild!" Avice yelled.

"A clone?" Was that how she got injured? "Whose clone?"

"Come on, Avice. It would be best to tell your siblings so they could be prepared if they had to face against the same opponent as you, wouldn't it?" Graild pressed on.

"Fine!" Avice shouted and turned toward me. "When I got separated from Elizabeth, it was because of some girl called Evice. I don't know by what means it was possible, but she had my face, the same deck as me, and the ability to manipulate space on top of that."

"I see…" That would be troublesome to deal with. If Avice got her injuries fighting that look-alike I should be careful as well, after all, Avice was as strong as me. Our skills were on equal footing, always were, an opponent that could beat Avice could beat me as well and vice versa.

"Well, won't you try the clothes that I got for you?" Graild patted the set inside the box while looking directly at my sister.

"Fine, I'm going to put them on." Avice pouted and grabbed the clothes before walking off toward her room, leaving one last warning before leaving. "If they are something pervy, I'm going to shove all of the clothes down your throat."

"Ah, she sure is an angel, isn't she?" Graild sighed.

"Um, I got a question, Mister Graild." Oni raised her hand. "If our decks are supposed to be blank, then why has mine materialized already?"

"Oh? That's because you original deck isn't made in the Original Dimension obviously." Graild patted her head. "There's no reason to make you carry a blank deck around."

"I think we should feel offended that Oni apparently has deck privileges, but she's too cute for me to get angry." I told Elizabeth.

"Just be careful with the ways you show your love for her cuteness." Elizabeth whispered back, patting me on the back. "It would be a shame if the police came to arrest you because of something like that."

"Ok, I'm done." Avice walked inside and stopped in the middle of the room. "How is it?"

I took a careful look at her new outfit. She was wearing an open white jacket with green rectangles on the sides and black sleeves with green borders that separated them from the white part of the jacket. The jacket had a high collar with a button on the left side, from here it looked like the collar would be able to cover her entire mouth if she closed her jacket. Underneath it she was wearing a green shirt with a black upside-down triangle pattern around the collar and two white stripes starting from the sides of the shirt's collar and going down. Like previously, she was wearing shorts, but this time they were mostly black with white at the inner thighs. Her right leg had a belt with a large holster for her Duel Disk most likely. The new outfit ended with white slouch socks and black loafers with green flower adornments on the sides.

"They will make due." I shrugged. She looked cute in them… a little.

"You look great, neechan!" Oni exclaimed.

"You actually look even younger than you are." Elizabeth chuckled.

"I'm missing the rabbit hoodie already." My sister sighed. "But why do I have a deck holster inside my jacket?"

"A pocket would be too boring?" Graild shrugged. "But now that you have new outfits to represent your non-existing character glow and decks that won't debut until two chapters for now at the earliest, I can leave!"

Graild waved at us and teleported away. I took a deep breath and leaned back into the couch, finally, I can relax for once.

"Also, friendly reminder to check our Arc Tracers goods in a store near you!" Graild teleported back, because of course he would come back.

"LEAVE!" I threw the box that he left behind, hitting the masked freak across the face. Hard enough to make him drop on the ground and crack his mask.

* * *

After I got two hours to take a bath and fix the light armor I used on my jacket, I and my family went to Leo Corporation for a meeting with the rest of the Lancers. As you could expect, the tension was high. Kurosaki, Koharu, Serena and Yugo were all glaring at each other, Gongenzaka remained worried for Yuya and Yuzu who haven't shown up, Reira was nowhere, Sawatari didn't seem to understand how bad the situation was because he still wore that smug look on his face, Dennis was trying to talk to the others, only to get ignored and of course both Ventus and Levant were sitting next to Reiji as his left and right hand respectively. Oh, I also had no idea how, or why, but Sora was here as well.

"It appears that some of the members haven't come yet." Reiji commented.

I looked over at Yuya and Yuzu's chairs; they were empty. It was no big deal for me. If they were too cowardly to fight for their dimensions, it was bad only for them. This meeting here was what the history books are going to write about, those who have come and who are going to fight against Academia would become immortalized throughout history while those who choose to stand back and watch, because of their ideals not matching with the situation at hand, will turn to dust and disappear into the nothingness.

But while I was thinking that, the door suddenly opened and both representatives of You Show walked inside with serious expressions on their faces. Yuya and Yuzu sat down on their chairs and looked toward Reiji. I wonder, did my words made them come, or was it something else?

"Does that mean that you have made your choice?" Reiji asked them.

The two of them looked at each other, Yuzu nodded and Yuya turned back toward Reiji. "We accept to become Lancers, but that doesn't mean that we accept your way to handle this conflict. Me… We are joining this fight not to get revenge on Academia, but to spread the idea about dueling that's in the core of You Show's existence."

"I understand." Reiji nodded and turned toward the rest. "Now that everyone is here I'm going to announce that Leo Corporation has already manufactured technology to travel through dimensions. You all will be supplied with a device, and the details of our mission will be revealed, tomorrow when we'll depart."

"If we are leaving tomorrow, then why did you call us here today?" Kurosaki asked.

"Would it be ok if I talk?" Reiji gave a nod and Levant stood up. "Everyone, I would usually use a formal tone when giving official speeches, but this time I will allow myself a different approach. Everyone in this group has their own goals, their own reason to join this group, some of you didn't have the luxury to choose and were forced into becoming part of the Lancers. Among us are even duelists from the other dimensions, Yugo from Synchro, Sora and Selena from Fusion and Kurosaki and Koharu from Xyz."

"Many of the people here came from two completely different sides on this conflict, some weren't even aware of it until recently, but just because we fight on the same side now doesn't mean that we are going to miraculously win the fight. The exact opposite actually. The tension between everyone in this room is unbearable, how are you supposed to fight an enemy who has trained their entire life to fight as one, when you can't even stand one another?"

"We don't have time to forge new bonds or try to force you into liking each other. That's why, you are all going to stay together in a private living complex given to us for use by Leo Corporation."

"So what? The fate of the entire world is in danger and you want us to have a sleepover!?" Koharu slammed her hands on the table.

"Eh, I'm all for it." Elizabeth leaned back into her chair. "Everyone here has to finally admit that they aren't some unbeatable Gods, there's just as much as we can do as individuals, so it's best to spend some time in getting to know each other."

"It's not like you can really decline." I added to Elizabeth's argument in favor of the idea. "Don't worry; spending a day with Sawatari won't make you any dumber."

"Why you…" the guy glared at me, but little did he know, his salt was only making me enjoy mocking him that much more.

"Tch." Kurosaki stood up and left without saying a word. No one else seemed to mind the idea, or if they did, they choose to remain silent and not make a scene out of it like how Kurosaki just did. I always had the feeling that he would be the hardest one to cooperate, maybe I should deal with his stubbornness myself.

"Let's be going then!" Ventus exclaimed, being the first one to jump. "Our luxurious one-night home won't be waiting forever, will it?"

* * *

If you expected me to give you a description of the place that Reiji leaded us to, I'm going to disappoint you, the place didn't catch my eye at all, heck, I don't even remember what it looked like and I was inside of it for less than fifteen minutes. Immediately after we entered Ventus and Yugo ran off to play some video games, while Yuzu tried to get closer to Selena and the two went off to have a girl talk. Sawatari and Dennis were hanging together as well while Yuya grouped up with Gongenzaka, and Koharu, of course, remained a loner.

As for me, I was enjoying some time alone, sitting in the Duel Room, which was currently empty. There was no one who would so it was a perfect place to just relax and enjoy myself in the silence. Well, that was until the door opened and Sora sat down next to me.

"Are you doing well, candy devil?" I asked him.

"Can I ask you for an opinion?" Wow, his serious side was almost shocking to witness.

"Just don't waste my time." I told him and leaned my back against the wall.

"The reason why I choose to remain behind isn't because I hate Academia." Not a surprise, but this wasn't a question… "In Academia, if you fail an order by the professor you are going to be punished severely. I was scared, so I could return, but Academia was the only home that I ever had. I don't want to fight against my comrades, against the idea that we're building for so long, yet I don't want to betray my friends again either. What should I do?"

"Before I give you an answer, I want you to answer a question of mine." I told him. "Why did you choose to come and talk with me about it?"

"No one else would listen to me." Sora sighed. "After what happened to the others, Yuya and Yuzu hate Academia, just like the rest of the Lancers, only Serena isn't that type, but she's very royal and if she noticed just the tiniest thing, she would be sure to report it to Reiji. You on the other side have personal motives for being in the Lancer group, right?"

Jeez, Sora figured me out as well? Maybe I really have to start taking lessons for self-control because being read so easy would come to bite me back one day for sure. But I would be lying if I said that a part of me wasn't suspecting that Sora didn't join the Lancers out of a desire to fight Academia. It still surprised me to hear that his reason was cowardliness and not something stupid such as friendship.

"That's a good enough answer I suppose." I shrugged. "Now for my answer, why don't you try to convince Reiji into leaving you behind to look after Standard. After Academia's violent assault yesterday it would be just a matter of time before another invasion, right? Or maybe you could convince him that it would be a good idea to send you back to Academia from where you could send him information about the Professor's moves. Of course, you don't have to do that, just get back there and life a peaceful life until the Lancers get to the front door Academia."

"You are telling me to use lies?"

"Your friendship with Yuya and Yuzu was built on lies, wasn't it?" It was hypocritical of Sora to be against the use of lies now. "You'll be able to figure something out."

"Well, ok then." Sora nodded. "But I want you to know, Academia sent us here to retrieve Serena, not to invade your Dimension. I don't know why a group of Obelisk Force duelist acted against their orders and attacked the stadium, but Academia was never seeking a conflict with the Standard Dimension."

Hmm, only he knew how ironic was to tell all of this to me of all the people… "Things like this could happen. I don't know or care why Academia declared that attack, nor does anyone else in this dimension. It's a fact now, so there's nothing much that we could do about changing it."

"You know, Yuya has grown a lot since I left last time." Sora's comment came out of nowhere. "Did you taught him?"

"Don't be stupid." As if I would ever do something like that! "Yuya has a good heart, he's not the type of person that should get involved with me. His ideals, his goals in life, they are too pure to be corrupted by someone as evil as me. If he needs somebody to teach him something, anyone else would be much better choice than me. I'm just…"

"Yeah, I get it." Sora sighed and stood up. "This little talk will remain between only the two of us, right?"

"You came to talk to me because you knew that already." He must have been thinking whom to approach for that problem for a while, the decision to come and talk with me didn't came spontaneously. "But if you really choose to go back to Academia, there's something I would like for you to do."

"What is it?"

"To confirm whenever there are, or aren't any duelists in Academia with the same faces as me or my sisters."

"I have never seen people like you before, but I'm going to be sure to look out, IF I go back to Academia." Sora stuck out his tongue and ran off, leaving me to enjoy my peace once again.

" _ **You shouldn't have let him go, what if he really goes back Academia and tells them about the Lancers' plans?"**_ Yuksel asked.

"That's not my problem to deal with." I told him. "I joined the Lancers because of the technology that they developed for dimensional travel. If I get my hands on it, the fates of Yuya and the others isn't important."

Yuksel didn't respond. He just shut up and returned back to the deeps of my mind. How could he possibly be against my idea when he was born from the essence of Nightshroud, a creature that needs darkness and negative emotions to sustain itself? What would be a stronger negative emotion that the feeling of despair and betrayal if Sora really goes back to Academia? Such a scenario would only fuel my own strength!

" _You are so cruel, master~"_ Foxy purred against my shoulder. There it was again, for some reason I was able to feel her touch despite her being a spirit.

" _Sacrificing everything and everyone for your own goal, you are the devil reincarnated."_ Wolfy appeared in my lap and ran her hand through my cheek.

"What tricks are you using to make yourself feel like physical beings?" I demanded to know.

" _Fu,fu,fu~ It's not a trick, master."_ I shivered feeling Foxy's tongue licking the back of my ear.

" _You don't think that the darkness inside you only gives your dueling skills a boost, do you?"_ Wolfy stood up from my lap and walked to the door. _"It gives us a boost as well, and when we get strong enough, this like this could happen~"_

I heard something click and realized that Wolfy just locked the door. I was genuinely starting to get scared with these two! I turned toward Foxy but before I could say something, the damn fox pushed me down and sat down on his lap with a huge grin on her face.

" _We've been waiting to get enough strength to take a physical form for so long, master!"_ Foxy leaned forward. " _Let us show you our gratitude for giving us this power._ "

"What gratitude? Why did you lock the door? What are you going to-!"

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Sora walked out of the Duel Arena and sighed. Evan did help him out, somewhat, but he still wasn't sure how to approach Reiji about it. He didn't want to sound too suspicious, the president of Leo Corporation was no fool, and he would notice that something was off from only one badly thought word or movement.

"Hey, what are you doing on your own, Sora?" The Fusion duelist turned to the source of the voice and found Dennis walking toward him with a friendly smile.

"Oh, it's you." Sora sighed and put his hands behind his back. "What's the matter?"

"You know, I was getting seriously worried when I heard that you joined the Lancers." Dennis laughed it off, acting like it was all a joke, but his eyes gave off a chilling aura. It almost scared Sora. "I wasn't informed that you… will stay here as a guest"

"I wasn't." Sora sighed and leaned against the wall. Dennis was doing well to not say things straight, there was a camera at the end of the corridor watching directly at them. "There's been some… family drama, so I'm staying with Yuya for now."

"Ah, is that so?" Dennis laughed and continued on his way, not before whispering something to Sora.

Sora stood there for a few moments, watching the performer until he turned the corner. Sora leaned against the wall and wrapped his hands around his body. He couldn't stay in the Standard Dimension for too long or Academia will think that he betrayed them. But if he went back, the Professor would be displeased with his failure.

"What do I do now?" Sora whispered to himself.

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

Ah, I was feeling completely refreshed now! I understood why Wolfy and Foxy were named after animals when most of their bodies were human-like. But I'm still going to have Phantomus beat the hell out of them for acting on their own.

"What happened to you?" Huh!? I turned to my left and found Koharu staring at me confused. "Why are your clothes so messy?"

"… What if I tell you that you really don't want to know the reason?" I asked right back.

She took another careful look at me and shrugged. "Kurosaki didn't come back. I know him well enough to confirm that, but I'm worried that he could try to do something stupid."

"So in other words, you are scared that he could act in character." I corrected her. Of course that earned me a glare because I said the factual truth. "The only way you could talk some sense into him will be through a duel, right? I think I got an idea how to make everyone understand the importance of bonds, but I'm going to need some help from you?"

"What do you want?" Koharu crossed her arms.

"Get everyone to watch my duel against Kurosaki." I said simply.

"Usually I would say that I hope you understand what you're doing; it's clear to me that you got no idea what you are doing." Koharu sighed.

"Don't worry about it." I smirked and pushed a hand against my chest. "Just make sure that everyone is there to witness our duel."

I hope that the ChonoDevils are hungry for another victory because there was no way that I would lose this match.

* * *

So, if I was an angry birdman, where would I go first? Why, it's elementary my dear Watson. Or Watsons? Oh well, Kurosaki's reasons to be mad with Reiji's decisions were easy to figure out. After he sacrificed so much and fought so hard against Academia, being told to just start making friends with his mortal enemies and sit down doing nothing while the Professor's army was running rampant throughout the Xyz Dimension was definitely the main reason for his rebellious attitude. Naturally, after that he would choose to go solo and run into Academia guns blazing, but there was one thing to stop him from doing that.

Akaba Reiji. The president of LDS and leader of the Lancers, Akaba Reiji wouldn't just let Kurosaki to teleport into Academia and get himself killed while warning the entire Fusion Dimension about us. Kurosaki would have to go deal with him first, therefore the first place where I should go look for is Reiji's office!

"And that's how I found you." I explained to Kurosaki.

"You looked for me in Reiji's office and since I wasn't there you asked him to show you the cameras' records?" Kurosaki crossed his arms.

"It's your fault for not acting in-character! Why are you roaming around the building instead of trying to steal one of those dimension-traveling-shenanigan-thingies?"

"The only reason I joined the Lancers was to fight Academia on even grounds." Kurosaki said back to me. "I didn't become part of this group to have sleepovers, or become friend with the type of scum that I fought yesterday. Just because I don't like the idea doesn't mean that I'm going to jump on a suicide mission and attack Academia on my own."

"Well, that sort of defeats my purpose here then." I thought that I would have to stop Kurosaki from leaving and show everyone else why the Lancer's group is important, but now all of that was all out of the window. "I'm still going to challenge you to a duel though!"

"What for?" Kurosaki raised an eyebrow. "We're both fighting on the same side against the same enemies."

"That's true." I nodded, agreeing with birdman. "But like you said, you joined the Lancers to fight Academia, not alone, but with a group of trained soldiers to back you up. The way that the other Lancers interact with one another, or the lack of communication between them, shows a flaw in the basic idea of this squad. It's important for the Lancers to get to know each other's personality and deck in order to be able to fight as one. Since I haven't gotten to see your deck in action and vise-versa, we should be the ones to start. Accept it as a warm up before the true fight."

Kurosaki narrowed his eyes, glaring at me. Even if he didn't like it, he had to admit that this was good for both of us. "Fine. I'll humor you this once, but don't think that this means I'm going to duel easy."

"Oh, please." I grinned. "Where would be the fun if we didn't go full force against one another, right?"

After that it wasn't hard for me to get Kurosaki to follow me back into the living quarter where the rest of the Lancers have already been assembled by Koharu. Upon our entering, Levant was the first one to step forward and question my intentions.

"I heard by Koharu that you two are going to have a duel against one another." Levant said, but his eyes were locked onto me. "What did you do this time?"

"Why must I have done something to duel against Kurosaki?" Jeez, they were really starting to get suspicious of me for every little thing. "The reason why we are going to duel is very simple, actually…"

I turned toward the rest of the Lancers and held out my Duel Disk. "This here, the deck each one of you holds, they are our biggest weapon against Academia. The only way to defeat our enemies is through out-dueling them, but that won't be as easy as most of you seem to think. Unlike us, Academia's forces are organized, it would be only a matter of time before they figure out each one's individual weaknesses and begin to hit there. In order to make up for that, we will need to learn to duel together, and to do that, we must first learn how each one of us is dueling. That's why I and Kurosaki will have a duel right now. To learn how we can help our each other in a real combat situation. That's also why I wanted everyone else to witness this duel, so you would understand that the Lancers aren't just an outlet for you to use against your enemies. If you aren't untied, you stand no chance of beating anyone."

The rest remained silent, only Serena nodding in understanding of what I meant. I turned back to Kurosaki and nodded that I was ready, to which his only response was to turn on his heels and pushed the door of the Duel Arena open.

"Should I activate an Action Field then?" Levant asked me.

"Choose one that suits Kurosaki the best." I replied. "He's going to need any advantage that he could gather for this duel."

"Whatever." Levant narrowed his eyes and walked off to get the Action Field running.

I walked onto the arena and faced off against Kurosaki. Both of us pulled out our Duel Disks and activated them, ready to begin. At the same time, the field around us began to change as well, transforming into a grassy field with a huge twisted tree in the middle.

"Action Field: Sky Tree Bird Cage." I heard Levant's voice explain. "This will be your battlefield for today."

"I don't know why, but I've got a bad feeling about this because of the field alone." It was that weird gut feeling you get when you just know that things won't end good for you.

"I don't want to waste more time than I need on this, so let's make this a quick match." Kurosaki told me.

"Don't worry, I'm planning for a quick win." I sneered. "Let's go! Action…"

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Kurosaki LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"You can take the first move." I gestured toward Kurosaki.

"You'll regret that decision." Said Kurosaki taking a card from his hand. "I Normal Summon _Raidraptor - Avenge Vulture (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_ and then activate the effect of _Raidraptor - Pain Lanius (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_ to Special Summon itself and then by taking damage equal to Avenge Vulture's defense, I can make Pain Lanius' Level the same as it!"

 **『** **Kurosaki LP: 4000 – 100** → **3900** **』**

 **Raidraptor - Pain Lanius, Lv.1** → **4**

"Here comes a Xyz." I gulped, knowing that it was coming.

"When I take damage, I'm able to Special Summoned a second copy of _Raidraptor - Avenge Vulture (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)_ from my hand!" another robotic bird showed up so soon. "Now I Overlay the Level Four Raidraptor - Avenge Vulture and Pain Lanius!"

The two birds flew into the Xyz portal and a lightning came out of it as Kurosaki began to chant.

" _Avian hunter of the afterlife, seek the truth with your dark eyes, and grasp glory with your sharp talons! Xyz Summon! Take flight! Rank Four! Raidraptor - Force Strix (RANK: 4, DEF: 2000)!_ "

A robotic owl appeared on Kurosaki's field in Defense Position.

"Force Strix's effect increases its attack and defense by five hundred for each of my Raidraptor monsters except for itself." The bird gained a yellow aura indicating a power boost.

 **Raidraptor – Force Strix, ATK: 100 + 500** → **600, DEF: 2000 + 500** → **2500**

"Next, I activate Force Strix effect to detach and Xyz Material from it and add one DARK Winged Beast-Type monster from my deck to the hand. I add Raidraptor - Singing Lanius and then I Special Summon it!"

A bulky Level Four machine bird appeared in front of Kurosaki with 1800 DEF. I was starting to see where this was going, creating a wall of Force Strix monsters to protect him, did he really think that such a tactic would work against me?

"And again, I overlay Avenge Vulture and Singing Lanius!" the two monsters flew into the portal. "Xyz Summon! Raise again, _Raidraptor - Force Strix (RANK: 4, DEF: 2000)_!" The second copy of the owl descended next to the first and gained 500 boost to both ATK and DEF like with the first one. "I activate my second Force Strix' effect to detach one of its Xyz Materials and add Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius to my hand. With this, I end my turn."

"You really are cool." I told Kurosaki. "But I'm not planning to fall behind! My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"That's a good catch!" I just drew Phantomus! "I, using the Scale one, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy and the Scale seven, ChronoDevil Timescale Champion, set the Pendulum Scale!" I shouted as two red columns raised around me with the monsters hovering inside of them. "When a card is activated in the Pendulum Zone while Timescale Champion is already in the other, I get to draw a card. Now, Pendulum Summon! Come forth, _ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, ATK: 1200)_ and _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!"

Two beams of light fell from the sky and transformed into my most trustful monster and a little tuner.

"Time for my special little combo! First, Chrono Phantomus' effect reduces the attack and defense of all your monsters by five hundred! And then Jolly Jester's effect doubles a change in attack and defense points! _Chain of Degrading Souls EXTRA_!" Chains made from black mist formed in Phantomus' arms and he threw them at Kurosaki's monster with Jolly Jester creating several magical rings to lock the birds in place.

 **Raidraptor – Force Strix, ATK: 600 – 1000** → **0, DEF: 2500 – 1000** → **1500**

"Battle! Phantomus, destroy one of his Xyz Monsters!" My monster swung both of its blades, cutting off one of the Force Strix' wings and then its head as well, destroying it. "And now since one of your Force Strix lost its companion, its defense goes down!"

 **Raidraptor – Force Strix, ATK: 0 – 500** → **0, DEF: 1500 – 500** → **1000**

"Let's go, Jolly Jester! Destroy the second Force Strix!" My monster put its arms together and threw a charge of electricity between at Kurosaki's monster, destroying it. "I end my turn with this!"

"Hmm, then it's my turn again." Kurosaki looked unimpressed by my performance. I sighed and looked at the sky. Why didn't Kurosaki try to grab one of the Action Cards that flew over him and use them?

"Draw!" I was brought back from my thoughts and looked at Kurosaki, who in turn was taking a good look at the card that he drew.

 **『** **Turn 3 [Kurosaki] LP: 3900, Hand: 4** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius (Lv.4, ATK: 1300)_!" A mostly black robotic bird with green armor on its wings appeared in front of Kurosaki. "If Vanishing Lanius was Summoned during this turn, I can Special Summon another copy of it." So, his deck focused on using multiple copies of a monster? "I activate the effect of _Raidraptor - Retrofit Lanius_ from my hand to target the Vanishing Lanius on my field and give its name to Raidraptor - Retrofit Lanius then as you guess, I can Special Summon Raidraptor - Retrofit Lanius by treating it as Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius!"

Another robotic… thing appeared on Kurosaki's field. Ok, those monster didn't even look like birds at this point, how are they Winged-Beasts and not Machines!?

"Vanishing Lanius can be treated as two Xyz Materials for a Xyz Summon!" A ghost of Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius appeared next to the original. "I Xyz Summon using all of my Raidraptor monsters!" This time he was going to summon something using three monsters…

" _Obscured falcon, raise your sharpened talons in front of adversity, spread your wings of rebellion! Xyz Summon! Appear! Rank 4! Raidraptor - Rise Falcon (RANK: 4, ATK: 100)!_ "

The huge robot/bird flew above Kurosaki's head and screamed. It only had 100 ATK, but I still remembered that its effect was able to beat two of Sora's Fusion Monsters. This was going to be bad, wasn't it?

"I activate Rise Falcon's effect!" Shut yelled and pointed toward his Xyz Monster. "I detach one of its Xyz Materials, then Rise Falcon gains the combined attack points of all Special Summoned monsters on the field!"

The bird cried out loud and fired a red laser from its eyes, scanning Phantomus and Jolly Jester before bursting into flames, transforming into a huge phoenix.

 **Raidraptor – Rise Falcon, ATK: 100 + 1200 + 2500** → **3800**

"Rise Falcon can attack all of my opponent's monsters, once each." Kurosaki threw his arm forward, pointing at me. "Battle! Raidraptor – Rise Falcon, destroy all of his monsters! _Brave Claw Revolution_!"

The bird flew toward me. Its attack power was 3800, if both of my monsters got hit by that I would take 3900 points of damage! I held out my hand and Foxy threw a clock gear in front of my monsters with Phantomus moving before me to take most of the damage. Even with that, the wind formed from the attack pushed me back.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 – 1300 - 1300** → **1400** **』**

"What the…!?" Kurosaki blinked a few times, looking down at his own Duel Disk. "Your Life Points shouldn't be so high."

"Whew, that was a close call." I wiped the sweat off my forehead and looked at Kurosaki, Jolly Jester still standing on my field "Using Foxy's handy Pendulum Effect, I was able to halve the damage that I took and also protect Jolly Jester from destruction!"

"Tch." Kurosaki clicked his tongue and put a card face down before jumping on top of his Xyz Monster. "I end my turn then. The effect of Rise Falcon ends, returning its attack to its original value."

 **Raidraptor – Rise Falcon, ATK: 3800** → **100**

"It's my turn then!" I drew.

 **『** **Turn 4 [Evan] LP: 1400, Hand: 4** **』**

"Using the already set Pendulum Scale, I Pendulum Summon again! Come from my Extra Deck, _Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_!" The fiend appeared in front of me and summoned two shadowy chains. "I activate Chrono Phantomus' effect to reduce the attack and Defense of your monsters by five hundred! _Chain of Degrading Souls_!"

The chains came out of the ground and flew toward Rise Falcon. The monster however moved left and right, avoiding the chains somehow. Kurosaki glared at me from the back of his monster.

"I activate the Action Card – Detour to negate your monster's effect and inflict five hundred damage to you!" Rise Falcon swung its wings and a strong gale of wind knocked me off my feet, dropping me hand onto my back.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1400 – 500** → **900** **』**

" _Are you ok, boss!?"_ Jolly Jester flew back to me and stretched out a hand to help me get back up with Phantomus following suit.

"Yeah." I groaned and stood up with my monster's help; I think I damaged my tail bone with that fall. "Maybe I talked out of arrogance when I told Levant to give us an Action Card that's most suitable for Kurosaki. Do you think that you could reach him, Phantomus?"

"…" Silence for an answer? Just splendid.

"Battle! I attack Rise Falcon with Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer! _Double Void Slash_!" My monster leaned forward and the wheels that were attached to the sides of its boots moved on the front, while its jets began to work sending him dashing across the field.

"It's fast!" Kurosaki shouted and Rise Falcon turned to fly off toward the sky, where an Action Card was floating inside a bubble.

My Phantomus dashed across the side of the tree and overtook Rise Falcon before jumping off. The monster activated its arms blades and swung them at the rising Raidraptor, cutting clear through its chest as the two monsters passed each other.

 **『** **Kurosaki LP: 3900 – 2400** → **1500** **』**

Phantomus landed on the ground and threw his fist forward while Rise Falcon exploded in the sky and Kurosaki's body was launched along with the debris. Hmm, I should probably save him from turning into a pancake, but this was a duel, so would I win if my opponent gets finished off by gravity instead of losing because of the rules written in the rulebook?

"I activate _Rank-Up-Magic Raptor's Force_!" Ah never mind, he can play the game even while falling to his doom. "When you destroy a Xyz Monster I control by battle, I can revive it and rank it up!"

The ground exploded and Rise Falcon appeared before turning into a beam of purple light that shot toward Kurosaki, grabbing him midair.

" _Ferocious falcon. Break through this fierce battle and spread your wings! Destroy our gathering foes! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear! Rank 5! Raidraptor - Blaze Falcon (RANK: 5, DEF: 2000)!_ "

A new bird/robot Xyz soared into the sky with Kurosaki on its back. The monster had red armor covering its body and many guns.

"That doesn't look like a nice birdy." And it also had that annoying effect to destroy all the monsters on my field… "I change Jolly Jester to defense position and set a card facedown, ending my turn."

There wasn't much else I could do in this situation, my hand was filled with Spell Cards that would hopefully come in handy sooner rather than later. And hopefully Kurosaki won't be Xyz Summoning any more monsters on his next turn…

"I single set card?" Kurosaki looked down at me. "Then I'm going to finish this! My turn!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Kurosaki] LP: 1500, Hand: 2** **』**

"I activate Blaze Falcon's effect!" Kurosaki threw his arm forward and several small drones flew out of Blaze Falcon's body, aiming at mine. "By detach a Xyz Material, this card lets me destroy all Special Summoned monsters on your field and inflict five hundred damage for each!"

"I activate Foxy's Pendulum Effect! I give Phantomus protecting from destruction!" A gear appeared in front Phantomus and it reflected the lasers fired by the drones, however, Jolly Jester wasn't as lucky and the drones that were aiming at it hit, piercing its body. I bit my lip, feeling the pair from that attack.

 **『** **Evan LP: 900 – 500** → **400** **』**

"Next, I switch Blaze Falcon to Attack Position." The blue aura around Kurosaki's monster disappeared and the bird glared down at me. "Blaze Falcon is able to attack directly even when the opponent controls a monster! Go, Blaze Falcon! _Raptor's Break of Thunderclap_!"

The red bird charged straight toward me. Phantomus jumped in front of it and swung his blade, but the Raidraptor pushed through him and continued to approach at a high speed.

"I'm not losing here!" I yelled and pressed a card on my Duel Disk. "Trap Card, open! Defense Draw turns the damage I would take to zero and then I draw a card!"

A semi-transparent barrier formed in front of me halting the approaching Xyz's attack, after which I drew another card. To no one's surprise, it was a Spell Card again.

"I set two cards and end my turn." Blaze Falcon raised back into the air with two cards glowing behind it for a moment.

"Ya know, it's a little unfair that every time I get to beat one of your Xyz Monsters you just evolve it into a new one." I sighed. "Not to talk about the Action Cards, I know that they are useful and all, but can't you try to fight me without them?"

"In a duel any advantage that could help you is important." Kurosaki glared at me. "Personal pride and other such feelings will only lead to your demise. When you fight against Academia you must be ready to use any methods to win."

"I'm sure that everyone on the other side of the wall will appreciate those advices." I sighed and looked down at my deck. "Well, let's hope that I won't be drawing another Spell Card again, or else I'll admit that I'm screwed in this duel. Here goes nothing! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Evan] LP: 400, Hand: 5** **』**

I was already winching before even taking a look at the card that I drew. I took a good look at it and thankfully it wasn't another Spell Card. Hooray, I can finally do something now!

"It's time to pull down the curtain of this show." I smiled and reached out with my hands toward the Pendulum Zones. "Your Raidraptor monsters are unforgiving hurters that relentlessly and restlessly follow their target, while my ChronoDevils are an army whose true power is unlocked from the unity between them."

"Relentless hunters against a united force…" Kurosaki narrowed his eyes. "So that's the message you were aiming toward, but don't think that I'm going to play along with your scenario! If you can overpower me, then come and do it!"

"Don't worry, I plan to do it!" I raised my hands and the crimson pendulum began to swing again. "Pendulum Summon! Come before me, my servants! From the Extra Deck, ChronoDevil Jolly Jester (Lv.2, DEF: 800) and from my hand, _ChronoDevil Stream Supporter (Lv.4, ATK: 1800)_!"

Two beams fell from the sky and transformed into my monsters. Both ChronoDevils and Phantomus looked back at me and nodded, ready for what I was about to do next.

"I activate Stream Supporter's effect to reduce its attack points to zero!" A dark aura surrounded my monster and his eyes stopped glowing.

 **ChronoDevil Stream Supporter, ATK: 1800** → **0**

"And then, I Special Summon a Level Four or lower DARK monster from my deck with its effects negated! Come out, _ChronoDevil Summit Hornet (Lv.3, DEF: 500)_!" Stream Supporter opened its cloak and the insect walked out of it.

"Next, I activate the Spell Card – _Star Changer_! Using this card, I reduce Stream Supporter's Level by one!" My monster's level dropped from 4 to 3. "Now I overlay my two Level Three monsters!"

Both of my monsters turned into streams of energy that were absorbed by the galaxy-like portal in front of me and I chanted.

" _Knight lost in the stream of time, awake from your eternal slumber and strike down whoever oppose your master! Shine forth from the legends! Xyz Summon! Rank Three! ChronoDevil Void Lancer (RANK: 3, ATK: 1800)!_ "

" _Ai, it was came time for me to shine again, didn't it!"_ Void Lancer swung its lance above its head. _"Just give the order, boss!"_

"I activate Void Lancer's effect!" I declared. "I use up its Xyz Materials to seal away both of your set cards until the end of this turn! _Voided Zone_!"

"Action Spell activate!" Kurosaki flew through the sky with his Raidraptor and grabbed another Action Card. " _Detour_ negates your monster's effect and inflicts five hundred points of damage to you! Its over!"

"Shit!" I looked at my hand and quickly grabbed a card from it. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _Emergency Provisions_!"

"In order to use Emergency Provision, you must have Spell or Trap cards to destroy!" Kurosaki exclaimed. "Don't tell me that you are going to use your Pendulum Cards as the cost!"

"They served their purpose!" My cards faded from the Pendulum Zones and their energy flew toward me, giving me new strength, just as the effect of Detour resolved and another of Blaze Falcon's beams hit me in the chest.

 **『** **Evan LP: 400 + 2000** → **2400 – 500** → **1900** **』**

" _Ai, my effects don't work anymore!"_ Void Lancer turned back toward me. _"Use the other card, boss!"_

I agreed and took another card from my hand just like Void Lancer asked. Both I and my monsters knew that victory was most important. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _Rank-Up-Magic Time Terror Force_! With it, I'm going to Rank-Up ChronoDevil Void Lancer!"

"A Rank-Up card!?" Kurosaki gasped.

"Evolve!" I injected the card into my Duel Disk and purple electricity instantly shot out of the energy blade, covering Void Lancer. My monster flew forward where a crimson pentagram opened in place of the galaxy-like portal.

" _The warrior sealed within the endless void of time, find the path of true wickedness and drown the timelines with your lust for carnage! Arise, the legend that that crushed the light with its evil soul! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Rank Four! ChronoDevil Void Horror (RANK: 4, ATK: 2400)!_ "

The ranked up form of Void Lancer appeared before me with a malicious chuckle. It seemed ready for battle.

"Let's go!" I shouted. "Void Horror's effect activates! When its Special Summoned, I can absorb one of your monsters and transform it into a Xyz Material!"

"Trap open!" Kurosaki exclaimed as one of his set cards turned face-up. " _ **Raidraptor – Storm Wind**_! When my opponent an effect that targets a Raidraptor monster on my field, I can negate that effect and then increase that Raidraptor's attack by a thousand!"

* * *

 **Raidraptor – Storm Wind (Trap) Normal**

 **When a "Raidraptor" monster you control is targeted for by an opponent's monster effect: Negate that monster's effects, then the targeted monster gains 1000 ATK.**

* * *

 **Raidraptor – Blaze Falcon, ATK: 1000 + 1000** → **2000**

"Tch." I couldn't even get rid of the monster, how annoying! "Then you leave me no choice but to battle! Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer attack Blaze Falcon! _Double Void Slash_!"

My monster shot upward with its jetpack and then swung its blades, cutting Blaze Falcon in half, right after which the machine/bird exploded once again.

 **『** **Kurosaki LP: 1500 – 500** → **1000** **』**

"Now attack directly, Void Horror!" I ordered while Kurosaki was falling from the sky. " _Dark Ray Terror_!"

"Quick-Play activate!" Kurosaki shouted and another Spell Card appeared in front of him. " _Rank-Up-Magic Doom Double Force_ revives a destroyed Xyz Monster and ranks it up to a monster with twice that Rank!"

Blaze Falcon revives once again and its body transformed into something much bigger than the Xyz I've been disposing of so far into the duel. Kurosaki landed on the back of the still transforming beast and began to chant.

" _Supreme falcon. Carry on the wishes of your fallen friends, and fly off to the sky of victory! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear, Rank Ten! Raidraptor - Ultimate Falcon (RANK: 10, ATK: 3500)!_ "

What used to be Blaze Falcon was now a giant golden bird fortress glaring down at my tiny monsters. Yikes!

"Ultimate Falcon's effect activates!" Kurosaki gestured toward my monsters. "The effects of all your monsters are negated and they lose a thousand attack!"

Indeed, a lightning that came out of Ultimate Falcon stuck all three of my monsters causing them to scream and fall on their knees, weakened by Ultimate Falcon's effect.

 **ChronoDevil Jolly Jester, ATK: 1200 - 1000** → **200**

 **ChronoDevil Void Horror, ATK: 2400 - 1000** → **1400**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 2500 - 1000** → **1500**

I looked at the last card in my hand, this Spell could save during the next turn, but after that that I would be defenseless. "I set a card, turn end."

"During the End Phase of this turn, your monsters are going to lose a thousand attack by Ultimate Falcon's effect." Kurosaki told me and another lightning stuck my monsters, causing all of them to scream.

 **ChronoDevil Jolly Jester, ATK: 200 - 1000** → **0**

 **ChronoDevil Void Horror, ATK: 1400 - 1000** → **400**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, ATK: 1500 - 1000** → **500**

"My turn, draw!" Kurosaki shouted, drawing another card.

 **『** **Turn 7 [Kurosaki] LP: 1000, Hand: 1** **』**

"I activate _Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force_!" The card glowed in Kurosaki's hand. "By this card's effect I pay half of my Life Points to revive a Raidraptor - Rise Falcon from my Graveyard and Xyz Summon a monster that is two Ranks higher than it!"

 **『** **Kurosaki LP: 1000/2** → **500** **』**

Raidraptor - Rise Falcon flew out of the Graveyard and flew into the galaxy-like portal while Kurosaki began to chant.

" _Prideful falcon. Spread your wings, dyed in the blood of heroes, and charge through the path of revolution! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear! Rank Six! Raidraptor - Revolution Falcon (RANK: 6, ATK: 2000)!_ "

A new mechanical monster that was supposed to represent a bird soared through the field, circling over me like a vulture waiting for its food.

"I activate Revolution Falcon's effect!" The monster's wings opened to reveal a heavy artillery ready to blow up the field. "If Revolution Falcon was Special Summoned using a Raidraptor Xyz Monster as material, I can destroy a monster on your field and inflict half of its Life Points as damage to you! I destroy Void Horror!"

"Quick-Play Spell, activate: _Mystik Wok_!" I shouted, flipping my face-down card. "I release Chrono Phantomus to gain Life Points equal to his defense!"

Just as my ace faded from the field, Kurosaki's Revolution Falcon flew over me and dropped its bombs onto Void Horror, blowing up my Xyz Monster. I gritted my teeth and fell on my knees, the sensation from the impact running through every fiber of my body.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1900 + 1800** → **3700 – 1200** → **2500** **』**

"When Void Horror is destroyed while it was Xyz Materials, I get to revive it! _Return of Horror_!" A tear in the space-time continuum appeared and my monster crawled through it, landing in defense position. "Then, I regain twenty-four hundred life points."

 **『** **Evan LP: 2500 + 2400** → **4900** **』**

"You could have used its effect, but you know the risk of targeting my monsters, don't you?" Kurosaki looked down at me. "I activate Revolution Falcon's other effect! By detaching a Xyz Material, Revolution Falcon can attack all of your monsters, once each! _Revolutional Air Raid_!"

The Xyz monster flew over me once again and dropped another barrage of explosives that set my monsters on fire. They all screamed and their bodies shattered, leaving no trace behind.

"And now, Ultimate Falcon is going to attack you directly! _Final Glorious Bright_!" the monster formed a large ball of dark energy and threw it toward me. The only thing I could do was move my hands to protect my face, while my body was swallowed in a violent explosion that threw me on the other end of the field.

 **『** **Evan LP: 4900 - 3500** → **1400** **』**

"I'm going to take this Action Card." Kurosaki flew through the sky, grabbing another Action Card. "Now I end my turn and the effect of Ultimate Falcon activates! Since you control no monsters, you lose a thousand Life Points!"

Another bolt fell from the sky and hit me while I was trying to get back up. I screamed and my arms gave up, causing my body to collapsed back onto the ground.

 **『** **Evan LP: 1400 - 1000** → **400** **』**

"During the End Phase the effect of Rank-Up-Magic Soul Shave Force would activate as well, inflict damage to me equal to Revolution Falcon's attack, but I'm going to activate the Action Card – _Acceleration_ to negate that damage!" Damn, he even had a backup plan in case his attacks didn't finish me off, did he?

"Whelp that was a close one, wasn't it?" I groaned. My entire body was hurting from all of this damage, but I shouldn't be complaining about it. After all, I was the one who wanted Kurosaki to face me seriously.

"Your Life Points are at four hundred, there are no cards on your field or hand and during the End Phase, if you control no monsters, my Ultimate Falcon is going to inflict a thousand points of damage to you." Kurosaki reminded me. "Do you still think that there's a way you could win?"

"We are both Lancers, aren't we?" I asked and looked up to Kurosaki, his expression changed from strict to a surprised one in a heartbeat.

"Don't waste my time with pointless words!" He demanded.

"Yes, it would be better if I should you." I stood up and put a hand on top of my deck.

" _ **You already found the answer to defeat this one, didn't you?"**_ Yuksel's voice echoed around me.

"Just watch me." I whispered back and drew.

 **『** **Turn 8 [Evan] LP: 400, Hand: 1** **』**

"The pendulum swinging between fates… has stopped in my favor!" I have assembled all the pieces to win! "I activate the effect of Rank-Up-Magic Time Terror Force from my Graveyard! I banish it to target two DARK Xyz monsters in the Graveyard and revive one of them, attaching the second one as Xyz Material!"

"You will try to use Void Horror again?" Kurosaki asked me.

"No. The monster that I'm reviving is… Raidraptor – Rise Falcon from your Graveyard!"

"Nani!?"

The ground in front of me broke into pieces and Rise Falcon flew out of it, landing on my side of the field. The beast lowered its head and let me rub its chin.

"Due to the effect of Time Terror Force, I attach Void Lancer to Rise Falcon as a Xyz Material, and then I activate the Spell Card - _Stream Stun_! This card negates all Spell Cards on the field and until the end of this turn, neither of us is able to activate any more Spell Cards!" A dark essence came out of my Spell Card and flew through the entire Action Field, removing all of the colors from it while also making all the Action Cards to vanish.

"This means…" Kurosaki looked defeated; well, he was beaten already.

"I activate Rise Falcon's effect!" MY monster absorbed its only Xyz Material. "Until the end of this turn, Rise Falcon will gain the combined attack of all Special Summoned monsters on your field, Kurosaki!"

Rise Falcon was surrounded by a flaming aura that make him look bigger than Ultimate Falcon itself.

 **Raidraptor – Rise Falcon, ATK: 100 + 2000 + 3500** → **5600**

"Go, Rise Falcon!" I pointed at Kurosaki's monsters. "Destroy all of the monsters he controls and end this duel! Brave Claw Revolution!"

The monster flew high into the air and the dive, flying through the center of Ultimate Falcon before turning around to tear off Revolution Falcon's head off with its claws. Both Raidraptor monsters exploded into huge flames and Ultimate Falcon's remains fell onto the ground, after which Kurosaki fell of them and tumbled on the ground.

 **『** **Kurosaki LP: 500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan** **』**

"That was a nice warm up match, birdman." I walked over to him and reached out to help him get up.

At first, Kurosaki glared at me, but then he nodded and accepted my help. "I see why Reiji thinks of you as the strongest Lancer now. But to think that you would use my own monster to finish this match…"

"That's why I said that we're both Lancers." I told him and turned toward the rest, who were watching our duel from the other room. "To know how your teammates' decks work, what strategies they are most likely to deploy, how to support them during those strategies, that's what you all need to learn if you want to have a glimpse of a chance against Academia."

The door then opened and everyone else walked inside the Duel Arena, each of them looking straight at me.

"What do you want from us to do then?" Koharu asked me. "How do you want us to learn all of this in under a day?"

I smiled. "Simple. Duel. If you duel against one another like how I and Kurosaki did, you will get the best idea of what the person in front of you is like. That's the best way you could forge a bond in such a short period of time."

"I see." Levant rubbed his chin in thought.

"That might work..." Yuya whispered.

"I'm all fired up for a duel anyways!" Yugo shouted.

"I'm good for some practice as well!" Ventus exclaimed.

"You showed extreme skills in your duel against Kurosaki." Serena eyed me. "Though you look familiar to me…"

"Why do I have the feeling that you are imagining some jackass right now?" I smirked.

" _ **Jackass!? You were the one who told me that I'm free to card her! Apologize!"**_ Yuksel yelled from inside my mind.

"Hmm," Serena didn't respond to my remark and just turned on her heel, walking away.

"Aw, did I say something wrong?" I asked myself.

" _ **Did you not?"**_ The remaining parts of Nightshroud's personality sure were feeling talkative today…

"Hey, what are you standing there for?" I snapped and turned toward the source of the voice, noticing that Serena has already taken a battling pose and has activated her Duel Disk. "Aren't you going to be my partner for this match?"

Now that I think about it. If it wasn't for my stupid idea of a duel against Kurosaki, I wouldn't have gotten everyone to have fun together, thinking that it's training to fight against Academia. Even Yuya and Yuzu were having some fun, although it was hard for them with all that they went through. I sighed and turned back to Serena, activating my own Duel Disk.

* * *

The next day came so quickly that I didn't even realize what happened. In one moment I was dueling against the other Lancers, showing them why I'm the one who would hold the title of 'Final Boss', the next I wake up on the sofa with everyone else in the same position, but on different furniture. Only that ninja guy with the blue clothes wasn't there, but I remember that he didn't duel for too long yesterday, so he probably had a normal sleep, unlike the rest of us.

"I see that you have come to be a functional team." I heard clapping and turned toward the stairs. Guess who I saw there?

"Hmm, what time is it?" Yugo slapped my knee, trying to reach for some sort of an alarm (I quickly moved away before he hit another kind of alarm).

Everyone else began to slowly wake up as well, the girls sheepishly rubbing their eyes while. That was when I noticed that Sora wasn't with the group. Did he listen to my advice?

"I should give proper credits to you." Reiji stood in front of me and fixed his glasses. "You know how to connect people."

"I absolutely have no idea what made them listen to my idea, actually." I shrugged. Looking back to yesterday, all of it happened so fast that I never stopped to think why everyone went ahead with my idea and dueled each other until they literally fell asleep from exhaustion.

"It doesn't really matter." Reiji walked past me. I noticed that his little brother was still following after him, although there was a bit of bandage of his right hand.

"Sixteen members of the Lancers have gathered, Captain!" Dennis saluted.

"I can see." Reiji turned back to us. "For those wondering, Sora Shiunin won't be coming with us. Instead, I'm leaving you to help train the second group of Lancers, which will have to protect this Dimension while the rest of us are away."

"Aw man, we're finally doing it!" Yugo shouted and pushed his fist against his hand. "I'm finally going to get back to Academia for taking Rin!"

"What about Oni and your brother?" Elizabeth turned toward Reiji.

"They are going to come with us." Reiji responded. "The final match of the Junior Division wasn't finished, so I'm going to count it as a tie."

"Fighting against Academia isn't a game." Koharu retorted. "They could get hurt!"

"Reira is equivalent to most of you in term of dueling skills." Reiji retorted. "And since Oni was the only one who was able to keep up with his dueling, she isn't any less skilled."

"In any case, I won't accept it." Kurosaki spoke up. "Having children like them marching into Academia with us? They are only going to get in the way!"

"We aren't going to Academia." Levant interrupted, catching everyone's attention.

"What!?" Kurosaki and Yugo exclaimed at the same time.

"It's true." Reiji said and looked at every one of us. "Our destination will be the Synchro Dimension."

"My home? Why?!" Yugo shouted.

"Your dimension hasn't been dragged into the war yet, right?" Reiji asked. "The Standard Dimension, even with the best duelist gathered together, doesn't have enough strength to face Academia directly yet. We'll have to create alliance with the Synchro Dimension first and fight against Academia together."

Everyone else was surprised and Kurosaki looked angry, but not as much as I expected him to be. It was apparent that he didn't like those plans, but it was the best move from a strategic standpoint. If we were to aim for victory a handful of Duelists wouldn't be enough to even walk past the gates of Academia. Kurosaki must be understanding that just as well.

"I can reassure you that the Professor will treat your sister with care." Serena suddenly spoke up, talking toward Kurosaki no less. "You'll know if you saw how he treated me. I have the same face as her, right? And Yuzu too." I noticed that Dennis panicked for a moment… "I don't know what he's planning to do by gathering us, but we seem to be important to him. That's why your sister, and Rin, they must be treated with care."

"I still don't like the sound of that, but I understand what must be done." Kurosaki looked toward Serena and nodded; she did the same in return. Aw, ship confirmed?

Reiji then moved to give everyone a new Duel Disk with the same design as the older one. I panicked there for a bit, but he seemed to ignore me and my family, because there were no new ones for us. That was something that I was grateful for; didn't want to answer questions like 'What's that alternative mode your Duel Disk is able to turn into?' 'Why do you have a carding function?' and the likes.

"Those are Duel Disks with newly invented dimensional transportation device." Reiji looked over me. "We used several different items as reference." Oh you, I'll blush~

"This duel disk is also filled with a function that allows the activation of an Action Field." Ah look, more reasons to keep my old one. "We've made the same modifications to Kurosaki and Serena's Duel Disks, as well as partially inputting the program in Yugo's, in a way that would allow for it to be used with D-Wheels. The Pendulum Summon and Action Cards are our greatest weapons, use those to your heart's contest."

Correction, hate them to your heart's contest. I'll be sure to do that, Reiji-sama~

"Now please, prepare the cards that we distributed to you." Umm, I got that it was a spell but there was no text, am I looking it wrong or-! Ah, wait, it's a bullshit device, isn't it? "We have input the Synchro Dimension's coordinates in them. Set them on your Duel Disks and activate them at my signal."

" _ **Uh, must we use dimension travel? I get sick from using it."**_ Yuksel complained.

"Now it's time to depart. Onward to the Synchro Dimension! Dimension Mover, activate!"

I tapped the card on the screen and a bright glow enveloped me. Wit the ability to travel across dimensions finally within my grasp, I was going to make sure to have some fun using it. The light was so bright that none of the others could see my grin.

'In the name of the new champion of the four dimensions – Me!'

* * *

 **A/N:** **Well, that was a fast one, wasn't it? I don't even know how I was able to write all of this in under 48 hours. It's probably filled with a tone of mistakes, but to be fair the only real purpose of this chapter was to give a quick wrap-up of the Standard Arc as well as to finally write that Evan vs Kurosaki duel that I was dreaming to do for almost a year now.**

 **Also, Firewall Dragon is finally getting banned in the TCG. At first I was crying out of happiness because if they banned Firewall Dragon that would mean that they can't use it in the anime anymore and Decodebro will have to be recognized as the true ace of VRAINS, but then I realized that this was a TCG list, not an OCG one, so all my dreams and hopes were shattered.** **It's a typical Friday.**

 **Thanks to** Jordanscott2499 **for following this story!**

 **And now to our review! Just one this time because I have was generous enough to let** ScalchopWarrior **take a break from their cell in my dungeon for today... Shhh!**

Ethan Kironus **: Yeeeeaaahh...**

 ** _Avice_ : Oh boy, I can't believe how quickly this ending note was.**

 **Yea that's really all for now. Thanks to everyone who supported me through the Standard Arc, either by favoriting/following/reviewing, or just taking a quick look at the story. Thanks for reading this, and let's meet again in the Synchro Arc!**

 ** _Avice_ : ****Till next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	43. Special Chapter: Review

Hello there! It's me, Diabolic Tracer, and as I already mentioned in the beginning of the last chapter, this one is going to be a bit more special. Given that we already ended the "Standard Arc" of Arc-Tracers, I thought that it would be a good idea to give my thoughts on writing this…

…Calling it a story is questionable.

And before we start this kamikaze "Chapter" that I know will make people unfollow faster than I can ask for a 44th chance of redemption, I must admit that when it comes to reviewing I have almost zero knowledge about what I'm doing. That's why my reviews on other writers' stories often try to be funny in order to divert attention from how horrible the actual reviews are.

But I did research this beforehand and while the preparation I got from reading "FanFic Sins" is pretty much non-existing, I was able to learn one very important thing about what I should NOT do here.

* * *

" **Entries not allowed:**

Non-stories: lists, bloopers, polls, previews, challenges, author notes, and etc."

* * *

Well, shit.

Since big Author Note and the likes are frowned upon by the higher beings that moderate this site, I have decided to try and see how smart it would be if I brought two characters from the actual anime to help me out with this, turning this obvious author note into a sketch. So say hello to my helpers!

Yuri: I was in the middle of watering my flowers, so this better be good.

Kurosaki: What am I doing here?

You are going to help me write this review.

Kurosaki: And why were we the ones chosen for this job?

Well, I choose Yuri because he's my favorite out of the four pieces of Zarc (and Zarc himself). As for you, we do desperately need a voice of reason and if I have brought Reiji, he just wouldn't have cared about this at all.

Kurosaki: That makes sense.

Also, I want to make fun of you for having your sister and best friend killed off at the end of Arc-V.

Kurosaki: …

Yuri: Oh, this is already starting to get good.

So, I believe that it would only be appropriate to start this review from the very beginning. For some that might be the plot, for others those words have a more literal meaning aka the first chapter. But I'm going to go even earlier to the winter of 2015.

Yuri: Never mind what I just said. Someone wake me up when the history lesson is over.

I know that my story wasn't the most original out there…

Kurosaki: It's literally in the name "fanfiction", what originally are we talking about?

So, the reason I think this way isn't just because this is a reboot of a different fanfiction of mine.

Kurosaki: (He ignored me!)

Even back when I was doing research for the first version of this story (don't look it up, it's even more trash than this.) The "Someone from the RL suddenly appears in Arc-V and does stuff" was pretty overused. And by overused I mean that when I looked at the tab on my first day on this site, I found 5 of these fanfics on the first page alone.

Kurosaki & Yuri: Yikes!

Most of these were really dying despite me liking their ideas. I don't even think that there was any fanfiction in the Arc-V tab that was able to reach half the glory that OPFan37's "Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-VOC" got and, really, because this chapter is about me tearing a new one to my own story, I'm not going to criticize or talk trash about others' work, but I still find it abysmal how the most liked OC stories are those with the most cliché main characters.

So, the reason I'm bringing this up is because, well, there was that one time when I was told that some of the things I did were very similar to Arc-VOC. That criticism was specifically about how Graild is similar to the "dimensional guardians" from that fic.

Kurosaki: And?

Seriously, I'm not sure how to fight those kinds of points without going on a rant. If there was any sort of influence that Arc-VOC had upon me it would be giving me courage to post my stories, nothing more than that. As for the stories that gave me inspirations in terms of ideas… I can't mention any.

Kurosaki: …

There sure were inspirations, but most of them sadly died out due to the authors losing interest or other reasons. Also, I have already been shilling for a certain author's stories enough for you to figure out that they did act as an inspiration to me.

I can feel that this introduction part is already starting to get pretty long, so I'm going to summarize what I wanted to say, by putting it down with as many words as humanly possible!

Kurosaki: We are barely starting and I already want to snap my neck, but the author isn't narrating our actions, so I can't do that.

Yuri: That makes me sad.

Kurosaki: I hate you too.

Since I did say that I'm going to start with the prehistory, I'm starting with Arc-Twins. Really, when I started writing that one I just wanted to make a popular fanfiction, which is why I went and used the same clichés that I was complaining about a few lines above. The story was following two twins who got transported into the Arc-V world and blah, blah, be generic shounen protagonist with golden heart, fighting the evil Academia and whatever original force I came up with as to not make it look like a complete copy-paste of Arc-V.

I quickly drew bored out of it and was going to cancel it on several occasions until I finally couldn't keep reviving a project I have grown to hate and just let it die - like how Kurosaki's sister and boyfriend did.

Kurosaki: …That's a low hit.

I had really no excuse for the way that one turned out because I was already 16 years old back then and yet my characters were as developed as a superhero made by a 5 years old. Oh, I also had a weird thing for Mind Break back then and so the beginning of the Synchro Arc from that story is still haunting my dreams to this very day.

Kurosaki: We are already 900 worlds into this and you haven't said a single thing about your current story.

…

What was this rant supposed to be about again?

Yuri: Is it bad that I'm unable to tell if this is a joke or the author has genuinely forgotten what he was supposed to be doing?

Ah, yes.

Sorry.

Now, let's get on how Arc-Tracers turned out. OCs are still siblings that got thrown into the world of Arc-V, original force I came up with as to not make it look like a complete copy-paste of Arc-V is still there as well.

Yuri: These two stories are as different as monozygotic twins - I can't tell the difference!

Kurosaki: But if they are monozygotic twins doesn't that meant that they are identical?

Yuri: That's the joke, have you never heard a joke before?

Kurosaki: Ah yeah. Because me and my comrades always cracked some jokes while trying to avoid death traps and getting carded by Academia soldiers.

So, as I was saying,

What I wrote is really lackluster compared to what I had in plan. Unlike with Twins, I actually had an idea about what I wanted to do with this story, I had a plan for the plot, how the story would go down, how every small detail would come together to form an amazing story at the end, with great plot-twists and characters that everyone would love!

So, how did I fuck that up?

For starters, when I come up with an idea I never write it down or make a note about it, believing that I'm going to be able to perfectly remember it a few years later when I get to write it down. And, well, that's sort of how the "Fragments" were born. At first, the idea was that the burned ground on which the Greysons woke up at the end of Chapter 1 to be a result of a weird space-time anomaly, which caused the matter to get corrupted by a force of a different dimension, that when touched, corrupts people and turns them evil. Well, I kind of forgot that original idea when I had to introduce what the Fragments were and accidentally turned them into conscious beings instead of piece of corrupted dirt.

Yuri: That sounds like a big mistake for someone to make accidentally.

Well…

Yuri: There's more to it, isn't there?

Kind of?

You see, Arc-Tracer as a story doesn't take itself very seriously. Because of that I was in no hurry in advancing the plot or whatsoever, until I reached the point where a good portion of the story was spent in the siblings just fooling around town, having random encounters with random people and learning random bits of information. There was no villain for them to face. You understand what I mean? I was just in desperate need to put some evil group for our heroes to face until I was satisfied fooling around.

Yuri: You do understand that you are a very pathetic excuse of a writer, don't you?

Kurosaki smacked Yuri across the head.

Yuri: What was that for!?

Kurosaki: It wasn't me! The author began to narrate actions!

Ahem…

So yeah, the original idea of the Tracers was for them to be a group of hunters united from different worlds to collect the pieces of an ancient magical pendulum - which is what's happening right now if someone missed that by a chance – and the Fragments probably won't be reveal to the story anymore.

Whoops?

Sadly that's just one of the many screw ups that I made while writing this story, but really, if I were to talk about everything that I screwed with my lazy approach, we would all be here much longer than necessary.

Kurosaki: But at least you learned your lesson about keeping notes, right?

Nah, I'm still too lazy to do something like that.

Yuri: THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS ENTIRE SECTION!?

To show that I don't think very highly of my story. I have always been a bit of a perfectionist despite being lazier than a bear during hibernation, so I'm never satisfied with the things that I write. Every time I look at something I have made, I see a failure.

Yuri: That's reality that you are seeing.

It's kind of depressing, you know? And what scares me even more is the lack of criticism on this story. I feel that my two reviewers are putting reviews out of some kind of obligation and while I don't criticize them for that, every time I write a new chapter I just feel like I'm putting more trash into a dumpster fire. Heck, everyone who read more than a chapter of this story knows that I hate Yuya and Arc-V, yet I still keep writing about an already ended show that I despise because, I actually enjoy writing this story. Yet, it hurts so much to know that I'm in love with a dumpster fire.

Yuri: It's still better to be loving something ugly than with your dead sibling.

Kurosaki: YAMERO!

Honestly, when I started that I thought that there would be a lot of reassuring things to say, but instead I started with how I'm too lazy to fix my mistakes.

And talking about mistakes, I know that there are a lot of them in my chapters. And not just grammatical ones. For the first 25 or so chapters I didn't know how to put sideways pointing arrows that I use now to show when a monster' stats or a player's Life Points change, the style I used when writing the card text also remained inconsistent for the first few chapters and let's not talk about how on Grey Reaper's card text it was written that the monster was a Synchro when in reality it's a Fusion.

Yuri: A mistake that you still haven't fixed, have you?

I'm actually doing that and have already editted the first 5 chapters of the story.

…

As, I was saying. Unlike what I said about the plot, I'm actually going to try and fix these mistakes as much as I can. Every time when I write a chapter I want to upload it as quickly as possible due to which I just give it a single quick proofread using Google Docs to find any mistakes. I'm going to start putting more attention to what's written from here on. Though my knowledge about English grammar isn't that great, I'm going to try my best to make the chapters I post readable. Due to that, updates might be slower, but I'm going to try and make it so that there isn't that big of a gap between updates.

Yuri: Wait, you are actually going to put effort into that? Starving Venom, bring me the camera!

Kurosaki: Was I drugged by Yuri's plants or is this for real?

… Jerks.

I can keep going on how awful my story is for 40 more pages, but in case you are still here, still reading this and you haven't already removed this story from your favorites and story alerts, I'm sure you are already bored of this. So, now I'm going to spice it up with my thoughts on the characters themselves! Since the characters of a story are most often what makes it worth reading, I'm going to put a lot more in this section.

Of course as much as I want to pat myself on the shoulders for how the Greysons turned out, I'm not going to do it because they do have a lot of flaws. Unlike what I did with the plot, I'm going to give a deep analysis for the characters to make it easier for people to understand them.

Naturally, it's hard to look at the mirror and say what your flaws are when the reflection you are looking at is blurry, so to get the most out of this, I'm going to use the reviews your left to me as guide for this analysis.

Yuri: And just how many of those did you have to bribe for?

…

Kurosaki smacked Yuri across the head.

Yuri: What was that for now!?

Kurosaki: The author narrated my actions again!

While most of what I'm going to be talking about is from a PM between me and SPRGMR27, I'm also going to cover bits from the reviews of ScalchopWarrior and Ethan Kironus, as well as parts from ThePLOThand's reviews on my VRAINS fanfic that talk about Evan.

So, let's get to it!

Yuri: Author's inappropriate self-touching coming in three…

Kurosaki: …Two…

Yuri: …One…

So, first of I'm going to be talking about Evan.

If the entirety of my first fanfiction on this site is what I consider to be my lowest point as a writer, Evan is what I believe to be my best creation so far. While fictional characters aren't always written to be relatable, they aim of a writer is to always get a certain reaction out of those who read their work and let's be honest with ourselves, everyone here has to admit that they hate Evan at least a little bit. He's nothing like most of the humble, well-meaning characters that you are used to see as heroes of a Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic. Or in any shonen related stuff.

Before we start, I want to say something important about the progress of making Evan's character. What I want to note is that I have a soft spot for philosophy and politics ever since I started studying them in High school, so when making Evan's character I used several of the things I learned in school and am currently learning in University about those subjects. I applied many uncommon philosophical and politics thoughts on morality and empathy, and most importantly, Machiavelli's concept for the ideal ruler. Based on those, in terms of personality and moral values, Evan is not just a realistic concept, but in some instances, a preferable form for how a human should be.

Now that this out of the way, let's start analyzing him.

First off, I want to point out that like a lot of other OC centered stories, Arc-Tracer is based around Escapism. For those who don't completely understand this, those are stories where the main character escaping the unpleasant reality that they live in by either being transported to another reality or by escaping the toxic environment that they grew up in. The characters don't need to move out of their own way of life deliberately for the concept to be called Escapism, because as in real life, these choices could be make unconsciously. Most of the stories using this element are about the main character going on a journey that teaches them valuable lessons and gives them a more hopeful view on the world while turning them into better characters.

The concept of Escapism also coveres one of the more prominent features of Evan's character. The thing that Evan is trying to escape from, unlike other characters, isn't reality itself, but morality. He's trying to escape that particular system of values and principles that dictate what's good and bad behavior in his original world. And that's why he's so keen on winning, because in the YGO world, what determines if your beliefs are right and wrong isn't morality, but card games. Those who win, are those whose ways are right.

He doesn't want to try and learn how to be a better person because he already has his own world view and a set of morals that differ so much from the norm, it's impossible for him to be completely rehabilitated into the world of human. His character can't change fundamentally. Because of that he not only has the slowest character development, but also the lessons that he learns from different encounters have a much different meaning for him than they do for others.

Let's take for instance Evan's duel with Yuri where he got saved by Yuya, Yugo and everyone else. At first glance, this encounter would cause you to think that seeing how he was saved from sure death would cause him to be nicer toward those who saved him. But if you look at the scene from Evan's point of view, this was not only the first time that he was going to lose, but also the first time when he had an internal conflict of whenever he should forsake Yuzu and focus on defeating Yuri, or try to protect the former. A conflict that, mind you, he didn't have to face when he dueled beside Elizabeth or anyone else. Not only was this conflict something new for him, he also ended up making the wrong choice of protecting Yuzu instead of himself.

The winning pieces were all there, for those of you who read the chapter and didn't notice. He just failed to spot them because he wasn't fighting for himself at the moment. With the Continuous Trap, Pendulum Switch he could have Special Summoned Foxy from the Pendulum Scale and through her effect Void Lancer would have gotten 400 extra attack points, making its attack just enough to beat Yuri. But he failed to see this combo because he wasn't fighting exclusively for himself. For his own victory.

Yuri: Wait, he had everything needed to beat me? I call bullshit!

The same way you had everything to beat Yuya, but was still stupid enough not to use Dark Rebellion's effect?

Yuri: That was the writers' fault.

Aha.

Fundamentally, Evan's character was built to be able to obtain its strength only from negatives emotions. Like a villain, he gains strength from his loneliness, hatred, a hunger for power and destruction. Love, sympathy, desire to protect others, those are qualities that he views as weak, and for a reason, they are his weaknesses. An Evan who cares about those around him won't as effective as when he's selfish and fights for his own sake.

I guess that could explain why he also seems so overpowered in the Standard Arc; because he starts off as a broken kid.

A part where it seems that the execution of Evan's character has gone wrong the most is the explanation behind why he's the way that he is. I have no interest in going into Evan's backstory and explain what "horrible tragedies" caused him to hate the world and humanity. Most of that is because he himself doesn't care about the past, so I guess he's following Kylo Ren's advice to "Let the past die – kill it if you have to".

Yuri: Ah, isn't it just great to make a character and don't give them a backstory to explain why they are the way that they are?

That's really not what I'm doing.

There are small bits and pieces of information about how his character came to be are put very subtle in his dialogue and actions. The thing about Evan is that he won't let himself be chained by the past, even IF something bad happened to him, he won't let it take hold on his entire life. If his full backstory is even brought p (which it will be given that I'm writing about it) it would be mostly to show what he thinks about it and not so much about how it affected him.

Kurosaki: Aha, so there is a backstory?

Yuri: A tragic one I presume?

If you remove "tragic" then yes, there is a backstory for him. Tragic events aren't the only way to build a character, there are multiple factors and choices which cause people to take the path they have chosen in life. If anything, I view tragic backstories as nothing more than cheap tricks to pull the reader's heartstrings and make them feel sympathy for a character who doesn't deserve it. I got no problem if people think of Evan as an all hating, immoral jerk and hate him for that. There are people who were just born to play the role of a villain and he seems to fit it quite well.

Yuri: Just like me, right?

I guess you could say that.

Before I continue with the analysis of Evan's character there are a few other things that I want to talk about and those are his Gary Stu moments, as well as his ability to talk to Duel Spirits.

First, the talking to Duel Spirit. It's a much overused trope in fanfics, I know. In this case, the role of the ChronoDevils isn't to be just there as his spirit partners, helping the character get over internal conflicts. Actually, if you follow Evan's conversations with Wolfy and Foxy, and the ChronoDevils' character as a whole, you will notice that they have their own intentions. Actually, I believe that the conversation between Foxy and Evan from Chapter 22 would be a wake-up call on why Evan is acting so awful toward others.

Second, the ChronoDevils allow a subtle view on Evan's goal. Throughout the story, Evan has on multiple occasions stated that he hates humanity, that he views humans to be lower than him, which raises the question, what is he if not human himself? Evan views himself as better than the rest of humanity, as a creature that exist on a completely different plane of existence, very similar to Zarc after his corruption.

One big difference between the two however is how Evan views his own monsters. Just like with the humans, Evan has a toxic relationship even with his own monsters, and mostly with Foxy and Wolfy. So, unlike Zarc who loved his monsters so much that he became one with them, Evan appears to think of himself as being different from his Duel Monsters as well. So, what does that leaves him with?

Evan finds himself in-between the two species, humans and Duel Monsters. He ran away from the first because he didn't feel like a part of it, but he also doesn't join the side of the Duel Monsters because he knows that his place isn't among them as well. He's something different than both of those species, but what exactly, is something to which even he doesn't have an answer to.

His goals have also changed quite a few times throughout the story so far. First he wanted to win the Miami Championship, then to be the one who wins the Dimensional War and finally, to be the Champion of the Four Dimensions. With every change in his goals, they became bigger and harder to fulfil, and that's why he's doing that. Even though he doesn't know what he is, one thing that Evan is sure about is that he's superior to those around him. Since he has no way to find just how much stronger he is, his only way to find where he belongs is through finding his own limits. Finding his place in the society, or above it - that's where Evan's ultimate goal really lies at.

Now about him being a Gary Stu. Obviously, I'm not trying to make Evan be the literal perfection and I can't really defend against this because, no writer makes their character a Gary Stu/Mary Sue on purpose and its really up to the readers to call them out if their characters fall into that category. So, what I'm doing here isn't putting arguments as to why Evan isn't a Gary Stu, but why I made some of the decisions that make him look like one.

Yuri: In other words "here are the excuses why he's not a Gary Stu despite definitely being one, duh".

I'm already starting to wonder why I like you more than Yugo…

Yuri: Because I'm the smarter one obviously.

Yeah… Smarter.

Back to the topic.

At this I was going to mention the reviews left by two writers, but since after talking with SPRGMR27 we came to a better understanding, so here's just ScalchopWarrior's take on why Evan's a Gary Stu: "[…] there are NO CONSEQUENCES for him."

I can't deny that, for the most part. Most of the consequence that Evan has faced so far, weren't that lasting or severe, but that's due to three reasons.

First, he's careful with his actions and takes precautions to avoid those consequences. Most of his actions are done in a way that couldn't possibly backfire on him. For instance, his latest villainous deed. He did something awful during the Battle Royale, something beyond abandoning his sister or carding Obelisk Force duelists, but you didn't realize that it was his deed, and nor did anyone else. How could there be consequences if no one knew that he did something evil?

Second is how good and evil are perceived in my stories. Unlike others, I'm going for the idea of evil always being better than good. That's most noticeable with Evan/Avice and Elizabeth in Arc-Tracers. Evan/Avice, are ones representing an evil always wins, they always managed to manipulate things to go their way, while Elizabeth always loses; no matter how much she tries or how much effort she puts, she always ends at the bottom, defeated by her siblings.

Third is karma. Even though Evan's actions don't directly cause consequences for him, either due to how carefully he calculate them or because others don't realize that it was him who did those horrendous deeds, karma will always be able to catch up to him in the end.

Beside these three, I admit that when consequences come for Evan, they aren't that big or lasting, so that's something I'm going to work on in, in a way,

Now that this is out of the way, I'm going to finish this analysis with is his behavior. Evan is, from the get-go, a whiny, immature, self-centered teenager. Most of Evan's time is spent either whining about things or just not giving a single shit about them at all, often even trying to ridicule the current situation that he is in, no matter how dangerous it is. Part of this is because he's completely conscious about the fact that he's inside an anime, surrounded by fictional characters that, for him, are in no way real or worth carrying for. He also does something that I believe no other OC originating from the Real World has done, by not only knowing about all the cliché tropes used in the YGO anime, but going as far as to use them for his advantage. His understanding on how the world around him functionate and how to manipulate it into always producing the results that he desires are what allow Evan to act as a careless brat.

A sort of a joke that I was trying to make with his bratty behavior was the whining about the anime's flaws. The idea there was, well, I'm going to have to quote ThePLOThand on that one because he pretty much got it right:

"I'm gonna complain about everything the original did wrong, while carrying over the same set of flaws."

This funny little idea was supposed to show Evan's and the story's lack of self-awareness, but I feel that whatever minimal amount of amusement that had, got quickly dried out by having Evan complaining about the show 24/7, turning this little showcase of his lack of self-awareness into a mouthpiece for me to voice any complains that I got for that canon. I do understand how awful that was and I'm going to try and control myself from going overboard with it in the future.

Kurosaki: Is that all?

Yep. That's the basic that I have to say about Evan. I know that I said everything is going to be critiqued, but most of the flaws with how Evan's character is portrayed are coming from my lack of writing skills, which cause some major misunderstanding about Evan's personality and goal. And while I could go on and write an entire essay about Evan's character, one flaw that I don't want to repeat from the Standard Arc, AFTER this chapter, is giving him almost all of the story's focus.

Yuri: Oh, so you finally got self-aware about it?

When I started writing this story, I completely forgot that there existed other characters than Evan, and while I don't believe that the Battle Royale Arc was enough to fix that, it certainly did open my eyes about the existence of other characters. I'm going to try to completely fix that imbalanced during the Synchro Arc, while also making Evan himself a bit more human-like and understandable.

Yuri: How much do you bet that he will fail?

Kurosaki: I'm not your friend.

Yuri: Aww, is it because looking at my face reminds you of your dead boyfriend?

Kurosaki: Joke on you, my heart is already numb from all of the pain.

Yuri: Well, shit.

And since the last part was talking about an imbalance of focus, why don't I review next character that suffered the most from it.

Avice: Is it my time!?

Yep!

So, if Evan was what I consider my best character, then Avice would have to be my favorite one. I had a lot of plans for Avice. She was created much before I never became interested in fanfictions, I would go as far as to say that she was my imaginary friend during childhood. Heck, I was even planning at some point to make chibi drawing of her to use for my PowerPoint presentations in High School. Sadly, like how she got neglect in Arc-Tracers, my laziness was too strong to let me make any chibi drawings of her despite having 2 months for that.

Yuri: Heh, how does it feel to be always the forgotten one?

Avice: I'm happy that you asked, actually. It did hurt at first, but now my soul is numb from the pain.

Yuri: Oh, come on!

Sadly, due to how much I focused on Evan, I failed to give Avice the proper attention that she needed causing her to look like, well, a bland version of Evan. That may not be that much of a failure because this is how she was supposed to be, but it still made her a very boring and easy to forget character. Avice is the one sister that looks up to Evan the most and sees him as a role model, but at the same time, she goes too overboard with the ideology causing a collision between her and Evan, when his actions don't match with the beliefs that she believes they share.

Unlike Evan, who hates humanity but at the same time isn't able to completely separate from it due to his brotherly love for his little sisters, Avice is the one who's able to completely separate from her feelings for those around her.

There are several times when which she didn't agree with Evan due to how he acts toward Elizabeth. If there's anyone who hates having free thought among the siblings, it would have to be Avice and her belief that the only way Elizabeth could deserve to stand beside them would by accepting their way of thinking.

You know, she's trying to control others thoughts like how a certain force from GX once did.

Avice: So I'm the villain now?

You are still sweet!

As a young child, still getting used to the world around her, Avice had to choose her own role model and in her eyes, the only one filling that position was her brother, a passion that in time develops into a Cult of personality that she created inside her mind for her brother. She has her own, idealized version of her brother, who could never possibly be wrong. Along with this blind trust, she also comes to hate everyone who opposes her brother, viewing their opposition against her "perfect" brother as nothing short from a crime.

Avice: Ok, I admit that I'm guilty for that but,

Her ultimate loyalty and faith in Evan, along with her desire to be like him, are ultimately what creates a wall between the two siblings. Unlike Evan who grew with the morality of those around him before coming to the realization that he doesn't want to follow it – he came to his own logical conclusion and went with it. Avice never understood the beliefs of others, how they could functionate and why people believe in them instead of what she believes into – she doesn't know who she is, just who she's following.

Avice: But I'm me! I'm… I like… Ok, maybe you have a point.

So, if Evan's the one who knows what he is, what his beliefs are, but doesn't know what his place in the world is, Avice's the one who knows that her place is next to her brother, but she has yet to find herself.

Kurosaki: Does that mean that you will go climb a mountain to learn the meaning of life?

Yuri: If you do, then remember that there's no need to be careful where you step. Even if you fall from the mountain, you will land on the snow below.

Avice: I'm not a Yugo to fall for that.

Yugo: Did you just use my name as a collective noun?

WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!?

Yugo: Why do you ask? You are the one who wrote me to be here.

Shhhhh!

In closing about Avice, due to the Standard Arc always having the siblings together, and even when separated, Avice still following Evan's orders, she didn't have much place to grow as her own person. But at the same time, I think that this is why her character in the Synchro Arc is going to be much more interesting. With how the anime already made it so that the Lancers would be teleported to different locations from one another, Avice will have to survive on her own, without her brother along to guide her.

Being forced to make her own decisions and observations about the world, I can already say that a good portion of the character development for the Synchro Arc will go toward Avice and the finding of her true self.

Kurosaki: That sounds deep.

Yuri: The author will fail to deliver, trust me.

Avice: Sadly, I do.

And finally, the last one who's going to have her own separated piece in this review – Elizabeth Greyson.

It might come off as a surprise to some, but out of the main trio, she's the less fun one to write about. She has always been generic and, well, uninteresting. She was practically the same thing as any shonen hero out there. Despite that, I did come to respect her a little bit as I kept writing chapters focused on her. She's not just the opposite of Evan, but her personality is also much tamer in comparison to her siblings. While Evan and Avice are going really overboard with the villain tropes, Elizabeth remains a much more neutral character driven to take actions from her love for her own family, as well as her naïve and ignorant concern for the wellbeing of those whom she came to befriend in the Arc-V universe.

When it comes to her flaws though, I believe that the two main points about them is that the story didn't have enough focus on her, turning her into just a faceless figure until her duel with Evan, as well as my own bad skills when writing her causing the bad traits to take a seat behind her good heart.

Kurosaki: So way, the only one on this list that's not a complete douchebag was actually misunderstood?

Yep!

Kurosaki: Can you just narrate me breaking my neck at this point? That's far less painful than this.

Nope, you will suffer alongside everyone else here.

But back to Elizabeth.

Something that I failed with her is to show her own character flaws. From reviews I noticed that the bad side of her character was as noticeable as Evan's good side. In other words, it wasn't made clear that she's the greediest one of the main trio.

Kurosaki: Excuse me?!

It could be argued that Evan being a power-hungry mass killer makes him a lot greedier, but hear me out on this.

A big part of Elizabeth's character was her jealousness toward Evan and Avice. Her inability to be as strong as them, to be a part of their group and the desire to obtain the same powers as them are points that made her other personalities so much more important to keep her morality in check. After all, since the fact that she's the one with a moral high ground and good intentions is what's going to keep driving her to losing – wouldn't it make sense to just give up on that and join the other side?

That's where the role of her other personalities comes into play. If you look at it from a certain angel, the powers that every Greyson obtained does match a desire of theirs. Evan's desire to find a place was answered partially with his Duel Spirits, who help him not feel as alone. In that same way, the existence of Hema, Sunny and Yuki was a result to Elizabeth's greed for power, with each of those counterparts being a master of a different summoning method, they are, in a way, a guilt for her about how to become stronger.

The existence of these three counterparts and their support – something that she was never given by her siblings – are the things that prevent Elizabeth from falling into her own greed and abandoning her moral values for the sake of power.

Sadly, it seems that those points weren't able to hit home during the Standard Arc.

Yuri: Did anything ever hits home when you are the one writing it?

You already know the answer, so I'm not going to give the pleasure of writing it out here as well!

Yuri: You don't need to, this alone is enough to satisfy me.

Now, I should probably talk about the side characters as well, but I believe that they are much easier to understand and I'm satisfied with how they turned out for the most part. The only disappointing part I believe was the adaptation of the canon characters with Yuya whining a bit too much and, well, everyone else somehow got their screen time stolen by someone!

Kurosaki: I found the thief!

Evan: Shhhhh!

And the last thing that should be given a bit of focus I believe are the decks. And since I'm so deep in this, why don't I use another quote from ThePLOThand.

"Also, it's Kind of hard to Believe that These similarities are pure accident, and even then it still holds a feel as if a lot of OC-Cards are just rip-Offs. If the Cards felt like they were intentionally similar, that effect wouldn't kick in as easily."

Yuri: Wow, you are just pathetic, author-kun.

…

This was part of a review of another story of mine, but I believe that it applies more here than on any other story I have written. I believe that it's a bad thing for a writer to admit that their cards are rip-offs, but back when I first began writing this story, I really didn't know what I was doing with Evan's deck exactly.

There's always that one or two super cool monsters that you love so much you always wanted to see them being used more in the anime or fanfictions, right? Some people like Lightsworns, other Gladiator Beasts, and while I didn't have my own favorite archetype, I always liked Twin-Sword Marauder and Exploder Dragonwing, which is why I thought that it would be nice to give them a sort of retrain for my story's protagonist to use.

Yuri: Why do I feel that you are just cornered and trying to come up with a bullshit excuse?

I am, but hush now.

Yuri: ...

Plot-wise, the reason I can give about why some cards have familiar effects is that the ChronoDevils were made from Evan's feelings and memories, so I thought that having cards being formed around the memories of other cards that Evan has used in the past would be a nice detail while also giving me an excuse for the existence of ChronoDevil Marauder and Mystic-Flare Dragon. After all, the deck is based around the theme of time.

Other than these, I don't think there are any other cards which are rip-offs of real cards, but heck, there are over 8000 cards in the game; obviously there would be some cards with effects similar to mine and vise versa. Removing the gimmick of Evan getting retrains of old cards right now would be a bit hard considering that he's able to get retrains of the Dimensional Dragons from dueling the Yu-boys, like how Odd-Eyes Primal Dragon came to be, and yes there's a Starving Venom counterpart in his deck since the duel with Yuri.

Also, just reminding, but he already also got Summoned Skull and Archfiend Black Skull Dragon after his duel with Nightshroud, so you know what that means, right?

Kurosaki: More knockoffs?

Retrains. Please call them retrains because I don't see a way how I could turn a vanilla into a knockoff.

Actually, I know...

* * *

 **Gemini Skull**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: DARK/Type: Fiend/Gemini/Effect**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 1200**

 **Effect: T** **his card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is a Normal Monster on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect.**

 **● This card's name is treated as "Summoned Skull".**

* * *

Take that as a free preview.

Yuri: Wow, for a moment I thought that this was an official Konami card.

Kurosaki: Just because you like a certain card doesn't mean that you have a valid excuse for what you are doing.

To be honest, at first I thought of not covering this at all because only ThePLOThand seemed to have a problem with cards that are, once again, not from THIS fanfiction, but another one, but given that I'm already ruining whatever credibility I got, then there's really nothing to stop me now from going down the deep end after this.

Kurosaki: There's no pointing trying to talk you out if this, is there?

Given that I control the narative of what we are doing here, no, there's no point in even trying.

But that aside, I must also admit that I've been having trouble coming up with new cards for Evan/Avice's decks for the Synchro Arc.

Yuri: Are we E-begging now?

No!

I won't be asking people to send me card ideas because I already got most of them sorted out. As well as because the cards given to me by the last person who submitted something are still collecting dust in my PM... Sorry for that Excite22.

A part of the problem that I have is how good their original decks are.

Kurosaki: You just can't spend a minute without being a narcissist, could you?

No I can't!

But to stay on topic, I don't really like having my characters pull 20 new cards for their fictional decks during every duel, which is something that I'm sure everyone here has gotten tired of. I'm trying to put a more strategic kide of feel in Evan and Avice's dueling instead of having them asspull the plot card of the day, which is why I tried to make each of the ChronoDevils and Astral Angels' cards able to work in multiple combos.

That's what I also want to be my aim for the Synchro Arc. A small set of cards that work extremely well in a combination with each other. The problem I had is, how do I make a new ChronoDevil Main Deck with cards that are better than Unknollow, Protector Golem and Stream Supporter without making them broken either? I can't say for sure, but I believe that you will get to like the new ChronoDevil deck.

To warn ThePLOThand, there's my own version of a Void Ogre Dragon retrain in there as well, so...

Kurosaki: So you will keep copying the effects of more cards even after getting called out of it?

…

…

Technically getting Evan's hand to be zero and summoning Void Ogre are both easy enough tasks to pull off, but I REALLY wanted a one-sided Card Destruction, so its not as much of a rip-off as its giving protection to a Card Destruction on legs.

Also, Kurosaki, you are going to get a tragic ending in Arc-Tracers just for cornering me like that.

Yuri: I don't think there's anything more tragic than smiling on your own sister's funeral.

Kurosaki: Why won't you stop bringing that up!?

So, if you are still here then congratulations! You just suffered through more than 6000, maybe even 7000, words worth of nothing but complaining and tasteless jokes. Of course it would be rude to let you leave without some sort of prize for surviving this long.

But it's questionable if what's coming next is really a prize and not just more suffering for you.

It would be rude to post a "chapter" without any sort of story update or anything like that, so as a finale of this awful review, I have prepared a scene from a chapter of the Synchro Arc. I would just like to point out that due to this being just a preview, new cards' effects and monsters' appearances aren't put in, but they will once the full chapter comes out.

I have chosen to call the scene that you are going to see next " _ **Devil's Reincarnation**_ " for reasons that I believe are obvious by now.

So without further ado…

Let's begin!

* * *

 **Devil's Reincarnation**

Everything was going as I anticipated, with the connections that I made in the Synchro Dimension, I could start forming a stronghold here. Yes, this would take priority over finding my sisters. Avice should be able to look after herself anyway and Elizabeth was better at social interactions than the rest of us, so she would have the less difficulty bending in. Hmm, this job could be a good chance to take my new deck for another test run. I would remember to switch decks again when the Security Officers give back my Duel Disk.

"Get your head off the clouds, we arrived." Trudge pushed me rather roughly on the shoulder.

As if on cue, the party van came to a stop. The two officers that were sitting next to me stood up and opened the doors, while Trudge just glared at me. Yeah, yeah, I got the message and walked out. We have stopped at a highway, underneath us were the slums filled with people in dirty clothes – those were the Commons, weren't they? Trudge walked out of the truck next and stood next to me, looking at the people below is with unhidden rancor toward them.

"Why did you ask us to leave you here?" He glared at me, like I was going to call a gang of these weak Commons to ambush them or something.

"The way you are planning to catch those criminals that Rogers talks about won't work." I stated. "I know them better than you, there's also someone from this city among their group. Putting Security around the city to search for them is useless because they have an ability to… should I say, call out the empathy inside others. Chances are that they are hiding somewhere within the slums. The Commons hate your people, right? The fact that Security is looking for them would be a reason enough for all this filth to be hiding them inside their houses or at another secret place."

"Hiding inside their holes, huh? That sounds like something a Common would do." Trudge grunted. "We can't arrest random people without a reason, even if they are Commons. If you ask me, this has caused them to feel far too safe."

"That's something you'll have to complain to your boss about." I snored, really not caring about that. Common, Tops, they were like two sides of the same coin; both of them hated each other, so I could at least exploit them. "I'll go down there and ask around, if I go with Security Officers surrounding me no one would trust me, but if I went alone there could be a chance that they would mistake me for one of theirs. Once I get the locations of the Lancers, I'm going to message you to come and arrest them."

"Just because you were recruited by the chief himself to do this doesn't mean that you can slack off." Trudge glared at me. "Get your job done as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, yeah." That angry look really wasn't intimidating if you did it for more than a minute. "Whatever, I'm going to do it as quickly as possible. Roger'll love it. Now give me my Duel Disk, okay?"

Trudge turned toward the other two Security Officers and one of them threw the Duel Disk toward us. He grabbed it and handled it over to me.

"You had enough time to put a tracking device inside of it, right?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Tch," Trudge just clicked his tongue and looked away without giving me a clear response, but I knew better than to be a fool.

"Aw, not like that, Officer." I grinned and patted my Duel Disk "One look at Roger was enough for me to figure out that he's a man who likes to take precautions and I respect him for that. Also, heads-up, but I might have to fight your Security Officers in case they try to arrest me. You know, to keep my cover."

"Don't get over yourself, punk." Trudge sneered and walked back into the truck, but not before giving me one final glare. "Someone like you wouldn't be able to beat this city's most elite units."

With that, he closed the doors and the truck drove off, leaving me on my own services. I pulled my new deck from the holster and switched it with the old one before moving on. I had to admit, I wasn't sure if not standing out would be easy with my clothes, but none of the Commons I passed seemed to even take a glance at me. As I continued to move on through the streets, I noticed quite how bad their situation was. There were people trying to sell literal junk just to get a few coins, mothers were able to barely provide any bread for their children.

How pathetic.

Did I feel any remorse? Did I feel their pain, or any empathy for them? Of course not! You would have to be a complete idiot to feel any compassion toward these… I'm thinking of using the word beasts, but that would be an insult to the animal kingdom. In this city where only 1% controlled over 99% of the wealth, you would have to ask yourself: How did things went as far as the rest of the city to lose almost everything that they had? Who was that stood to the side and watched as they were being robbed of their money and lives?

But I was getting off topic. I had to find a way to contact some of the Lancers and learn where they are hiding so Roger could take care of the rest, but I couldn't just walk around asking if anyone has seen a group that calls themselves 'Lancers' because that would not only be stupid, but I'm also sure that there was no one in our group stupid enough to yell 'We are the Lancers, make way!'

Actually, both Sawatari and Yugo would be stupid enough to pull something like that, but if none of them was caught yet, then they had to be in a group with someone else. Someone smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Ah, maybe I should have asked Roger if he had any information about the Lancers' last whereabouts before I left to do his dirty work.

" _So, can anyone of you talk or are you just soulless cards?"_ I looked down at my deck. The last ChronoDevil deck was sentient, but none of the new fellas had talked to me yet, despite that I already shared a duel with them once already.

" _He-he~ why don't you find out for yourself?"_

In response to my question a neko girl materialized out of nowhere. She had yellow eyes and long black hair tied into twin tails with large bells tied to them with red ribbons. Two cat ears were sticking from the top of her head and a long black tail with a white dot on the end was swinging behind her as she looked at me with a huge smile on her face. She was wearing a black leather belt around her neck with a metal name badge hanging from it. Looking closer, I saw that the badge was reading 'Kitty' – a very suitable name if you ask me.

She wore short, sleeveless black vest over a light brown singlet that left her belly and shoulders revealed. She was wearing short black fingerless gloves on her hands with a metal gauntlet attached to her right hand and a shoulder pad on the left. Underneath that she had a heavy blue belt wrapped loosely around her waist with a red skirt that was, very, very short and was decorated with clock gears of different sizes and shapes. Finally, her outfit ended with black tight highs and dark brown boots that had a clock emblem attached to the front.

" _My name is ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Kitty!"_ The neko girl saluted. _"It's a pleasure to meet you, master~"_

" _Ugh… Did you just say Wild Tamer Kitty?"_ She shook her head to confirm that I was hearing right. _"And do you, by a chance, know of monsters by the names of ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy or ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy?"_

" _Yes, those are my older sisters!"_ Shit! Even with the new deck, they were still going to haunt me, weren't they?!

" _Technically we are still inside your soul, master~"_ Foxy's disembodied voice echoed through the air. That's even worse!

"Am I cursed to never know peace?" I hoped that putting their deck away would be enough to silence them. Kitty just looked at me with a curious look on her face, I didn't want to jump the gun, but she appeared more tame than her 'sisters'. "So, Kitty, right? I got the need of your help right now. Could you possibly track down the monsters of any of the other Lancers?"

" _Hmm… give me a moment, master!"_ Kitty closed her eyes and began to groan. _"Ahh… I… AAAHHH!-… No one's answering back."_

"Wow, you are just as useless as your sisters." I didn't know if this deserves a clap, or to smash her head into the pavement.

Wait, was I talking out loud to myself this entire time? I just noticed that, but I have accidentally walked into an empty street. Hmm, I must be careful where I'm walking while talking to my spirits, or else I might accidentally walk in front of a car someday.

"Run!"

I turned back, two young boys ran past me, both of them were wearing dirty clothes and had no shoes. They quickly turned the corner and ran inside an alley. I was confused of what just happened, until a group of three Security Officers came running from the same street that the kids came from. The ones that just ran past me were commons and those are officers so naturally there was one explanation to what was going on – these men must be trying to capture the boys.

"They went that way." I gestured toward the alley that the boys ran into. What? I wasn't going to cover a bunch of thieves even if they had an excuse for what they did, and believe me, 'I'm poor and starving' doesn't hit my feelings like it would with some idiots.

The officers didn't even gave me a thanks for helping them and just ran after the boys. I could hear them yell to someone to stop, which meant that they must have spotted the little brats after all. That was good, we don't want to let them grow up thinking that thief goes unpunished, do we?

" _I sense something!"_ Kitty exclaimed and pointed toward the alley that those boys ran through. _"There's something strong on the other side!"_

"Come on, seriously?" That was way too convenient.

" _It just appeared."_ Said Kitty. _"It wasn't there when the kids ran that way, but I sense it now. Something new has arrived."_

"Hope for your health that this isn't a false alarm." I retorted and walked through the alley to check out what Kitty was talking about.

Much to my surprise, the kids weren't there anymore, but the Security Officers were. All three of them were standing shoulder to shoulder and on the other side was someone on a D-Wheel. They had their helmet on, but by the shape of their chest and butt I could guess that it was a girl, and a sexy one as well! Seeing that no one noticed me, I just leaned against the wall. From the way that everyone was standing with the blades of their Duel Disks glowing, I would say that they were about to start a duel.

"DUEL!'

Aaaaaaand I was right.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Security #1, Security #2 and Security #3 LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" The first officer exclaimed. "I Normal Summon _Assault Dog (Lv.4, ATK: 1200)_ and set three cards, turn end!"

Oh, so that was what Trudge meant by the security being this city's elite law enforcers? Yes, only a very skilled duelist would lay such an obvious bait. But I shouldn't talk before I saw how their opponent was going to respond.

"My turn, Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Unknown] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"When there are no monsters on my field I can Special Summon _Junk Forward (Lv.3, DEF: 1500)_ from my hand!" Huh? A Junk monster? "Next I activate _One for One_ to discard a monster from my hand and Special Summon this one from my deck! Come out, _Tuningware (Lv.1, DEF: 300)_!"

Wait for a moment, this monster… I have seen it being used in enough character decks online to know who used it in the anime…

"I Normal Summon _Righty Driver (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_!" A very tiny robot with long hair and a feminine face jumped out next. "When Righty Driver is Normal Summoned, I can Special Summon _Lefty Driver (Lv.2, DEF: 100)_ from my deck!" And a yellow version of that monster appeared as well.

"Hey, Kitty." I called out my spirit. "Could you give me more details about what's that strong presence that you felt?"

" _Hmm…"_ She rubbed her chin. _"Would 'Singer Dragon' ring a bell?"_

"A bit too much actually." I sighed. So those dragons did exist in this world as well? I guess that I shouldn't be surprised, given how this Dimension was 5Ds nostalgia bait.

"When Lefty Driver is Special Summoned, she can be treated as a Level Three monster until the end of this turn!" Three? With the other monsters on the field that would make eight! "And when Righty Driver is used as Synchro Material, she can be treated as a substitute for another Tuner! Here I go! Level Three, Junk Forward, Lefty Driver, Level One, Tuningware, tune to the Level One Righty Driver!"

The girl's tuner transformed into a ring and all three monsters flew through it, turning into seven stars that lined up together.

" _Gathering fighting souls will awaken the raging wicked god! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Obliterate, Junk Destroyer (Lv.8, ATK: 2600)!_ "

Well, it wasn't the Level 8 monster that I expected, but Junk Destroyer actually did look like a better choice in this situation.

"When Tuningware is used as Synchro material, I can draw a card!" The girl did so. "And then I activate Junk Destroyer's effect! When it's Synchro Summoned, I can destroy a card for each of its materials, minus the tuner. Go, _Tidal Energy_!"

The monster pushed its four arms together, forming three shockwaves which washed over the Security's field, destroying his set cards. Ouch! Mirror Force, Dimensional Prison and Sakuretsu Armor all gone in one hit.

"Damn!" Security cursed.

"Battle!" the girl exclaimed and her monster charged forward, throwing its fist toward the Assault Dog. " _Destroy Knuckle_!"

The attack connected, crushing the dog's head and causing an explosion that knocked the Security Officer on the ground. So much ouch!

 **『** **Security #1 LP: 4000 - 1400** → **2600** **』**

"When Assault Dog is destroyed, I can Special Summon any copies of it from my deck!" The officer groaned; two new dogs appearing onto his field with 800 DEF each.

"I set a card and end my turn." The girl finished.

"For standing up to our forces, we'll make sure to put you away in a prison cell!" the second Officer exclaimed. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Security #2] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate the effect of _Sasumata Gardna_ from my hand. I reduce your Junk Destroyer's attack by five hundred to Special Summon it!" A warrior carrying a large shield and some sort of spear appeared on the field as Junk Destroyer fell down on one knee all out of a sudden.

 **Junk Destroyer, ATK: 2600 - 500** → **2100**

"I Normal Summon _Comrade Swordsman of Landstar (Lv.3, ATK: 500)_!" Wait, wasn't that the card used by Yugi's friend in the original anime!? "Now I tune my Level Three Sasumata Gardna to my Level Three Comrade Swordsman of Landstar!"

A level Six Synchro? Was that… Goyo Guardian!?

" _Capture them with the raging fangs of the beast! Synchro Summon! Level Six! Goyo Predator (Lv.6, ATK: 2400)!_ "

A more beasty form of Goyo Guardian appeared on the Security's field. Ah, that made me remember the good old times when taking something with Goyo Guardian was actually hurting my opponent's strategy.

"Battle!" The Security Officer exclaimed. "Goyo Predator destroy Junk Destroyer!"

The beastly Synchro charged forward and threw its metal, uh, weapon at Junk Destroyer, piercing through the warrior's chest. How a throw of a weapon that clearly wasn't sharp managed to do so much damage is beyond me as well.

"Aaah!" the girl cried out a little from the damage that she took.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 4000 - 300** → **3700** **』**

"When Goyo Predator destroys a monster, I can Special Summon it on my field!" a portal appeared before the Security Officer and his monster threw its weapon through it, pulling Junk Destroyer out of the grave. "Now take this direct attack from your own monster!"

"Trap Open!" The girl's set card turned face-up. " _Reinforce Truth_ allows me to Special Summon a Level Two or lower Warrior from my deck! Come out, _Fortress Warrior (Lv.2, DEF: 1200)_!" A monster that looked more like a golem that a warrior appeared in front of the girl and blocked the attack.

"Fortress Warrior can't be destroyed by battle once per turn." The Security Officer commented. "You were able to save your skin for now. I set a card and end my turn."

"Let's end this!" The third Security officer moved forward. "My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Security #3] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate The Spell Card: _Double Summon_ to summon twice this turn!" The third one began. "Next, I Normal Summon _Stygian Street Patrol (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_ and _Stygian Security (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_!" Two demonic creatures appeared on the field one after another. "I tune the Level Four Stygian Street Patrol to the Level One Stygian Security!"

I had a feeling which monster they were going to call next, but I questioned the effectiveness of such a play. Fortress Warrior was able to take an attack without being destroyed, so battle oriented Synchro monsters were mostly useless against it.

"Synchro Summon! Show yourself, _Stygian Sergeants (Lv.5, ATK: 2200)_!" A two-headed demon driving a motorbike appeared on the field.

"Due to Fortress Warrior's effect, it can't be destroyed by battle once per turn." The female duelist told them; like I expected. "So even if you go for an attack, it won't hurt me!"

"That's useless!" the second Security Officer laughed. "Trap Open! _Breakthrough Skill_ negates your monster's effects until the end of this turn!"

"What!?" Oh, that was bad.

"You can't outmatch justice!" the third one threw his fist forward. "Battle! Stygian Sergeants attack Fortress Warrior!"

The demonic monster drove through the field and pulled out a gun, shooting two times at the rocky warrior to destroy it. And when Sergeants got to destroy a monster it got to attack again with an 800 points boost. The hottie's Life Points were going to take a serious hit next.

"Stygian Sergeants's effect activates! When it destroy a monster by battle, it gains eight hundred more attack and can attack again!"

 **Stygian Sergeants, ATK: 2200 + 800** → **3000**

The demon pulled out a gun and shot again, knocking the girl off her D-Wheel.

 **『** **Unknown LP: 3700 - 3000** → **700** **』**

She's done for. How awful, I was expecting to be a spectator for once, but if she was someone with a Signer Dragon, then it would be a waste to let these brutes take her. I did warn Trudge that I would have to kick some security's ass, saving this girl could get me another useful contact in this dimension as well. My choice was obvious.

"At the end of this Battle Phase, the effect of Stygian Sergeants ends and its attack returns to normal." The Security Officer explained.

 **Stygian Sergeants, ATK: 3000 - 800** → **2200**

"I set a card and end my turn." He stepped back and turned to his colleagues. They all nodded, grinning like little children.

"People, you really are pathetic." I yawned and activated my Duel Disk, walking around them to join the girl on the other side of the street. "Ganging up on a single suspect and failing to finish them off after two straight turns, tch, tch. You all must be fired or something for your uselessness!"

" _Intrusion Penalty: Two thousand Life Points."_ Huh, penalty?

"Argh!" I yelped, feeling a shock course throughout my body. Shit! Did Reiji messed up with it while I wasn't looking!?

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 - 2000** → **2000** **』**

"What are you doing!?" I heard the girl shout at me.

"Hey, isn't that the one who," one of the Security Officers began…

"One turn!" I shouted, catching the other officers' attention. "I'm going to take one turn to finish this match! Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Evan] LP: 2000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Using the Scale One, _**ChronoDevil Drillfish**_ and the Scale Seven, _**ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Beary**_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" two crimson beams of light shot behind me and the monsters formed inside of them.

 **ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Beary [Level: 1/Attribute: DARK/Type: Beast-Warrior/Effect/Pendulum/P.S.7/ATK: 300/DEF: 400]**

 **ChronoDevil Drillfish** **[Level: 2/Attribute: DARK WATER/Type: Fish/Effect/Pendulum/P.S.1/ATK: 600/DEF: 0]**

"With this, I can Pendulum Summon monsters whose levels are between two and six!" Three beams fell from the sky, landing in front of me. "Pendulum Summon! _**ChronoDevil Speedster**_ , _**Chronicle Synchron**_ and _**Chrono Phantomus the Phantasm Slayer**_!"

 **ChronoDevil Speedster [Level: 3/Attribute: DARK WIND/Type: Warrior/Effect/ATK: 700/DEF: 1400]**

 **Chronicle Synchron [Level: 4/Attribute: DARK WATER/Type: Machine/Effect/Tuner/ATK: 1800/DEF: 900]**

 **Chrono Phantomus the Phantasm Slayer [Level: 6/Attribute: DARK/Type: Fiend/Pendulum/Effect/P.S: 2/ATK: 2500/DEF: 1800]**

"Pendulum Summon!?" one of the Security Officers exclaimed.

"I have never heard of that before." A second one commented.

"I activate Speedster's effect to draw a card since it was Special Summoned!" I took the card and then gestured toward Phantomus. "I activate Phantomus the Phantasm Slayer's effect! Once per turn, I can negate the effects of Goyo Predator and then takes its effects until the end of this turn! _**Phantom Mark**_!"

"I won't let you!" A security officer exclaimed. "I banish _Breakthrough Skill_ from my Graveyard to negate your monster's effects until the end of this turn!"

Phantomus lowered his arms and looked back at me, nodding. Now that this was dealt with, it was time for the real counterattack!

"I activate Drillfish's Pendulum Effect! I reduce Speedster's level by one in order to Special Summon it on my side of the field!" The fish flew through my warrior's chest, absorbing one of its stars and then landed on the ground next to everyone else.

 **ChronoDevil Speedster, Lv: 3** → **2**

"Let's go now!" I threw my fist in the air. "The Level Two ChronoDevil Drillfish and ChronoDevil Speedster tune to the Level Four Chronicle Synchron!" the robotic dragon roared and flew into the air, its wings locking together to form a ring through which Speedster and Drillfish flew transforming into four stars which then flew inside Chronicle Synchro's body and the monster exploded in a brilliant white light.

" _Legend born in the cold embrace of dead stars, set your sight on this age and bring destruction worth a millennium of years to the hollow prayers! Synchro Summon! Bring me the time of abolition that I truly desire!_ _ **ChronoDevil Chronicle Necrosoul**_ _!_ "

Chronicle Synchro's body began to rapidly glow inside the light and something completely different came out. A huge dragon-like monster set down and roared.

 **ChronoDevil Chronicle Necrosoul [Level: 8/Attribute: DARK WATER/Type: Wyrm/Synchro/Effect/ATK: 3000/DEF: 2200]**

"I activate Necrosoul's effect!" I continued. "I look at the top three cards of my deck and cards of the same type as them can't activate their effects this turn!" I looked at the cards and showed them to my opponent. "Two traps and a monster, which means that the effects of all your Trap Cards and monsters are negated until the end of this turn! _**Necro Timeline**_!"

The dragon fired two beams from its arms, freezing all of Security's cards.

"Also, because the revealed monster was the Level Six, _ChronoDevil Lightning Skull_ , Necrosoul's additional effect allows it to attack all of your monsters this turn!" My dragon threw its head back and roared again.

"It can also attack multiple times!?" the girl exclaimed.

"Then I activate the Equip Spell, _**Demon's Knuckles**_! This gives Necrosoul seven hundred more attack and defense points along with the ability to burn the opponent for the attack points of the monster that it destroys!" A red aura surrounded my monster, giving it another boost.

 **ChronoDevil Chronicle Necrosoul, ATK: 3000 + 700** → **3700, DEF: 2200 + 700** → **2900**

"Now battle!" I shouted. "Chronicle Necrosoul attack everything that's standing within your path! _**Time Overlord's Cruelty**_!"

The gears on the back of my monster's arms began to spin and its fingers separated, pushing the green orbs on its wrist forward like cannons. The Security Officers all began panicked and began to run, but it was useless, Necrosoul fired a single beam of green energy that washed over all of their monsters, turning them into dust that flew across the wind. Roger's dogs on the other side screamed as their bodies were thrown across the street.

 **『** **Security #1 LP: 2600 - 1200** → **1400 – 1200** → **200** **』**

 **『** **Security #2 LP: 4000 - 1300** → **2700 – 2400** → **300 – 1100** → **0 – 2600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Security #3 LP: 4000 - 1500** → **2500 – 2200** → **300** **』**

"And now I activate Demon's Knuckles' second effect." I continued. "By sending this card to my Graveyard, I'm able to add a Quick-Play Spell from my deck to the hand. I choose _**Limited Oversoul**_ and activate it to revive a single monster with a thousand or less attack points from my Graveyard. Rise again, _ChronoDevil Speedster (Lv.3, ATK: 700)_!"

The graveyard portal appeared on my field again, but this time a road of light shot out of it and my monster came dashing.

"Now let's end this." I gestured toward my monsters. "Speedster, Phantomus, choose which one you want to get rid of."

My two monsters charged at the still standing Security Officers, Speedster kicked the first in the face, knocking him out could, while Phantomus's gauntlet opened up and two blades shot out of them. The bottom of the blades turned into handles that my monster grabbed and swung its swords to cut through the last officer.

 **『** **Security #1 LP: 200 – 700** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Security #3 LP: 300 – 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evan & Unknown** **』**

I turned toward the girl. Even with the helmet, I could tell that her chin has probably fallen after seeing what I just did. I was going to say something to try and sound cool, but I didn't want to ruin this moment.

"Y-you…" The girl finally spoke up. She could barely find words after witnessing my awesomeness. "Y-you beat all of them in one turn!"

"In one Battle Phase actually." I didn't need the Main Phase 2, so it was half of a turn. "So, won't you pull off that helmet and tell me how cool I'm?"

"You…" Oh shot! Did I say something corny? "We don't have time for this right now! Come!"

She raised her D-Wheel back up and sat on it before handling me a spare helmet. I looked down at it and then back to her. Why were we running all of a sudden?

"What are you standing there for!?" She shouted at me. "These bastards never leave it be. More Security are going to come anytime now, we should move!"

"Oh?" I didn't notice that these fools have called backup. Maybe because I didn't pay as much attention to what these insects were doing while I slaughtered them. "I didn't even get your name yet, and you want me to ride a bike with you already~"

The girl paused for a moment. "Why do you even need my name?"

"Since we're already partners in crime, it's only appropriate to get to know who I'm sharing the coffin with."

"Fujiko." She said. "My name is Fujiko, so are you coming or would you rather deal with another wave of Security Officers?"

"I wouldn't mind doing that instead." I grinned – those officers were weaklings anyway, nowhere near to entertain me, but enough to give a good warm-up. "Oh, also, I'm Evan. Evan Greyson."

"Evan, huh?" She nodded and turned to look at the road ahead of us. "I'm going to remember it, now come."

I nodded and jumped on the back of her D-Wheel. This wasn't exactly how I expected things to go, but I had no place to complain. Becoming the Security Chief's right hand, starting the day with a triple OTK and owning a hot girl's life now that I saved her, it hasn't even been two days yet and I'm starting to feel at home in this dimension!

* * *

And bam! Fujiko is back in the game! What do you think?

Something?

No?

Yuri: We are done here, right?

Kurosaki: We can go back to doing more useful things, right?

Only two things more before we end this, please.

Kurosaki: Fine… But make it quick.

First, I want to give a tip to Yuri, so take a note you little piece of shit.

Yuri pulled a notebook and a pen.

Yuri: I feel dirty being controlled like this.

Write down the following: " _If I get to duel against Yuya Sakaki and take control of Xyz Dragon I won't be a moron and will make sure to use Dark Rebellion's Xyz Materials to halve Odd-Eyes' attack. Also, I'm going to use Starving Venom's ability to copy Odd-Eyes' effect and deal double damage._ "

Yuri: Please, like I would be stupid enough to do such a big misplay a second time.

WRITE IT DOWN YOU PIECE OF SHIT!

Yuri: Ok, ok! No need to scream.

Yuri wrote it down.

Yuri: See, all you had to do is type it in and I did as you asked.

Kurosaki: Does that mean that I'm going to get a free tip about how to make my existence better as well?

No.

Kurosaki: …

Hopefully this special chapter wasn't the kind of train wreck that I expected it to be. But I did have fun writing it, so maybe we could do that again… sometime. What do you say we do another after the Synchro Arc?

Kurosaki: No,

Yuri: Non,

Kurosaki: Niet,

Yuri: Nein,

Kurosaki: Nuk,

Yuri: Nahin,

Kurosaki: όχι,

Yuri: Не,

Kurosaki: Nē,

Yuri: Īe,

Kurosaki: Ne,

Yuri: Bù,

Ok, I get it!

…

Just get out of here.

…

 **Avice: And with this awful excuse of a review over, we'll see you next time in the Synchro Arc where the real fun will just be starting!**

 **And let's just hope that fanfiction won't have a problem with this chapter being a review/preview/author note when the rest of the chapters are part of a story.**

 **Avice: That's all from us, folks!**

 **Thank you all for reading this and Merry Christmas to all of you!**

 **Avice: The next actual chapter with which we're going to start off the Synchro Arc is going to be published on 27** **th** **. That's of course if there are no technical difficulties. So, we are going to see you next time... hopefully.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	44. Chapter 44

**And the firstchapter of the Synchro Arc is finally live! Thanks to everyone for waiting this long. Specially for this new arc, I'm going to have a new opening and ending. For this season I choose the Opening to be** **We Ride to Survive, whose author I couldn't find any information about.**

 **As for the ending, its** **Savior of Song by MY FIRST STORY because I just liked how it sounded. Also, p** **lease note that I put translated english lyrics that I found on the internet instead of the official ones, so if you want to get a better feeling of the song, please look it up.**

* * *

(Avice's Duel Disk shuffles her deck. Evan's pulls his hood up, covering his head. The image of Neo Speed World appears on a screen with the words 'Speed Duel' above it.)

 **Check it out!**

(The Lancers are shown moving through the city, either riding on their ace monsters or running beside them with only Levant, Yugo and the Greysons not being there.)

 **It's time to make your move.**

(Yuya, Yugo and a girl wearing riding gear with a helmet over her face are shown standing on the left side with Sergey, a man in white robes and Fake Jack on the right. Above them are Evan, who's holding three black pawn pieces representing Yuya, Yugo and the girl, while against him is Roger with three white pieces representing Sergey, Fake Jack and the hooded individual.)

 **Never has a moment felt so right.**

(Yuzu pulls Serena to follow her and the two counterparts smile at each other while Elizabeth and Oni watch over them from a distance.)

 **No doubt!**

(The girl from before is shown without her helmet, looking down at her deck before turning, now riding a D-Wheel with a retrained Junk Warrior flying next to her.)

 **It's down to me and you.**

(Evan raises his right hand and a new Phantomus appears behind him alongside a Synchro Spellcaster and a dragon. Facing against him is Avice with a new Sola and two Fusion monsters behind her.)

 **Movin' faster than the speed of light!**

(Ren throws his fist forward and White Aura Whale charges at Elizabeth who's riding behind him, when Sina appears in front of her and casts a spell in return.)

 **I can feel my engine pumpin' faster, faster!**

(Evan and the girl are shown riding next to one another as the Speed Duel lines are being connected, when they take a sudden right turn. Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer, Chrono Phantomus the Phantasm Slayer, Stardust Dragon and its retrain appear behind the duelists.)

 **Ragin' with an appetite for turbo speed!**

(Yugo is shown riding through the city when he suddenly summons Clear Wing Synchro Dragon and it flies off. In another part of the city Yuya is looking through the window with Yuzu beside him when Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon flies past the window)

 **I can't stop till ya see what I've got 'cuz I was born to be a winner!**

(An unknown figure is shown ordering its shadowy monster which fires several beams down onto the street, causing an explosion. Evan drives right through the smoke with his eyes glowing a burning red as Beta Spike – Space Dragon, Emperor Claw Fusion Dragon and Berserk Phantomus the Fusion Slayer fire back at the shadowy monster.)

 **Take a good look, my game is off the hook 'cuz**

(Inside an apartment Lua is shown cheering after we won a duel against Ruka, when they both notice something and run toward the window as Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and Stardust Dragon fly through the city.)

 **I am no beginner.**

(Crow looks wipes the sweat off his forehead and looks up to the four monsters. Hiding inside an alley, Akiza notices the monsters as well, a small smile forming on her face.)

 **Lean and mean listen to my machine kickin' into overdrive!**

(Evan, Yugo, Yuya and the girl all drive toward each other, their aces crashing with one another and starting to fight when a purple beam suddenly falls behind them and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon appears between Yuya and Yugo's monsters.)

 **We were born to ride!**

(Lua, Ruka, Akiza, Avice and Elizabeth appear once more with the retrains of Power Tool Dragon, Ancient Fairy Dragon, Black Rose Dragon, Sola Starlight and Tempest Sina behind them.)

 **We ride to survive!**

(Evan is walking through the ruins of a city when he suddenly transforms into Yuksel who draws a card, a quick montage shows Evan facing against Akiza, Divine plotting something with two subordinates behind him, a wounded Avice smirking in the face of a Meklord monster.)

 **Yeah!**

(Evan, Avice and Elizabeth look toward the light, the cards from their decks appeared within their shadows. The symbols on the back of Evan's jacket glow and the logo appears.)

* * *

An Abstract Kind of Welcome

 **Elizabeth's POV**

As the light of my Duel Disk faded, and I could see my surroundings, I came to two unpleasant realizations about my current situation. First, I was on the streets of a city that I knew nothing about, in a Dimension that I barely knew anything about. Second, the only companion that I had with me was Yuzu; none of the other Lancers was within view, not even my brother, sister or Oni.

"Is this the Synchro Dimension?" Yuzu asked, looking around.

I had to say, this didn't look much different from a normal city, so it was hard to tell. I'm not sure if it was luck or misfortune, but I and Yuzu were teleported in some park. There was a fence near us, beyond it were thousands of buildings. It appeared that the city – the term metropolis actually seems more appropriate when talking about what I'm seeing – was made of two layers. The first one was made of buildings located on the ground, while the second was made from buildings built onto large platforms above the first layer with multiple bridges connecting each platform. It was… beautiful to look at. Creating such advanced architecture would take hundreds of years in my world – and even though this one was just a fake, the image before my eyes looked so real.

"Elizabeth?" Yuzu called out for me causing me to snap from my thoughts.

"What is it?" I looked at back at her and smiled.

The girl didn't respond after I called back and just averted her eyes to look at the side. She was worried – it was written all over her face. She was right to worry, we just opened our eyes to find ourselves in an unknown place with all of our friends… and family, gone. Now, I didn't know what caused this to happen, but I'm sure that the rest were ok; they probably got transported to a different part of the city.

But that wouldn't make Yuzu any less worried about our current situation, would it? I was the older one here so I should take the lead. Yes, that would be for the best. Yuzu must be having her own thoughts and worries, I should at least try to ease her mind by taking care of the more pressing issues; such as where would he sleep and what were we going to eat.

' _So, does anyone here have any surviving tips?_ ' I thought.

" _A few."_ Hema told me and Yuki nodded. _"But I don't think that our tips how to survive invading a dimension or how to survive an invasion of your dimension are going to be of much use here."_

" _That raises a question."_ Yuki crossed her arms. _"If we have basic knowledge and understanding of the dimension we're modeled after, shouldn't the same thing be true about Sunny?"_

Yuki, Hema and I looked at the Synchro persona all at once. She looked back at us with a sheepish grin and ran a hand through the back of her hair while laughing awkwardly.

" _Ha, ha, my memories seem to be coming from a group called 'Tops' so the best I can suggest is to book two rooms in a five star hotel nearby."_ It surprised me at times how useless Sunny could be; no offense, but booking two rooms in a five star hotel isn't basic what I would call survival tips, not that I had the money to do that in the first place.

"Could we sit down for a moment?" Yuzu pulled my sleeve and pointed toward a bench.

"If that's what you want." I shrugged; there wasn't much else that we could do at this point of time.

After we sat down, I thought of something that could actually be important. Remembering what Graild told us about the blank decks that he gave us yesterday, I quickly pulled out mine and fanned the cards, taking a good look at them. Well, what I saw was definitely interesting. The very first card, which was on top of the deck, was a new Sina monster - _Tempest Sina the Bulbophyllum Sorceress_. Not just that, all of the cards that I got were different from my previous deck as well, their archetype name was Grand Garden and despite how botanic that sounded, they were all still Spellcaster-type monsters. Sadly, being spellcasters with different attributes was as far as the similarities go, because the more I read into the effects, the more clear it became that their play style was completely different from that of my Oracle Sister deck.

"Aren't you worried about your siblings?" Yuzu asked out of nowhere.

I looked at her, surprised that she would ask me that type of question. Maybe she was confused because I was so calm despite not knowing where they are. Truth is, I do worry about them, a lot more than I probably should. But at the same time, I had complete trust in Evan and Avice; the reason for that was because of how well I knew them. I'm sure that no matter where they were at this moment, neither of them was worrying how I was for the exact same reason – because they trusted in me as well.

"I do, but I know that they are doing fine." I responded with a smile. "Because of that, I'm fine with being separated from them."

"How could you know that they are doing fine?" Yuzu asked again.

I chuckled and leaned back. This was going to be a bit of a lengthy answer. "Because of how well I understand them, of course. Listen… since our parents worked overboard, they didn't have much time to spend with us. Actually, I was always surprised to see them when they came back for Christmas because at that point I have forgotten how they looked like. So, for me, it felt that I was inviting two complete strangers into our house. Because how little we ever got to see and interact with our own parents, the three of us grew up having only each other for support. Playing, studying, laughing, crying - it was always the three of us together. Just like that, in time, we came to know everything about one another as well, what we like, what we dislike. There is a special type of relationship between us. That's how I know that they are fine, because I already know that they have the skills necessary to survive on their own."

"I… I see." Yuzu nodded and for the first time since we came to this world she smiled as well. "Thanks. This helped me a lot."

Helped her? Come to think of it, weren't she and Yuya childhood friends? So that's what she was thinking about so much. They must be sharing a special connection as well. I'm not sure why, but that made me giggle like a schoolgirl; maybe because the idea was just so cute!

"W-what's so funny?" Yuzu pouted.

"Nothing." I shook my head trying to control myself. "It's just…" I put a hand on Yuzu's shoulder and pulled her closer for a small hug. "You must care a lot about Yuya, right? I'm sure that wherever he is right now, he's thinking about you as well."

"Do you think so?" Yuzu sounded saddened. Damn, did I say something that I shouldn't?

"Commons!" Before I could ask why she was sad, I heard some lady yelling.

That woman was pointing at us and yelling 'Commons' - just what the heck was that supposed to mean? I didn't quite understand it, but her screaming was starting to cause a scene because many other men and women in the park came to check what was happening.

"What's going on?" Yuzu looked at me, but I couldn't tell either. All of this was so new for me!

"Commons?" "What are Commons doing here?" "This area is exclusive for Tops!"

"Come!" I grabbed Yuzu's hand and began to pull her out of the area. I had no idea what was going on, but from their words and tone it was clear that we didn't won a prize or anything like that. "We have go get out of here!" We should move away before this turned into an even bigger scene.

"Freeze!" Never mind what I said about not causing an even bigger scene. Now there were even cops that stopped in front of us to block our path.

"Officers?" Yuzu exclaimed, just as confused as I was.

"Commons aren't allowed in this area." One of the officers said. Again with those Commons… "You must come with us now!"

"This is a misunderstanding!" Yuzu tried to speak up. "We're not Commons!"

"Shows us your ID cards then." One of the officers ordered. Uh…

"We forgot them in our other clothes?" Did that fool them? Ah, no it didn't, they began to approach us.

' _What should I do right now?!_ ' I was hoping for some help from my other personalities. Anything would work!

" _If we knew what was happening, then we could give you some ideas! Quick, Synchro, explain what are Commons?"_ Hema exclaimed.

" _Um… Trash?"_ Well that didn't help out by a lot.

"H-hey!" Back to reality, Yuzu began to scream as one of the officers caught her by the arm and pulled her away.

"Yuzu!" I yelled and reached out to catch her. "Let go of her! She did nothing! She-" Just then someone grabbed me roughly by the arm as well and pulled me away. "Let go! Don't drag me!" I tried to break free, kick the damn bastard in the foot or anything, but it was of no use. We didn't do anything and they were going to arrest us despite that!?

A bright flash came out of nowhere. I couldn't tell what was happening, the light was so bright that I had to close my eyes. The only thing I could make out was the noise of a motorbike, the noise was getting louder and louder, until I heard a screamed coming from one of the officers along with a groan. Opening my eyes once more, I saw Yugo on his D-Wheel and behind him was the RAN OVER BODY OF THE COP THAT CAUGHT YUZU!

"Uh, whoops." Yugo winched looking back at the cop that he probably JUST MURDERED!

"You just turned him into roadkill!" I yelled.

"I didn't meant to-! There's a Security Officer holding you!" Geez, you don't you say?

At that time I used the shock of the officer that was holding him to kick him in the bells. He let out a high-pitched screamed and collapsed on his knees. That was definitely one way to get rid of a cop, but I'm worried that I just turned this into a bigger problem that it initially was. Scratch that – this turned into a serious problem the moment Yugo ran over that other officer. Those rich men and women who watched us seemed too scared to try and catch us themselves after what just happened, but I had a sneaky feeling that they have already called for a goddamn backup!

"So, where did you came from?" I used the moment to ask Yugo. He kind of just teleported out of nowhere and saved our asses right there!

"I was going to activate the card that the guy with glasses gave to all of you when I realized that my baby was still in the garage." Yugo patted the top of his D-Wheel and smiled. "So I went to quickly grab it and then I activated the card and teleported here of all places."

"Wait, so you ran around LDS with your Duel Disk glowing like a Christmas tree?" I asked him.

"Yep." I didn't know if the image that formed in my head about him running around the building asking confused, and probably blinded, workers the way toward the garage was even supposed to be as funny as it was. "But you seem to have gotten yourselves in quite the trouble. This is Tops area, anyone who's not from the Tops is forbidden from entering it."

"What are the Tops?" Yuzu asked.

"I'll explain later, here." Yugo threw a pink helmet over to Yuzu. "If the Tops want to put you between bars, it's useless trying to explain yourself to Security, the only thing you can do now is run."

"But Elizabeth can't get on the D-Wheel as well." Yuzu gave me a worried look. True, this D-Wheel wasn't big enough for three people; someone had to stay behind.

"Don't worry about it. I'll find a different way out of here" I reassured her. "I'll call you through my Duel Disk once I'm in the clear, so now get on Yugo's D-Wheel and get moving!"

"Promise me that you will get back to us!" I sighed.

"Fine, I promise. Now get out of here before it's too late!" This time Yuzu did listen to me. She sat down on the backseat and Yugo drove off. I pulled my old Oracle Sister deck out of my Duel Disk and put the new Grand Garden in its place; hopefully I would be able to buy enough time for Yugo and Yuzu to get out of here uncompromised.

" _How are you planning to get out of here?"_ Hema asked me.

' _My Duel Disk has a portable Action Field, doesn't it?_ ' I reminded her.

" _Oh… OH!"_ It was funny to see her eyes suddenly go wide once she realized what I was alluring to. _"You are crazy Standard, but if we survive your plan, you are a crazy genius."_

"You are under arrest!" As I expected, those rich bastards did call for backup as more officers came running.

"Sorry officer, but you're going to have to duel me first!" I yelled right back at him and activated my Duel Disk.

"Fine then!" One of the officers stopped (are you seriously?) and activated his Duel Disk while the rest just ran past me. Were they seriously going to try and follow Yugo's D-Wheel on foot? I shook my head. Don't think about that, focus on the officer that's before me.

"You are trying to buying times for your friends to escape aren't you?" the officer seemed to know what was going on. "But that won't work! You Commons can't escape the iron fist of law!"

"This is no law, its tyranny!" I shouted back; of course he probably didn't care what I had to say either way, so I was going to make him listen the only way that really seemed to work out in this world.

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Security LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

As the duel began, several blue square platforms formed in the space around us and Action Cards burst around the place. Like I thought, the Action Field activated automatically!

"I'm going to take the first move." I stated and looked through the cards in my hand. I still didn't know much about this new deck, but two of the cards I had already gave me an idea what I could do. "I'm going to start by Normal Summoning _**Grand Garden Blooming Orchid**_!"

A little girl with short pink hair and yellow eyes. She was wearing a morion helmet on her head with its iconic flat brim and a crest from front to back, but hers also had a large pink leave sticking from the top. The girl was wearing a short yellow cloak with short sleeves and a green coat of arms on her left shoulder that depicted two flowers tied around each other forming a circle with a sun in the center of it. Over that cloak, the girl was wearing simple oval armor that covered her stomach and chest, with small metal gauntlets and boots on high-heels acting as protections for her limbs. The girl was holding a small pike made of wood with the top surrounded by large pink leaves and it ended with a modified yellow petal in the shape of a curved blade.

* * *

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1200/DEF: 1400**

 **Effect: Once per turn, if this card was Normal or Special Summoned this turn, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand. Once per turn, you can increase the ATK of all Level 4 and higher Spellcaster-Type monsters you control by 200 for every "Grand Garden Blooming Orchid" on the field. Those changes last until the end of the next turn.**

* * *

"Grand Garden?" The Security Officer exclaimed. "That's an archetype I have never heard before of."

"Well, you do now!" I said and activated another card from my hand.

"Next I activate the Continuous Spell – _**Grand Garden Pollination**_!" I activated a spell that showed several girls spelling inside large orange spores of trees. "With this card's effect, I can target a Grand Garden monster on my field and add another one with the same name from my deck!"

* * *

 **Grand Garden Pollination (Spell) Continuous**

 **Target 1 "Grand Garden" monster you control; add 1 monster with the same name as that monster on the field from your Deck to the hand, then, if the added monster is Level 5 or higher, you can Special Summon it. You can only use this effect of "Grand Garden Pollination" per turn. While you control 2 or more monsters with the same name, your opponent can't target monsters with that name for attack or with card effects.**

* * *

"I add another Orchid and then I activate the effect of the one that's on my field. On the turn in which Blooming Orchid was summoned, I can Special Summon another Spellcaster from my hand, so here comes the second one!" I placed a second copy of my Orchid. The two monsters raised their pikes and crossed their weapons.

"Due to Pollination's second effect you can't attack monsters that I control if there are two or more monsters with the same name on my field." This was a good defense, but I couldn't put all of my hopes on a single Continuous Spell. "Now I activate Orchid's effect! Once per turn, I can increase the attack of all my monsters by the amount of Blooming Orchid times two hundred! _**Orchid's Bloom**_!"

A green magical circle formed under my monsters' feet and their bodies glowed, becoming a bit older and more mature as the effect also raised their attack points.

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 1200 + 400** → **1600 (2x)**

"And again, Orchid's Bloom!" Another circle appeared under my monsters and their bodies grew again, becoming the age of teenagers.

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 1600 + 400** → **2000 (2x)**

"With this I end my turn." Now even if Pollination was destroyed, my opponent would have to bring a monster with at least 2000 attack in order to destroy one of my Orchids.

"Then it's my turn, draw!" The Officer exclaimed, getting his sixth card. What kind of deck was he going to play?

 **『** **Turn 2 [Security] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I'm going to beat you with the full strength of the law!" The Security Officer stated. "First, I activate _Meteor of Destruction_! Since your Life Points are above three thousand, this card allows me to inflict a thousand points of damage!"

A fireball appeared out of the Spell Card and shot toward me. I looked for an Action Card, but there wasn't one close by, so the fireball fell in front of me and exploded, knocking me backward. Losing 1000 Life Points after he played just one card, Evan would laugh at me for this.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 4000 - 1000** → **3000** **』**

"Next I activate _Tremendous Fire_ to inflict a thousand more damage to you at the cost of taking five hundred myself!" A circle of flames appeared around me and then it burst upward. I screamed, it felt like the heat was really burning through my body despite that it didn't do any real damage to me physically.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 3000 - 1000** → **2000** **』**

 **『** **Security LP: 4000 - 500** → **3500** **』**

"Next I activate _Foolish Burial_ to send _Blast Sphere_ from my deck to the Graveyard." My legs were trembling, but I tried to ignore the pain – this was just the beginning of the duel. "Next I Normal Summon the Tuner monster, _Blast Salvo (Lv.3, ATK: 100)_!"

As the grinning black sphere rolled onto the field I could feel where this was about to go.

"When Blast Salvo is Summoned, I can revive a Level Four DARK Machine from my Graveyard." The Security Officer stated. "I revive _Blast Sphere (Lv.4, DEF: 1400)_! Now I tune my Level Four Blast Sphere to my Level Three Blast Salvo!"

The grinning explosive turned into three rings that surrounded the other machine and dismantled it until only four stars remained.

" _Striker from the deeps of darkness, clad yourself in armor of Death itself and annihilate all that lies in your path! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! Dark Strike Fighter (Lv.7, ATK: 2600)!_ "

A humanoid airplane came out of the light and landed before the Security Officer. Ok, 2600 attack monster in one turn was a bit impressive, but it couldn't attack due to my Spell, so I was safe for now.

"I activate the Spell Card, _Battle Watlz_ to Special Summon a Waltz Token with the same stats as my Dark Striker Fighter!" Out of nowhere, his Synchro monster split into two identical monsters. "And now I activate Dark Strike Fighter's effect! I release the Waltz Token to inflict fourteen hundred damage to you!"

Wait what? One of the monsters disappeared and the remaining one began to fire at me. I covered my face with my arms, but that didn't stop the damage from hurting me any less. The bullets gazed my knees and shoulders, causing the pain to soar through my body once more. I took a step back and collapsed down onto my knees.

 **『** **Elizabeth LP: 2000 - 1400** → **600** **』**

"I set a card, turn end." The Security officer finished. "Well, are you going to take your turn? Or did you realize that resistance is futile?"

From 4000 to 600 in the course of a single turn. If Evan or Avice saw that they would be disappointed. No, not just them. Yuzu and Yugo would be disappointed as well. After I said that I would buy them some time, to fail so epically – shame! But, I still had some Life Points left. With my Continuous Spell I could search another Orchid and summon it during my next turn, increasing my monsters' attack even further.

"During the end of this turn, the effect of my two Orchid ends and their attack returns to normal." My monsters glowed and their bodies returned back to their immature states.

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 2000 - 400** → **1600 – 400** → **1200 (2x)**

"My turn, draw!" I had to win this duel, not just because of what would happen if I lose, but also to prove that I did grew since coming to this reality. I was stronger now!

 **『** **Turn 3 [Elizabeth] LP: 600, Hand: 4** **』**

"Continuous Trap activate!" The Security's set card turned face-up. " _Gravity Bind_ stops all Level Four or higher monsters from declaring an attack!"

" _Say what now?"_ Hema asked. _"If Level Four or higher monsters can't attack then your Orchid are sealed! And if he draws a Level 3 or higher monster next turn, he would be able to tribute it for Dark Striker's effect to finish you off!"_

"I know what to do." I didn't need the others' tips for this. "Level Four or higher monsters might not be able to attack, but my specialty are neither Synchro nor Fusion monsters, so this will be no problem for me! I activate Pollination's effect once more! I target my Orchid and add a third copy to my hand, then I Normal Summon it!" My third Orchid appeared.

"Next I activate the effect of _**Grand Garden Replica** **Cyania**_! By targeting a monster on my field, I can Special Summon her with the same name and level as that monster! I choose Blooming Orchid obviously!"

A girl with long blue hair tied into two buns on the side of her head. She wears a long dark blue coat with a large collar raised up around her neck, while the back end of the coat reached her feet; the Grand Garden's coat of arms was on the backside of the coat. Underneath it she wore a light yellow shirt with large frills on the front and a blue bowtie. She had a skirt reaching to her knees at the front and the back reaching a bit above the ankle. She was wearing white floral-patterned thigh high stockings with high-heeled metal shoes and brown leather gloves on her hands. She was holding a shield designed like a flower with a blue center while the piece surrounding it was white and looked like it was made from petals.

The girl looked at the Orchid and pointed her shield toward one of them, immediately a blue magical circle formed around Rayen and the spirit of an Orchid appeared next to her for a moment.

* * *

 **Grand Garden Replica Cyania**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: WATER/Type: Spellcaster/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 100/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If this card is in your hand or in your Graveyard: You can target 1 Spellcaster-Type monster you control; Special Summon this target and if you do, this card's Level and name become the same as that target's. If summoned this way, banish this card when it leaves the field. You can only Special Summon "Grand Garden Replica Cyania" this way once per turn.**

* * *

 **Grand Garden Replica Cyania** → **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, Lv.1** → **Lv.4**

"And now I activate the Spell Card _**Grand Garden Spore Production**_!" I played another card that showed multiple large trees at night, they were covered in large purple spores that glowed in the dark. "When this card is activated, I target a monster on my field and Special Summon Spore Production treating it as the same card! I choose Blooming Orchid once more!"

* * *

 **Grand Garden Spore Production (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 "Grand Garden" or "Tempest Sina" monster you control; Special Summon this card with the same Name, Type, Attribute, Level, ATK and DEF as that monster. This card cannot declare an attack.**

* * *

A tree made from multiple orange spores appeared on my field and one of those spores opened up. Sticky green juice fell out of it followed by another monster that looked identical to the three Blooming Orchid that were on my field.

"Now I activate Orchid's effect! All of my monsters gain two hundred attack for each Orchid on my field! Orchid's Bloom!" Magical circles appeared under all of my monsters and their bodies grew older, more mature.

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 1200 + 1000** → **2200 (4x)**

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK 100 + 1000** → **1100**

"And my other two Ochid's effect's activate as well! Bloom! Bloom!" My monsters kept growing, becoming stronger with every time that they bloomed.

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 2200 + 1000** → **3200 + 1000** → **4200 (4x)**

 **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK 1100 + 1000** → **2100 + 1000** → **3100**

"Now, using the _Spore Production_ and _Replica Cyania_ that are both treated as Blooming Orchid, I'm going to Fusion Summon!" My two monsters flew into the air and then a multicolored portal appeared between them, absorbing both of my monsters.

" _Sorceresses born from the mother Earth, fuse your bodies and souls and become a belle that shakes creation itself! Fusion Summon! Level Five! The sorceress with the burning allure of a mirage!_ _ **Grand Garden Gladiolus Ocotillo**_ _!_ "

A young woman with long black hair and yellow eyes appeared on my field, holding the tiny yellow hat that was on top of her head. She was wearing a yellow robe with pale orange floral-pattern going through it; the robe was split at her bosom, revealing the middle section of her chest, with armor made from bamboo covering her neck and the area over her chest. The sleeves were hanging, whose ends reached somewhere below her knees, as well as detached from the rest of the robe, which left her shoulders exposed. Underneath she wore white pants with brown leather boots that were connected to the yellow robe by a large red flower which was tied around her waist. I should also note that the Grand Garden's coat of arms was a tattoo on her left shoulder.

* * *

 **Grand Garden Gladiolus Ocotillo**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 1800/DEF: 1600**

 **2 "Grand Garden" monsters with the same name**

 **Effect: Must be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned by Tributing the above cards you control (in which case you do not use "Polymerization"). If this card is Special Summoned, you can target 1 other Spellcaster-Type monster you control, this card's name and ATK become the same as that monster's current name and ATK. During either player's turn, if you control 2 or more "Grand Garden" monsters with the same name, you can return 1 monster your opponent controls to the hand for each pair of monsters with the same name that you control. You can only use this effect of this card once while it's face-up on the field.**

* * *

"Fusion?" The Security Officer exclaimed, but I wasn't going to waste type explaining what Fusion monsters were.

"Now Gladiolus Ocotillo's effect activates! When she's Special Summoned I can target another of my monsters and give her that monster's name and attack power!" I declared as a yellow magical circle appeared around my monster, with the spirit of Orchid forming behind her for a moment.

 **Grand Garden Gladiolus Ocotillo** → **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 1800** → **ATK: 4200**

"Now for her second effect! Once while Gladiolus Ocotillo is on the field, she can return a monster on your field back to the hand for each pair of identically named monsters that I have. Right now there are four monsters whose names are treated as Blooming Orchid, so I return your Dark Strike Fighter back to the Extra Deck! _**Ocotillo's Bloom**_!"

Three vines came out of Ocotillo's left sleeve and turned into a large spear that she threw throw at the Synchro monster. The weapon burst into flames as it flew through Dark Strike Fighter, shattering the humanoid plane.

"And now for the final!" My monsters still couldn't attack because of Gravity Bind, but I was going to end it this turn! "I overlay me three Level Four Blooming Orchid!"

The three monsters turned into orange beams of energy and shot up into the sky before falling into the cosmic portal before me.

" _Magician dancing through the coldness of the night wind, she storms through the field with the grace and destructive force of a gale! Xyz Summon! Rank Four! Sorceress born from the peak of life!_ _ **Grand Garden Zephyr Cyclamina**_ _!_ "

A magician girl with pink hair that was swept upward and to the back appeared on my field – like the rest of Grand Garden's monsters, she had yellow eyes as well. She was wearing a short green dress with a longer, light blue layer underneath the green one, covering her chest and thighs. The girl had a long pink cape made from three flower petals that came around her shoulders and were held together with a purple crystal on a green choker that covered most of her neck. The girl's outfit ended with simple green sandals. The Grand Garden coat of arms was on the left side of her cape.

* * *

 **Grand Garden Zephyr Cyclamina**

 **Rank: 4/Attribute: WIND/Type: Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2400/DEF: 1200**

 **3 Level 4 Spellcaster-Type monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Materials to activate 1 of the following effects.**

 **Target 1 face-up monster on the field: Until the end of the next turn, this card's name become the same as that monster's current name, also this card gains ATK equal to that monster's ATK.**

 **Send 1 "Grand Garden" monster from your Deck to the Graveyard, then add 1 "Grand Garden" Spell/Trap Card from your Graveyard to the hand.**

 **Discard 1 "Grand Garden" card: Special Summon 1 Level 5 or lower "Grand Garden" monster from your Deck in face-up or face-down Defense Position.**

* * *

"What's with those summoning methods?!" So, people from the Synchro Dimension didn't know about the existence of other summoning methods? Not that much of a surprise, but it also means that they haven't had to deal with either Academia of the Xyz survivors yet.

"I activate Cyclamina's effect!" I gestured toward my monster. "By using one of her Xyz Materials, she can get the name of Blooming Orchid from Gladiolus Ocotillo along with her current attack power! _**Cyckanina's Bloom**_!"

Cyclamina pulled out two bent swords with pink handles and crossed them in front of herself, absorbing one of her Xyz Materials. Two green circles appeared on my field, one under each of my monster and the spirit of Orchid appeared behind Cyclamina.

 **Grand Garden Zephyr Cyclamina** → **Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, ATK: 2400 + 4200** → **ATK: 6600**

"S-sixty six hundred attack!?" I couldn't see the Security Officer's eyes because of the glasses that he was wearing, but he was probably shocked beyond belief right now.

"Now battle! Cyclamina attacks you directly!" I threw my first forward and my monster charged at the officer with her swords forward.

"B-but due to Gravity Bind…" He began to speak, but I cut him off.

"Xyz Monsters don't have levels, so they aren't affected!" With that said, my monster brought her blades down at the Security and threw him into the air with a loud scream coming out of his mouth.

 **『** **Security LP: 3500 - 6600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Elizabeth** **』**

"And that was that." I saluted the guy. This Grand Garden deck plays a lot better and is much easier to control than my old Oracle Sister, I might actually stink to this one from now on.

I heard groaning and noticed that the Security officer who I kicked in the… bells… was slowly starting to get back onto his feet. It seemed that it was time for me to make my big escape. Even though the duel was over, thanks to Reiji's programming I could keep my Duel Disk activated, so I jumped onto the floating platforms until I passed over the fence.

"Sorry for the intruding, hope you don't mind too much!" I turned back and waved at the Tops and the officers. "Thanks for watching this duel and until we meet again! Now if you excuse me, I have to do like every good magician does after their show is over and disappear. Girls!"

I raised my hands in the air and immediately I was caught by Cyclamina and Ocotillo who flew off with me in-between them. I should thank Reiji later for this update, but right now I should find a safe place to land. I didn't know how much after the duel the Solid Vision was going to last activated and I definitely didn't want to find it out with the help of gravity of all things.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"Is this the Synchro Dimension, neechan?" Oni asked looking around us.

"So it seems." I sighed.

I couldn't tell if we were just unfortunate enough to be teleported in the slums or this was what the Synchro Dimension was like. Either way, I didn't like it here, we would stand too much with how well I looked compared to the rest of the scum that was crawling around. Unsurprising to me, Reiji's perfect teleportation technology seemed to have manufactured. That was the only logical explanation I could come up with about why only I and Oni were around. The rest must have gotten teleported to a different part of the Dimension.

' _Sola, could you trace down any of my brother's monsters?_ ' I asked my spirit.

" _Negative."_ Sola shook her head immediately after I asked her. _"We just arrived in this dimension, I'm still not used to it, nor was I able to separate the signals from the Lancers' monsters from the rest that are in this world. You will have to find each of them manually if you want me to be able to recognize them later."_

Damn. But it couldn't be that hard, could it? After all, I was taught everything necessary to survive by my brother, I should be able to do much more than just find him. Actually, if I managed to build ourselves a stronghold he might actually praise me for the excellent work that I did! Yep, that's the plan then. I'm going to leave finding my brother for after I'm able to get us a stronghold!

I took Oni's hand and began to move out. First important step was to get familiar with our surroundings, so I was going to go on a small walk. Even Oni seemed to be optimistic about this idea, so nothing bad could really happen, could it? Though I must admit, I would have preferred if Oni wasn't with me but with somebody else; I'm really not that old to be looking after other children by myself.

"Where are we going, neechan?" The girl asked me.

"Wherever we find a place for us to stay at." I told her.

"We're looking for a home then?"

Home? I guess from her perspective a home was a place to stay, a very simplified way to understand what a home is.

"We're just looking for a place to temporally stay." I looked down at her and tried smile. "We'll find our home after we find a place to stay at."

What was the true meaning of home? Wasn't it supposed to mean the place that makes you feel comfortable and secure, one that you don't have to leave, that you feel saddened when separated from for too long? If so, would family be an acceptable synonym for home, if it's my family that gives me a feeling of security and warmness? Definitely not! And I was going to find that 'home' after I find a residence to live at.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

Doctor Polk rubbed his forehead, trying to ease the strong headache that he got from all the messy stuff that happened lately. He also had to try his best to avoid getting the attention of the Professor. After the mission to retrieve both Serena and Yuzu failed, as well as some Obelisk Force duelist named Sora not returning back, the great leader of Academia was too pissed off for the doctor to have a normal conversation with him. At least Polk still had his creation to make him company, right?

Evice was sitting on one of his work table, eating some vanilla ice cream that Hikaru was able to get his hand on for her. Polk observed his creation carefully, she surpassed his expectation. The news that she was about to finish off the original that he based her off was a delight, but sadly, he understood that his choice to put her into combat effectiveness so soon after she left her tube was a rash one. As a newly created specimen, she needed time to get used to many things such as the air, the sun, the noise, all simple things that most often people should be used to at her 'age', although with Evice, age was a very subjective matter of opinion rather than facts.

"What are you doing here?" Polk turned his head and looked at the newcomer.

It was Haou.

"I came here to get some peace of mind." Polk sighed and leaned back into his chair. "That bastard over there still thinks that he has the right to get angry about his soldiers not being able to capture the fragments of his daughter when it was him that caused her to get split into four pieces."

"I see." Haou walked into the laboratory and looked at the tube containing Polk's second specimen. "Was the sample that I provided for you useful?"

"You can see for yourself." Polk gestured toward the creature inside – it already had red and white hair, and its limbs started to look more human-like. "It's grown was accelerated, I expected it to be fully grown in a few days, a week at most."

"And what then?" Haou asked. "You didn't want me to kill the original, but won't he just create difficulties for the new one?"

"That's the hard part." Polk stood up from his chair and walked over to the table that Evice was sitting on, grabbing a few papers from it. "My creations have to be the ones who're going to kill the originals in order for my plan to work. Currently Evice and her soon-to-be brother have the strength of True Light and True Darkness, but they don't have their souls. In order to become whole, Evice and her brother will have to acquire the embodiments of these celestial forces themselves – namely, Sola and Phantomus."

"This is much more complicated that just taking over a new body." Haou sighed. "You said that True Darkness was much more powerful that Gentle Darkness, but what's the story behind it? If True Darkness hasn't chosen a new host for twenty years, then how did that boy get his hands on Phantomus?"

"That's a line I'm not able to fully follow myself. Phantomus' only holder was always Aron, the monster just didn't want to obey anyone who wasn't him, yet it seems to have taken some strange liking toward this boy now that Aron is dead." Polk looked at his papers, his calculations, but none of his theories were able to come to a logical explanation of that phenomenon, except for… "He's probably using the boy to get his revenge on Shade. Yes, that's the only logical explanation."

"Shade?" Haou crossed his arms. "You keep bringing up names and events that don't mean anything to me. At least explain yourself once."

Polk dropped his papers and looked at Evice. The girl had stopped eating her ice cream and was listening to him as well. "I guess since that's important for my creations as well, I could explain to you what exactly happened twenty years ago. No, it happened much before that. It all started with Grelyson – the futuristic pocket dimension built by demi-humans who left Earth after they developed the technology to travel between dimensions. Their entire society was developed around a cult toward the Light of Destruction and because of that, they often attacked other dimensions, timelines, anything that they deemed to be corrupted by darkness. Multiple civilizations were completely erased from existence due to their paranoia."

"But two of them stood out from the rest." Polk continued. "Those were Aron and his love, Emist. They didn't want to be part of this destructive world, so they left and created their own family in the Original Dimension. That was until it came time for Grelyson's ritual of sacrificing a maid with a heart of pure light toward the Light of Destruction. In a twist of fate, the maid chosen as a sacrifice was Emist herself. As you could expect from these bastard, they kidnapped her for the sacrifice without a second thought. A blind love toward that destructive and cruel light that they loved so much driving them forward."

"That's expected from the Light of Destruction and its followers." Haou commented.

"Indeed it is." Polk nodded in agreement. "But what they didn't expect was for Aron to show up and try to save his loved one. The fight was a short-lived one, everyone who had the guts to step in front of him got killed in an instant. They just couldn't stop him from reaching and breaking the crystal that held his lover trapped inside. The ritual failed, but so did Aron. Although Emist didn't die, she had lost too much of her life energy to be able to wake up ever again – she was essentially a corpse with a beating heart."

"So, let me guess. Aron made a pact with the True Darkness?" Haou knew where the story was going to do. After losing the one person on the world that you loved the most, there wasn't place for anything but darkness in your heart.

"Yeah... Since he and Phantomus shared a very special type of bond, one where their shared a single soul between two bodies, instead of each of them becoming a separate host of the True Darkness, they became a single host."

"And that's why you need Phantomus? In order to turn this new project of yours into Aron?" Haou guessed. "Even though the later has died, due to them sharing a soul, Aron is technically still alive through Phantomus and it should be possible to reawaken his part of the soul inside a new body."

"Yes, that's basically what this is about." Polk noted. "After Aron was betrayed and killed by his own right hand – Shade - Phantomus was saved by the Overseers, so I expected him to show up again. Not just to get revenge for his own murder, but also for what Shade did to Aron's son, corrupting his soul and using him as a pawn that was going to destroy the Original Dimension."

"Interesting…" Haou stood up. "So the demon duelist that the professor's so afraid of is actually…" He stopped himself and chuckled; a rare showcase of emotion for the one who was the embodiment of darkness. "You amused me, so in return, can I make a suggestion for your creation?"

"What is it?" Polk asked.

"Name it Avon."

A combination of Aron and Evan – it was fitting given their roles. Aron was the one who began all of this, Evan was the one who renewed the conflict, so Avon would be the one to put an end of it for good.

* * *

 **I look across a raging war**

(Elizabeth is sitting in a field of grass looking at the Stadium where the Friendship Cup is happening.)

 **And feel the steady beating of my heart;**

(The scene zooms out to show Oni lying on the grass next to her, Evan and Avice standing up and three pendulums – one red, green and yellow, swinging through the sky.)

 **I'll swing down my sword,**

(Elizabeth's hand is shown drawing a card and then turning it around, enveloping it in a bright light.)

 **And slice right through the calm before the storm.**

(Hundreds of cards shot out of the light and toward the sky, which was covered with dark clouds.)

 **A memory is constantly fading - even as we speak.**

(Evan and Avice are shown walking through the city at night, smiling and looking at the city lights, while in the reflections of the windows showed Chrono Phantomus the Pendulum Slayer and Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph in their place.)

 **Surpassing time, I tell a story. It goes on echoing.**

(Phantomus and Sola fade away as the reflection turns into Avon and Evice in the same positions as Evan and Avice.)

 **Our vow, is cruelly being stained by a song of war declaration.**

(A girl in a biker suit is sitting at a junkyard, looking toward the Moon and the stars.)

 **We'll fight until the bitter end.**

(Ventus is shown activating his Duel Disk, then it changes to Levant looking at a glowing card and finally it changes to Koharu opening her eyes to look before herself.)

 **Tie up the root of your heavy breathing,**

(Evan's shown riding his D-Wheel, his eyes looking toward the horizon with a thoughtful look on his face.)

 **Or in other words - this polluted world.**

(Then he smiles as everyone else who was introduced so far – minus Oni – is shown riding after him.)

 **Let's turn our gears, it's time to Stop & Rewind**

(Evan puts card on his Duel Disk as ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Foxy, ChronoDevil Wild Tamer Wolfy, ChronoDevil Stream Supporter, ChronoDevil Protector Golem and ChronoDevil Timefrozen Ghost appeared by his side.)

 **Gather the hope you've lost,**

(Avice and Elizabeth put a card on their Duel Disks as well - the former while riding a Duel Board – as Sola Starlight, Astral Angel Einplus, Astral Angel Golden Knight, Tempest Sina the Pendulum Seraph, Grand Garden Blooming Orchid, and Grand Garden Zephyr Cyclamina appeared by their side.)

 **Or in other words - the scattered pieces of your broken time.**

(Zenith is crying while covering her face with her bandaged arms. She turns around and is replaced by Levant glaring at someone with his teeth gritted and a fist pressed against his chest)

 **But to retrieve them, you need to Fall & Unwind.**

(A picture of the unknown girl trying desperately to reach someone fades away, followed by a picture of Koharu screaming at someone with tears in her eyes, a bruised Ventus down on his knees with a bruised Oni behind him, finally Chrono Phantomus comes forward and a large clock appears behind him, its clock arms starting to move backward.)

 **Even your racing heartbeat,**

(Evan is looking at his hands in shock while his eyes are glowing purple and a pair of horns is jutting out of his forehead.)

 **As well as your endless affection,**

(Zenith is looking at a rusty photo pendant in the shape of a heart.)

 **Derives from this arpeggio.**

(The next shot shows a dark sky over the city with rain falling down.)

 **Savior of Song**

(Evan and Zenith are shown passing each other on a covered bridge with the rain falling around them.)

 **A Savior of Song**

(The reflection of the puddles below the bridge show a white Phantomus with large wings and a humanoid creature covered in shadow in place of the two duelists respectively.)

(Evan, Avice, Elizabeth, Oni, Levant, Ventus, Koharu and the unknown girl are looking at the sky together when Chrono Phantomus the Phantasm Slayer, Sola Starlight the Preon Seraph, Tempest Sina the Bulbophyllum Sorceress, Hallow Perla the Pendulum Performer, Artifact Durendal, Heroic Champion – Excalibur, Judgement Dragon, King of Wishes, Hope and Stardust Dragon fly off toward the sun.)

* * *

 **Avice: Ah, its been a while since I got to do that. Hello everyone and welcome to our review section!**

 **Chapter** **45: Twilight Sparkle a Little Star**

 **Summary:** Left alone and with the responsibility to take care of Oni, Avice begins to form her own plans about how the turn their current situation into a winning one. While going around, she comes across a small shop that was just terrorized by a group calling themselves "Toyotomi's gang" – a band of misfits that the director of Security used to do his dirty work. Avice sets off to find this group and use them to get into contact with the higher-ups that run this city, but her plans don't turn out as planned and instead she ends up locked in a Duel for her and Oni's life against the leader of the gang – Toyotomi himself!

 **Avice: Ah, will you look at this? A chapter focused on me so soon? Oh my, this is going to be so fun~**

 **Chapter** **46: Learning of Consequences**

 **Summary:** After being brought time to escape by Ventus, who choose to stay back and hold off Toyotomi's gang, Avice tries to carry the injured Oni to safety, but the effects from her harsh duel with Toyotomi and the lassitude cause her to lose consciousness. After Avice awakes, she found herself lying in an apartment with a pair of twins standing next to her. Meanwhile, Yugo explains to Yuzu and Elizabeth about the current situation of his dimension.

 **Avice: And a second chapter focusing on my right after? The Author didn't joke when he said that he likes me the most.**

 **Chapter** **47: Demons Move Across Dimensions**

 **Summary:** Finding themselves in the Synchro Dimension with most of the other Lancers gone, Evan follows Reiji and his plan to go and negotiate with the higher ups of this Dimension about creating an alliance against Academia. At the same time however, Kiharu who had the same idea, but due to her tattered outfit got mistaken for a Common is confronted by the security defending the Capital Building. Finding the safety of the Lancers as a much more important priority than negotiating, Reiji and Evan showcase the tremendous strength of the Standard Dimension's dueling!

 **Avice: Reiji and Evan at once? Jeez, going a bit on the overkill aren't you?**

* * *

 **A/N: And that was it! A bit of a short chapter, it introduces us to the Synchro Arc from Elizabeth's and Avice's point of view. But more importantly than that, Elizabeth shows of her new** **Grand Garden deck! I'm not that happy to have a character change archetype in the middle of the story, but I just can't try and savage the Oracle Sisters at this point. The only cards they have that aren't absolute trash are the ones that have nothing to do with their gimmick, so I think that this talks enough about how much I screwed Elizabeth's old deck.**

 **With the Grand Garden deck however? I must say, despite it being here for just a single duel and showing only like 5 of its cards, I'm already feeling proud with what came out from it. Only bad thing is that despite the name being "** **Grand Garden** **" and all of its cards having a tree or flower motive, the monsters are Spellcasters, but there has to be something in common between** **Grand Garden and Oracle Sisters, right?**

 **Anyway, thanks to** CeleneTheAngel **and** Jayleenf1 **for following and favoriting this story!**

 **Also, thanks to** SakushiRyu **,** Ethan Kironus **and** ScalchopWarrior **for the reviews.**

 **That's all I got to say, thanks for reading and until next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	45. Chapter 45

**Avice: Worst. Chapter. Ever.**

 **DT: Please, Avice. Just because**

 **Avice: SHUT UP!**

 **DT: ...**

* * *

Twilight Sparkle a Little Star

 **Avice's POV**

Ah, traveling the Synchro Dimension was like our first appearance in the Standard Dimension all over again. No directions, no idea what was what. I was running a hand through my hair trying to desperately think of something we could do here, while also trying to remain calm, as to not make Oni worry about how shitty our situation was. I kept thinking back to my brother and what he would do in a situation like this, how did he get us out of the same situation back at Standard? That was until I realized that it wasn't him who saved us back then, it was our encounter with Yuya that set all of our plans into motion.

What were we going to be doing now if Yuya actually watched where he was going and he never slammed into us? Yes, we would have still be able to find our damn apartment, but beyond that? If we never became part of You Show and never learned about the Miami Championship, what were we going to do instead?

No, don't think about that! It was all thanks to my brother! Even if things went through a different route, he would have still found a way to get us on the top – just where we deserved to be! Sadly, we wouldn't have met Oni if things didn't happen the way that they did.

"How do you think we could get the attention of the other Lancers, neechan?" Oni pulled my sleeve.

Ah, the Lancers. Right, I almost forgot that they existed. But contacting then, I would rather not do something as stupid as that. Their goals were the opposite of ours and even though we were in an alliance at the moment, in due time I would have to wipe them out along with anyone else who would oppose us. Their purpose in the grand scale of things was nothing more than to supply us with the technology needed for us to be able to invade the other dimensions.

"We're not going to contact them." I told Oni. "Using long range communication in a different dimension could cause the authorities in this world to mistake us for a hostile force and arrest us." I was just making bullshit excuses on the spot to excuse myself for not wanting to get into contact with the rest of the Lancers, not that Oni would be able to tell.

"Is neechan happy to be with the Lancers?" Ok, what kind of questions were those? Was she trying to make me feel remorse for what I would do to them once I got enough power and influence? The only person I would feel regret over would be Akaba Reiji and only because of the potential use he could have as a minion.

"Are you happy?" I returned the question back to Oni. "This… this isn't your war, Oni. You didn't need to come as well. A single no would have been enough for Reiji to let you walk away free, yet you choose to come with the rest of us. Does war make you happy?"

"No, of course not, neechan!" She shook her head violently and grabbed my hand, smiling. "War is bad, it causes people to suffer, Oni doesn't like that. But, both niichan and neechans were going to take part, you were going to fight for me, for everyone else, so Oni had to join! I did it because I wanted to be with you, and now that I'm, it makes me happy!"

That was what made her happy? I chuckled and ran a hand through her hair, but deep inside of me, there was something that confused me. No, it pained me. Oni would be disappointed, even distraught once she found out that we weren't truly trying to save the dimensions. Heh, she would probably hate us once we destroy the Lancers as well. But why was I feeling so bad for her? Was it because she was a girl and I was-!

Ah, stupid hormones! Now definitely wasn't the time to make me think about such things! I swear…

"Well, being with you is enough for me to be happy too." I got no idea where this cheesy line came from, but Oni seemed to like my response. Thank you, hormones!

"Also neechan, could you promise me something?" Ah, what was this about now?

"Depends. If it's anything about the Lancers, I can't give any promises." Less so if she wanted me to be loyal to their stupid humanistic babbling about peace.

"No, it's not about the Lancers, its-" And then she stopped. Oni's face got a pained expression written over it and she dropped her head.

"Oni…" I kneeled down to her level and put my hands on her shoulders, trying to smile for her. "What were you going to say, Oni? What… what's wrong, Oni?"

She just shook her head and didn't respond to me. Ah, what was going with this child now? Seriously, I was never as troublesome as her and the difference in our age was only three years! Did she want me to try and guess what he problem was? If you couldn't tell, I was getting irritated with this child for starting something, just to stop in the middle and go silent, but I wasn't going to show my anger to her. Scaring Oni now wouldn't do any good and she would become even more unwilling to share her problem with me.

"Are you scared?" Ok, I was going to play the guessing game since she didn't want to give a clear answer. "What am I even wondering, of course you are scared. After what happened in the stadium, then suddenly getting recruited into a military unit and getting transported to another dimension, you have all the rights to be scared, even terrified."

Academia's attack and the fire they put the stadium and everyone in it through would leave a scar in the bravest of hearts. Oni hasn't had the chance to recover from that and she was already pulled into another conflict.

"The thing that I want you to promise me…" She whispered to me. I perked up a bit, hearing her talking to me.

"Don't worry, I won't allow anything bad to happen to you." I pressed my forehead against hers. "Neechan will protect you, I promise."

"No."

What?

I pulled away and took another look at Oni. She had tears rolling down the sides of her face while she stared back at me. Her arms raised and wrapped around my back as she pulled me into an embrace and buried her face into my chest, crying. H-how was I supposed to respond to that? What was I supposed to do in a situation like this one?!

"Neechan, promise me." She started again and looked up at me. "Promise me that if something does happen to me, you won't blame yourself, nor will you let hatred consume either you or niichan! Please, promise me that you will be strong and will be there to help niichan keep his heart from breaking apart!"

"Oni…" I didn't know what to say, what to do! Was there even a way to respond to such a request? She didn't want to be protected, she didn't want to be saved; all she asked for was that we wouldn't let sadness overtake our hearts if something was to happen to her! Why was she such a selfless idiot!?

"Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen to you!" I finally shouted back and put my hands around her as well. "Neechan won't allow it, so… please… don't cry, Oni. I'm here for you, niichan and the Lancers will be here for you as well. We won't allow anything to happen to you."

"You don't have to try and lie to me, neechan." L-lie to her? Oni pulled away from my embrace all so suddenly and looked me straight in the eyes.

"What are you talking about, Oni?" I smiled at her and cupped her cheek with my hand. "Neechan would never lie to you. I'll protect you, I already promised that."

"Not this, neechan." She shook her head; was there anything else that she thought I was lying to her about? "You don't need to act in front of me, neechan. I know that you, that niichan, have no interest in helping the Lancers."

"Oni…" She was able to realize that… Of course she could, we never tried to hide our true intentions from her. "Listen, just because we have different goals from the other Lancers doesn't mean that we'll abandon you. You are still our little Oni after all! How could we go on without you?"

"I'm with you neechan!" Oni exclaimed. "I came to fight beside you and niichan, not for the Lancers. I understand that our fight is different from theirs, so there's no reason to lie to me anymore. I won't hate you or niichan because of this."

I hugged her again.

I didn't know what else to do after this heart-wrecking talk. Oni was much more mature than I expected; to be willing to take the role of the villain just to be with those that she loved, those that she cared about. How was I supposed not to feel something after hearing everything that she said? I just couldn't understand if the strange feeling inside my heart was happiness, guilt, or regret; but it didn't matter at that moment.

"Don't worry." I kissed her forehead and stood up, holding the girl's hand. "Nothing bad will happen to Oni. I'll protect you, I'll never lie to you again. That's a promise!"

"Thank you, neechan." Oni leaned against me and smiled, despite the tears that were still reflected in her eyes.

"Let's go then." I told her; we still had to find a place to stay.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

" _Sorceresses born from the mother Earth, fuse your bodies and souls and become a belle that shakes creation itself! Fusion Summon! Level Five! The sorceress with the burning allure of a mirage! Grand Garden Gladiolus Ocotillo!_ "

" _Magician dancing through the coldness of the night wind, she storms through the field with the grace and destructive force of a gale! Xyz Summon! Rank Four! Sorceress born from the peak of life! Grand Garden Zephyr Cyclamina!_ "

The man watching the replay of the duel leaned back into his sofa and pressed a button to pause it. His chair turned around and he took the black queen piece from his chess board, looking it over. Did they finally show up? That woman told him that she wanted him to bring to her all of the 'more interesting' duelists that catch his eye. The ability to use both Fusion and Xyz, two summoning methods that completely oppose each other – the girl on the video definitely wasn't from either the Xyz or the Fusion Dimension.

"Is that one of those Tracers that she talked about?" Roger asked himself.

The girl looked like she had potential. If he had the chance to put a chip inside her head like he did with the rest of his minions, she would serve well as another pawn in his army, but if he failed to bring those dimension travelers to _her_ , it would be the end not only for his carrier as Director of Security, but for his life as well.

A year ago he made a deal that if any other people cross dimension he would capture and bring them to _her_. In return the woman gave him the brain controlling technology that he needed to completely take control over the dimension. That, however, didn't mean that they were on equal terms. Roger knew that all the efforts he put into raising his influence in the Synchro Dimension would become meaningless with just a wave of her hand.

Roger closed the screen with the video and opened a new one, where a security officer with a scar on his face appeared.

"Are there any special orders for me, director?" Trudge asked.

"There's one." Roger responded. "These fugitives that I just got a report about, I want you to put special attention on capturing them. Double the amount of patrols searching for them and tell the Special Forces to be on standby."

"Uh, isn't this a bit too much for a bunch of Commons?" Trudge asked. "There're Commons breaking the law every day, I don't see anything special in these."

"Just do as I order you to do, Sergeant." Roger retorted. "If these were just a bunch of Commons, they wouldn't this kind of cards in their disposal, would they? It's also possible that there are other like them hiding around, so I want you to redirect all of Security's best officers toward finding them, understood?"

"Yes sir." Trudge nodded.

After the officer signed off, Roger put the black queen pieces back on its place and sighed. He came to this dimension in order to escape the leadership of others, to build his own kingdom, but after all of the work he put into coming to his current position of power, he was still a slave to someone else. Being a pawn, didn't suit him at all.

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

I kept walking through the run-down streets, but every new corner looked the same to me, even the people were the same to me. Ah, I act so high and mighty, but in the end there was nothing I could do if we were surrounded by trash. I thought that reaching the huge buildings jutting above these run-down streets would be the best, but there were no elevators around here and I didn't want to talk with any of these worms.

That was until I came across an interesting scene. It was a shop, nothing fancy, just a small place with no visual distinctions from the other houses. Actually, I could tell that it was a shop only due to the skinny guy with an apron and a white hat that was sweeping the glass in front of his 'shop'. The place was completely ruined, all the windows were broken and the inside of the shop was such a mess that I couldn't tell what was what.

"What happened here, chief?" I tried to approach the man.

"What else? Toyotomi's gang visited during the night." The man sighed; from his tone it sounded that this kind of vandalism was something regular around these parts, not surprising given the type of people living here.

"I see, bet that the police won't be solving that one either." I know, I know, you probably thought that to come to this conclusion from the vague info that I had was quite the brain gymnastic, but if watching animes like Gangsta has taught me anything, it would be that the poorer a city was, the more corrupted would the police force be.

"Isn't it obvious?" The man stopped clearing his shop and turned toward me. "Come to think, I haven't seen you before, girl."

"We're from the other side of the city." I lied and pulled Oni closer to me. "We came here hoping to find some food, for us and the other kids at the orphanage, but it seems that luck wasn't on our side."

"Sadly, it wasn't on anyone's side these past few days." The man shook his head. "At least Toyotomi's gang is allowed to terrorize only thing part of the town, so your shops didn't have to deal with them."

"Allowed?" This was starting to sound like more than just corrupted cops. "This is the first time that me and my sister hear about this gang, how comes they are able to get so much influence over your region?"

"Immunity. Security's director gave their gang full control over this fourth of the Commons' area in exchange for info about one of their old members – the Duelist Crusher." Uh, edgy. But valuable information nonetheless, if the director of Security was involved, then this gang might still have a connection to him. If I get in connection with them, I could get in connection with the higher-ups that rule this city; it would be perfect.

"I know that this sounds like a question that would ask only someone planning to commit a suicide, but do you know where I could find Toyotomi's gang?" This was the first lead I had toward something useful – I wouldn't let it get away.

"What, you are going after them?" I glared at the man. "You're really going to do that?"

"At worse, it's going to be my funeral." Of course I wouldn't be as stupid as to let these worms get the best of me. "The only thing you might lose out of this would be your sense of innocence, since you will partially be guilty for the dead of two young girls, but you don't care about stuff like that, do you?"

The man didn't responded to that question. He was thinking, about himself of course. Eventually, he gestured into the distance and spoke up:

"There's an old tunnel system at street Two-Four-Seven-F, right under the bridge. It was built by smugglers, but the gang turned it into their hideout after getting Sector Security's 'blessing' and all the other gangs in the area united around Toyotomi. There are going to be around fifty men in that place, at the very least."

Ha, please. I have fought against Academia's forces and defeated all of their goons without breaking a sweat, if that was my strength against an elite military force trained to invade whole dimensions, then beating a few street rats would be next to nothing for me!

I waved goodbye to the man and left to catch the gang with Oni following beside me.

"Are you sure that this would be safe, neechan?" Oni asked me. "These men sound dangerous."

"Don't you trust your neechan?" I smiled at her.

"I… I do."

These men were nothing, just a bunch of poor worthless pieces of meat thinking that they had strength only because of a small favor that their leader was able to get from Security. They were doing this for power, for respect, but they didn't have any of it. It was clear from the way they operated - crashing random shops in their area of influence – that this group was using fear in order to control the regular citizens, not strength or respect. In this kind of groups the center of power was the leader, everyone else must be loyal to him just because he was backed by Security. My brother taught me all of this, he taught me that the best way to destroy a group like this would be by cutting the head of the snake.

In other words, take down the leader and the group will fall apart as well. Quick, simple, without causing a bloodbath, just the way that I liked dealing with my problems.

Finding the entrance of those tunnels was the hardest part for me, after all, everything in this trash-town was looking the same, stinking the same as well. This was the part where Oni got to shine. Unlike me, she was able to make apart the different buildings, and thanks to her we didn't end up walking in circles while searching for that damn street 247F. When we eventually reached the entrance for those tunnels, I wasn't surprised to find in what a bad condition they were. The entrance looked like the usual stairway you would have to take for the subway. There were broken hinges, apparently a door was supposed to be put there to conceal the place, but it must have been removed long time ago, probably got torn right off, if the damage on the hinges was anything to go by.

To say it now, the interior of the tunnel system wasn't much better from the exterior. It had the appearance of an old dungeon, large chunks of the plaster covering the walls and the ceiling were missing and there was a pair of pipes on the ceiling, I had to be careful not to step under one of them because both were leaking, making large puddles on the ground. So far my assumptions seemed to be correct, these people were acting all fearsome, but if you ignored their vulgar behavior, there was no strength or fear underneath, only a bunch of pathetic rats hiding in an old tunnel.

How sad.

"Neechan, we are close." Oni whispered.

Ah, finally, we reached the area where those goons were hiding. How I knew? Because there was light in the distance, and I was sure that whoever designed this place wouldn't put lamps in the middle of the tunnel system, but forget to do the same at the entrance.

We arrived at a huge and open oval area that connected with multiple other tunnels. There were tables, chairs and other provisions in the middle of the area, as well as cables and lamps hanging from the walls and the ceiling. Just like the owner of that shop said, there were around forty or fifty men, all of which were dressed as punks with shaved heads. The only one that was standing out from the rest of the scum was a muscular man sitting on a large chair in the center of the area. He had long curly black hair and a short beard. I couldn't make out the color of his eyes from where I was standing, but he was wearing a light grey prison uniform with its sleeves torn off, you know, because rolling them would take too much time. He had a lime colored Duel Disk on his right arm and a belt with knives around his waist – he was the boss, no question about it.

"Stay hidden." I whispered to Oni, she looked up at me and nodded before going back the way we came. What? I knew that I would beat him, but with fifty people here, I didn't want to risk and have someone catch Oni as a hostage.

Once I made sure that she was out of sight, I jumped forward and shouted: "Well, well, this is a nice place you got yourselves!"

Immediately, everyone in the room turned toward me, some pulling out knives, others reaching for a pipe or a metal stick lying around. That didn't bother me. If either of them tried to attack, I would just use the Real Solid Vision of my Duel Disk to call a strong monster and obliterate them all.

"What do we have here?" the muscular man stood up and gestured for the others to stand down; unsurprisingly, they did. "You took a wrong turn or something, little girl?"

"I'm twelve, so I'm not THAT young." Of course there were a lot of stupid 12 years old, so maybe I was just ahead of my peers. "And let me guess, you're Toyotomi, aren't you?"

"I don't usually go to the surface, so I'm surprised that someone as young as you would be able to recognize me with a single glance." The man, or should I call him Toyotomi from now on, sneered. "Have you seen me before by any chance? Could I have accidentally orphaned you?"

"I wouldn't have cared if you did." I retorted. "It was kind of obvious, actually. People call this not-so-little group Toyotomi's gang and you were sitting in the center of this cesspool of dwellers like a king, it doesn't take too much brain to figure out who you were."

"I guess it really doesn't." Toyotomi crossed his arms behind his back. "So, what's the reason you came here, if it's not for revenge? Don't say that you want to join the gang, because we have rules about recruitment, like, new recruits shouldn't be underage, and also they shouldn't be girls. The boys got a bit rough with last recruit that we had which didn't meet the second criteria while I wasn't watching and I don't want to give them a reason to step out of line again."

"So you don't have complete control over your rats." I looked around the punks that stared at me, ignoring the bloodlust in their eyes. "The reason I came here is to ask for a favor. I heard that you got yourself a few connections with people in power and, I kind of need to get in connection with them. Its business, you understand?"

"Are you a mob boss by a chance?" Toyotomi laughed sarcastically. "We don't do service like this here, but if you pay a good price, I might be merciful and let you get out of here in one piece."

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing." I snored and activated my Duel Disk. "And before you say it, no, facing a group of fifty criminals with only a single Duel Disk and nothing more isn't as stupid as it looks from your side."

"Neechan! Help me!"

Shit!

I turned on my heels and saw a group of men approaching from behind, one of them holding Oni by the collar of her dress with a knife pointed at her neck. There were tears running down her cheeks along with a few bruises on her face, those bastards…

"Another intruder?" And worse, Toyotomi seemed to be catching on what was happening. "And she called you neechan…" I felt my arms clenching into fists as anger built into my heart. "So you weren't just foolish enough to come here, but you also leaded your sister into our hideout? Oh my, there's a limit of how foolish a brat like you could be!"

"Let her go." I glared at the goon who had the guts to hold Oni like this. "Tell your thugs to let her go, or I'm not going to be responsible for the grim end that these bastards are about to face!"

Unlike my expectations, everyone else just burst into laughter. Were they laughing because of my age? They wouldn't laugh so much once I summoned Sola and let her tear their limbs off before scorching their corpses with her arm beams.

"Seriously kid, you got no idea what you've involved yourself with!" Toyotomi burst into laughter once more. "Do you all see? That's why breaking into people's shops at night isn't enough anymore! There's no more fear left in those damn fools. To send a girl and her little sister to try and boss us around, truly outrageous!" the man's face turned severe as he glared at me once more. "We need to teach those idiots why they must fear us! You and your sister will be the tools through which I'm going to set an example to the fools on the surface!"

"I'm not going to go down without a fight!" Even if Oni was a hostage, I couldn't give up. If I did, both of us would die!

"So be it then." Toyotomi raised his arm and activated his Duel Disk, while the goons all moved aside to make space for us. "I'm going to crush you in a duel and then, you are both going to die!"

"But if I win, Oni will be freed and you'll be the one facing execution instead." I hissed and walked toward the center of the room, jumping onto a small platform that was apparently made for occasions like this one; how convenient.

The goons then moved to surround us, with the one that held Oni moving behind Toyotomi. Now I had to literally go through their leader in order to get my Oni back.

"You should have tired your luck as comedian instead of this." Toyotomi gave me a smile, one that I could only describe with the word - sadistic. "Specially for this Duel, we're going to use the elimination program of my Duel Disk. In other words, all of the damage that you're about to suffer is going to be physical!"

"Physical damage?" I rolled my eyes. As if this wasn't a thing in the last four series that came before Arc-V "You must be trying hard to be a cliché villain, because there's no way anyone could be repeating the same stuff over and over again without realizing how stale it has become."

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Toyotomi LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'm going to take the first turn!" Toyotomi exclaimed. "I'll start with Normal Summon! Come out, _Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi" (Lv.2, ATK: 500)_!"

A wooden robot-type of monster wearing Japanese-styled clothes and a set of scales on its back appeared on Toyotomi's side of the field. Well, crap. I knew about this archetype, but I never cared enough to properly research it, since no one in their right mind was playing it. But then again, this was the Yu-Gi-Oh world, I should have expected someone to use a deck like this.

"When Inashichi is Normal Summoned, I can add a Karakuri card from my deck to the hand." Toyotomi continued. "I add _Karakuri Anatomy_ to my hand and then activate it! Now every time a Karakuri monster's Battle Position changes, a Karakuri Counter will be placed on my Continuous Spell, and when there are two counters, I can send Karakuri Anatomy to the Graveyard in order to draw two new cards!"

A deck that focuses on Battle Position altering, huh? Good thing that those types of decks were always trash, or else I might have gotten in actual trouble.

"I'm setting a card and end my turn." Huh, that was it? "It's your turn, so make it count."

"Heh, and for a moment I thought that this was going to be an actual challenge." How sad, another easy victory for yours truly. "Hey Oni, neechan's going to get you out of this in just a moment. My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I'll start off by activating the effect of _**Astral Angel Erkunden Drohne**_ from my hand! When there are no monsters on my field, I can Special Summon both it and another Level Two or lower Astral Angel monster from my hand. I choose _**Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne**_!"

The first monster that appeared had the appearance of a red core clad in white armor with two golden rings rotating around it.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Erkunden Drohne**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Fairy/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 300/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If you control no monsters, you can reveal this card from your hand: Special Summon this card and 1 Level 2 or lower "Astral Angel" monster with a different name from your hand.**

* * *

Following Erkunden Drohne, on my field appeared a halo and a second monster flew through it. The new drone was bulky and had the appearance of a floating white tank with a black cannon on the center and several cyan-colored lines running across its body.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 700**

 **Effect: If this card is Special Summoned, you can double its ATK and Level. If this card is banished, draw 1 card. You can only use this effect of "Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne" once per turn.**

* * *

"That's an archetype I have never heard of before." Toyotomi commented. Of course, this wasn't a deck that existed anywhere in the four dimensions.

"I activate Artillerie-Drohne's effect! When its Special Summoned, it's Level and attack points are doubled!" I gestured toward my monster, its armor-plates opened and a second set came out, building up onto the first to make the monster look even bulkier.

 **Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne, Lv.2** → **Lv.4, ATK: 800** → **1600**

"But that's just a warn-up! Next I activate the Spell - _**Dimension Geschenk**_! By banishing a LIGHT monster from my field, I'm able to Special Summon any number of LIGHT Normal Monsters from my deck, as long as their combined levels are equal to the banished monster!" A black vortex appeared behind Artillerie-Drohne and my monster fell into it. "I banish Artillerie-Drohne to Special Summon two copies of _**Astral Angel Wenig**_!"

* * *

 **Dimension Geschenk (Spell) Normal**

 **Banish 1 LIGHT monster you control; Special Summon any number of LIGHT Normal Monsters from your Deck whose total Levels equal the Tributed monster's Level on the field, but banish them during the End Phase.**

* * *

A tiny black monster with two large orange eyes on the front of its body and a white half-ring levitating around it appeared on my field following by another copy of itself. Despite having EARTH as one of their attributes, these monsters levitated in the air.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Wenig**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Rock**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 1500**

 **Lore: A species of hard light found in the space between four colliding stars. It has a cheerful aura surrounding it.**

* * *

"Due to Artillerie-Drogne's effect I draw a card when it gets banished. And now, since you didn't show anything interesting last turn, I'm now going to Synchro Summon with my three monsters!" I gestured forward and Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne turned into two rings, then a road of light appeared through the rings and my two copies of Wenig flew through them.

" _Beast born in the burning heart of a star. With your soul colder than the endless void, soar in a fiery rage! Synchro Summon! Level Six!_ _ **Astral Angel Ophidien von Millionen**_ _!_ "

The monster that appeared was a large snake made from multiple white metal plates connected together with yellow light glowing from the small slits between the plates. Its head had a single yellow eye in the center and a metal plate covering its mouth. Its neck was producing a large black hood with a green lens on each side. Its body ended with a long tail that had a curved back blade attached to the end. As the snake appeared, the metal plate covering its mouth split open, letting out the monster's black rubbery tongue.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Ophidien von Millionen**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT FIRE/Type: Reptile/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 1700/DEF: 1700**

 **1 Tuner + 1 + non-Tuner LIGHT monsters**

 **Effect: When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can target 1 of your banished Level 6 or lower LIGHT monsters; Special Summon that target, and if you do, all monsters your opponent controls lose ATK equal to that monster's ATK as long as that monster is on your field. Once per turn, during either player's turn: If your opponent activates a Spell/Trap card that targets a LIGHT monster(s) you control, you can banish 1 other "Astral Angel" monster from your field or hand; negate the action, and if you do, banish that card.**

* * *

"A Level Six Synchro on your first turn," Toyotomi observed. "A mere Common shouldn't be able to obtain a monster like this easily and a Top's kid has no reason to roam the slums, so who are you?"

"The one who's about to beat your ass! I activate Ophidien's effect! When it's Synchro Summoned, I get to call back myAstral Angel Artillerie-Drohne, whose effect activates once more, doubling those attack points!"

 **Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne, Lv.2** → **Lv.4, ATK: 800** → **1600**

"So that's why neechan didn't go straight for her Synchro!" Oni shouted from the side.

"Due to Ophidien's effect, all of your monsters lose attack points equal to Artillerie-Drohne's! Now, _**Tyrant's Venom**_!" The lens on Ophidien's hood began to glow and then shoot a green lock-on beam that paralyzed Toyotomi's monster.

 **Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi", ATK: 500 – 1600** → **0**

"Now let's battle! Artillerie-Drohne attacks Inashichi!" I gestured forward and my monster aimed its cannons firing a beam at Toyotomi's machine.

"Foolish! I activate my face-down card, _Golden Gearbox_! This card gives one of my Karakuri monsters five hundred attack and fifteen hundred defense points!" A box with a golden gear in the center of it attached itself to Inashichi's back and it got boosted.

 **Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi", ATK: 0 + 500** → **500, DEF: 1500 + 1500** → **3000**

"You are the foolish one!" I retorted. "Even with five hundred attack points, your monster is no match for mine! Be gone!"

My monster fired a blast toward the Karakuri monster, but then something I didn't expect happened. Instead of getting destroyed, the machine swung the scales on its back and used them to hit the beam, redirecting it back toward me. I couldn't even react before the blast hit me in the guts, knocking my body on the ground.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 – 1400** → **2600** **』**

"T-the fuck?!" Why was I the one who took the damage and not him?

"It seems that you didn't notice it." Toyotomi stretched out his arm to gesture at his monster, which was surrounded by a blue aura. Wait, this aura… "When a Karakuri is targeted for an attack it automatically changes to Defense Position, so when laughed at the miserable attack boost, you failed to notice that the thing you were fighting against was its defense."

"Damn you…" After he activated that Continuous Spell I figured out that his monsters wouldn't be a problem, so I skipped reading Inaschichi's effect; I wouldn't do that mistake again.

"Because a monster changed its Battle Position, Karakuri Anatomy gains a Karakuri Counter." His card glowed. "Now that none of your monsters is strong enough to take on my Karakuri, I guess that you are going to end you turn."

"I'm going to set a card." I was so pissed off right now for messing this up.

"During the End Phase of this turn, the effect ofGolden Gearbox ends!" The wooden box disappeared and Toyotomi's monster got back its previous stats.

 **Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi", ATK: 500 - 500** → **0, DEF: 3000 - 1500** → **1500**

"Now it's my turn, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Toyotomi] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

"I activate the Spell Card, _Karakuri Cash Cache_ and change Inashichi from defense to attack in order to add _Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan"_ from my deck to the hand, and then I Normal Summon it!" A wooden dog with three eyes and two canons on its back appeared on the field with 600 attack points.

"Due to Astral Angel Ophidien von Millionen, your monster loses its attack points!" I pointed out as my snake hissed and the dog fell down on its belly.

 **Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan", ATK: 600 - 1600** → **0**

"That doesn't matter." Toyotomi took another card from his hand. "I activate Enemy Controller to change Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne to Defense Position! Now I attack it with Saizan!"

Wait, what? I looked at my Duel Disk for information about this dog of his. So, if he took damage while the dog battled, all of his Karakuri monsters were going to gain 800 more attack and defense, which meant.

My monster swung its canon at Saizan, pushing the dog backward. Toyotomi just leaned his head to the side and smirked, taking the battle damage.

 **『** **Toyotomi LP: 4000 – 700** → **3300** **』**

"Saizan's effect now activates, all of my monsters gain eight hundred Attack and Defense Points!" The machine's eyes began to burn red and a dark aura surrounded both machines.

 **Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan", ATK: 0 + 800** → **800, DEF: 1800 + 800** → **2600**

 **Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi", ATK: 0 + 800** → **800, DEF: 1500 + 800** → **2300**

"And now Inashichi is going to destroy your monster!" The second robot swung its scales and unleashed a barrage of rockets down onto my monster, destroying it.

"Because the monster revived by Ophidien's effect left my field, the effect of Tyrant's Venom wears off as well." That bastard actually managed to break my formation while also keeping his advantage?

 **Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan", ATK: 800 + 600** → **1400**

 **Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi", ATK: 800 + 500** → **1300**

"Because at the start of this turn I changed Inashichi's Battle Position once more, so Karakuri Anatomy has two counters on it. I release it to draw two new cards!" Ah, he got his card advantage back as well. "Now I set a single card face-down and at the end of this turn, the effect of Saizan ends, returning my monsters' attack and defense values back to normal."

 **Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan", ATK: 1400 - 800** → **600, DEF: 2600 - 800** → **1800**

 **Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi", ATK: 1300 - 800** → **500, DEF: 2300 - 800** → **1500**

At least now Inashichi had defense lower than my Synchro's attack points

"Then it's my turn again. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Avice] LP: 2600, Hand: 4** **』**

"Nice!" I got a good card right there! "I activate the Quick-Play Spell, _**Selig Transformation -**_ _ **Core Switch**_! Now by discarding a card, I return Ophidien back into my Extra Deck and call forth a monster with the same level but different name!"

* * *

 **Selig Transformation - Core Switch (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Discard 1 card, then target 1 "Astral Angel" Extra Deck Monster you control; return it to the Extra Deck, then Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 "Astral Angel" Fusion Monster that lists the card "Selig Transformation" in its card text and has the same Level as that monster's original Level, but with a different name. (This Special Summon is treated as that monster's inherent Special Summoning method.)**

* * *

The plates that made Ophidien's body split apart and disappeared, leaving behind only the yellow core that then changed color to a sky blue and a new array of armor flew in, building a body around it.

" _Celestial snake, let go of your mortal form and transform into the untamed void! Transformation Summon! Come forth, Level Six!_ _ **Astral Angel Protosaur**_ _!_ "

The first thing that appeared was a white chest plate which locked the core inside a hexagonal frame in the center of the chest. Blue energy quickly shot out of the armor and additional black plates flew in to restrain the flowing energy two gauntlets locked onto the upper streams of energy while another two cuffs restrained the streams coming from its lower body. Once the energy was restrained it began to change form, turning into a hard construct. First it create a set of digitigrade dark blue legs with three claws of white plasma coming out of them, the top portion of legs had a light blue platting jutting over the pelvis and off to the side. Next the creature created a set of massive dark blue with for fingers in total and six inches long claws jutting out of them.

After the limbs were created, a white helmet landed on top of the monster's body, connecting to the rest of the main armor through a spine-like construct. More energy flowed inside the helmet, creating a light blue jaw with exposed sharp teeth and several black metal plates jut out of the side of its jaw. The upper part of the beast's head was completely covered by the helmet had a large black horn jutting from where the nose would be and there was no sight of eyes on the beast's body. The beast threw its head backward and let out a primal roar - its transformation was complete.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Protosaur**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Dinosaur/Fusion/Effect**

 **ATK: 1900/DEF: 800**

 **Effect: Must be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing 1 LIGHT monster with 2000 or more ATK and cannot be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by other ways. If this card is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck: You can banish 1 Spell Card from your Graveyard: Activate 1 "Astral Angel" or "Dimension" Continuous Spell/Trap from your Deck. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: You can sent 1 card from the top of your deck to the Graveyard; this card can make a second attack in a row. You can only use each effect of "Astral Angel Protosaur" once per turn.**

* * *

"And now I activate Protosaur's effect! By banishing Selig Transformation – Core Switch from my Graveyard, I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Sechste Dimension**_ , from my deck!" The card that appeared on my field showed on its artwork six stars, each of a different color, lining up.

* * *

 **Sechste Dimension (Spell) Continuous**

 **If a monster you control battles an opponent's monster with the same Attribute, that monster's effects are negated, and your monster gains 400 ATK during the damage step only. During the Battle Phase, you can target a monster your opponent controls and a monster you control with the same Attribute: Your targeted monster can make a second attack, but must attack the opponent's monster. You can only use this effect of "Sechste Dimension" once per turn.**

* * *

"With the ability of Sechste Dimension, if a monster I control battles a monster with the same attribute, your monster's effects are negated and mine gains four hundred attack points. And as a bonus, due to Sechste Dimension's effect, my monster gets to battle twice as long as its second target has the same attribute as it!" My Protosaur had two attributes, LIGHT and EARTH, so that meant that it could battle both Karakuri monsters because their attribute matches with one of mine.

"Heh, good luck." Toyotomi chuckled. "Your monster is a LIGHT attribute, it's not able to battle my EARTH monsters!"

"It seems that I'm not the only one who didn't give a good look to their opponent's cards." I replied. "My Astral Angel monsters are Cross-Attributed! In other words, they can count as two Attributes and you should be able to guess what Protosaur's second Attribute is!"

"Cross-Attributed?!" One of Toyotomi's goons yelled, the others following with stuff like:

"I have never heard of that before!"/"That's broken!"/"She must be cheating" blah, blah, blah…

"Hmm, an archetype whose monsters are able to bend into multiple attributes at the same time," Unlike his goons, Toyotomi seemed to be just intrigued in my deck. Aww, if I wasn't about to kick his ass I would be more than happy to explain him the complete set of rules that came with this ability.

"Your monsters are done!" I threw my fist forward. "Go, Protosaur! Destroy Inashichi with _**Star Disobedience**_!"

The claws on my monster's arms began to glow and then they increased in size, turning into full fetched blades that it used to swing down at the machine.

"Foolish once again! Inashichi's ability to change Battle Position activates the moment it's selected as attack target, so your Spell won't negate it!" What!? The robot jumped back, aboding Protosaur's blades and put its arms in front of its body for protection. "Now I activate my Trap Card, _Karakiru Trick House_! When the battle position of a Karakuri changes, I get to destroy a card on the field! I choose your Protosaur!"

"N-no way!" I wasn't paying full attention to the cards' effects and now Inashichi fired missiles from its scales, obliterating my Protosaur before the attack could hit.

For the second time I misplayed! If I choose to activate a Spell which protected my monsters Protosaur would have been able to destroy both of Toyotomi's monsters without dealing any damage, but at least I wouldn't be at such a disadvantage. Come on, Avice, pull yourself together! If I don't win this Ra knows what those bastards would choose to do with Oni! But, what should I be able to do after I already failed so many times?

"Don't give up neechan!" Oni cried out.

"Shut up!" One of the goons shouted and slapped Oni across the face. No…

They hit her. These bastards had the guts to do that?! Defeat their leader? These sewer crawlers deserve no such mercy! I would stomp them all, they were all just insects before me.

"Don't hit her!" I yelled at them. "Just touch her again and I'm going to end all of your miserable lifes, do you get that?!"

"Heh, it seems that she got serious, guys." Another of the goons said, mockingly.

"About time." Another one responded. "It's not fun watching the boss beating someone in a duel if they aren't at least trying to fight back."

"Shut up all of you!" Toyotomi stepped forward and glared at his men. "I'm in the middle of a duel, if you have something you want to do with these, do it after I finish. It's my turn, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Toyotomi] LP: 3300, Hand: 4** **』**

"I Normal Summon _Karakuri Soldier mdl 236 "Nisamu" (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)_!" Another robot with a spear made from bamboo came out of the card. "Now I'm going to crush you! I tune the Level Four Nisamu to my Level Three Saizan!"

The mechanical dog's body broke into pieces and three rings flew out of it, surrounding the warrior before a beam of light shout upward, hitting the ceiling. Rubble began to fall around us as the Synchro monster appeared.

" _Come out, the warrior programmed for full obedience! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei" (Lv.7, ATK: 2600)_!"

A robot that looked somewhat better than the previous ones appeared, sitting on some sort of chair with a shield in its right arm. It had four blue eyes staring right at me and a… wooden moustache placed right below them.

"When Burei is Synchro Summoned, I can Special Summon a Karakuri monster straight out of my deck! I summoned the Tuner Monster, _Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi" (Lv.3, ATK: 0)_!" And now a robot dressed in a green dress appeared as well… This was getting as weird as it was dangerous. "Due to Ninishi's effect, I can Normal Summoned twice in a turn, so I call out _Karakuri Ninja mdl 339 "Sazank" (Lv.3, ATK: 1200)_."

And another one… He was swarming the field even though he already had the necessary attack power to finish me off. Was he worried about my set card? That damn bastard figured it out, didn't he?

"Now I tune my Level Three Sazank and Level Two Inashichi to my Level Three Ninishi!" Just like before, the tuner monster's body broke down and three rings flew out of it, surrounding the other materials before a beam shot up and hit the ceiling, causing more rubble to fall down.

"Neechan!" I heard Oni crying out again and rubble fell around the men that held her as well.

"The fuck?" One of the men exclaimed.

"The boss is getting serious?" Why did this sound like a question?

" _The perfect leader knows no fear! Come forth, the soulless warrior leading armies into battle! Synchro Summon! Level Eight! Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido" (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)!_ "

Huge. That was the only thing I could say about that monster. Its head and shoulders slammed against the wall and ceiling, causing it all to fall apart just so the machine could stand up. Looking at its body, it was like I was staring at an impenetrable wall with two arms that held heavy katanas and a face that looked like the devil himself. There was no mistake about it, this had to be Toyotomi's ace monster.

"Bureido's effect: When its Synchro Summoned I can Special Summon a Kurakuri monster from my deck! I summon _Karakuri Ninja mdl 7749 "Nanashick" (Lv.5, ATK: 2200)_!" Ah, just what I needed, three high Level monsters staring down at me. "Battle! I attack you directly with Nanashick!"

He's not trying to finish me off with the first attack? It was because of the set card on my field, well, let's not make them wait for it then.

"Trap activate – _**Dimension Wiederherstellung**_! Through this card's effect I banish an Astral Angel monster in my Graveyard to gain Life Points equal to double its attack power! I banish Protosaur!" The glowing spirit of my monster flew out of my Duel Disk and surrounded me, giving me the strength to withstand this attack as the ninja swung its blade down at me.

* * *

 _ **Dimension Wiederherstellung (Trap) Normal**_

 _ **When you are targeted for a direct attack: Banish 1 "Astral Angel" monster with 2000 or less ATK from your Graveyard; gain LP equal to double that monster's ATK. At the end of the turn, if your LP are below 1000, you can Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel Token" (Fair/LIGHT/Level 1/ATK: 0/DEF: 0).**_

* * *

The ninja brought its katana down at me and slammed the spiritual barrier that protected me, its strength wasn't enough to pierce through, but the force was enough to send me skidding backward, just as an electrical current was suddenly discharged from my Duel Disk to add onto the pain I was feeling at that fucking moment!

 **『** **Avice LP: 2600 + 3800** → **6400 – 2200** → **4200** **』**

"At this moment the effect of _**Astral Angel Parallel Reisender**_ activates from my Graveyard! Since an Astral Angel was banished, I can Special Summon this card in attack position and give it the banished monster's attack value!"

A small white bird-like monster flew out of my Graveyard and landed in front of me. Its wings and the back of its head were black with multiple golden stripes running across its body and over its head, which had no eyes on it. The monster also had no legs, with a single large triangle attached to the lower part of its body.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Parallel Reisender**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Winged-Beast/Effect**

 **ATK: 200/DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If an "Astral Angel" monster you control or in your Graveyard is banished: You can Special Summon this card in Attack Position, and if you do, this card gains ATK equal to that banished monster's original ATK. If Special Summoned this way, banish this card when it leaves the field. Once per turn, this Attack Position card cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect.**

* * *

"And I guess you remember how much the original attack power of my Protosaur is!" My monster's wings glowed and created a golden projection of Protosaur around its body.

 **Astral Angel Parallel Reisender, ATK: 200 + 1900** → **2100**

"That doesn't matter! Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei" will attack your monster next!" The machine swung its right arm and smashed its shield into my monster's face, knocking it backward. I felt my Duel Disk discharging another current of electricity.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4200** \- **500** → **3700** **』**

"Due to Parallel Reisender's effect, it won't be destroyed once per turn!" I pointed out. Of course there was still one more Karakuri left to attack so…

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell – _Karakuri Gold Dust_! Through its effect I change Burei to Defense Position and give all of its attack points over to Bureido!" The first shogun fell down on its knees and the second one crossed its blades, which became golden.

 **Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido", ATK: 2800 + 2600** → **5400**

This one was going to hurt a lot…

"Bureido's effect lets me draw a card when a monster of mine has its battle position changed. Now attack this brat's monster!"

The machine swung its blades and cut the hologram into pieces before following up with Parallel Reisender's wings. But the attacks didn't end there and the machine swung its blades once more, this time slashing at me instead.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3700** \- **3300** → **400** **』**

A single scream tore out of my throat. How was I alive after this one? I had no idea. Everything just went black, I'm not sure if I lost consciousness for a second or not, but I felt something tearing through my chest during the entire time. It was like something set my skin and insides on fire. It was like it was trying to tear through my guts and come outside. The taste of metal filled my mouth, it was awful. So awful, that for a moment, I thought that dying would feel better.

My body gave up, I collapsed on the ground in defeat. Red was dripping from my lips, did I accidentally bit the inside of my mouth, or was it from a different injury? I couldn't tell. My vision has gotten blurry and my heart was racing. Was I scared? I saw death once already and I didn't trembled then, so why now? Why was I scared of this man?!

"Neechan!"

Oni…

Was I scared because of Oni?

I cared about her, damn right I did! This fear haunting me, it wasn't about my own future, it was about Oni's. If I lost here, what would happen to her?

"Your body is at its limits. One more hit, and you will die." Toyotomi looked down at me. He was standing as some all-mighty kings, as if he stood above me. Don't joke around, you bastard – you are just a worm who forgot their place!

"Thanks." But despite that he was a worm, I had to thank him. "Heh, I couldn't believe it, but you were actually useful for me. Because of you, I just got to see a glimpse of the abyss inside my heart."

"What nonsense is this brat saying?"

"Did she lose her mind from that last hit?"

I ignored the goons and focused my attention on Toyotomi. "I must admit, I let this go a little over my head, I thought highly of myself when I challenged you to a duel."

"Are you begging for mercy now?" Toyotomi chuckled. "Or are you going to ask me for a quick end? Don't worry, the little one isn't going to follow you; there are… other uses for her. For now, I set two cards."

"Heh, you are absolutely wrong." I chuckled and raised back onto my feet, turning my eyes toward Oni. "I was too arrogant, so I forgot the most important thing about dueling – no matter how strong you are, duel as if your opponent is stronger. No matter my strength, if I duel completely blinded by my ego, I would still lose. And now that I remembered that…"

I'm going to win this duel!

"During the End Phase, the effect of Dimension Wiederherstellung Special Summons an Astral Angel Token on my field!" A small blue core surrounded by two golden rings appeared before me with 0 DEF.

"And now the effect of Golden Dust ends as well, returning my Synchro's attack points to their base." Toyotomi was 'kind' enough to say it.

 **Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido", ATK: 5400 - 2600** → **2800**

"My turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Avice] LP: 400, Hand: 3** **』**

"I activate _**Cards of Purgatory**_! With this card, I destroy a Spell on the field to draw a new card, and if the card that I drew is a Spell, I get to draw another card!" This was my chance of a comeback!

* * *

 **Cards of Purgatory (Spell) Normal**

 **Target 1 face-up Spell Card on the field; destroy that target, and if you do, draw 1 card, then if that card is a Spell Card, you can reveal it and draw 1 more card.**

* * *

"I won't let you!" Toyotomi exclaimed. "Counter trap, Karakuri Cash Shed! Since I control a face-up Defense Position Karakuri, this card negates your card and destroys it!"

"You are afraid now." He was afraid that I would draw a card to turn this around with, so he used his trap right now.

"You are giving yourself too much credit." Toyotomi narrowed his eyes, looking down at me. Even if he said that, I could sense the fear inside of him…

"You wasted your card! I activate _**Selig Transformation – Beyond**_! Through this card, I can Transformation Summon by using a monster in my Graveyard! I banish Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne to transform it!" A white halo appeared before me and the drone flew through it, its armor disappearing and getting replaced by a new one.

* * *

 **Selig Transformation – Beyond (Spell) Normal**

 **Banish 1 LIGHT monster from your Graveyard, then Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 LIGHT Fusion monster who requires a monster with the same stats as the one banished by this effect in its Summoning Conditions. (This Special Summon is treated as that monster's inherent Special Summoning method.)**

* * *

" _Drone that never misses its target, drop your shell and become the flame through which echoes the horn of a new battle! Transformation Summon! Level Three!_ _ **Astral Angel Flag Bearer**_ _!_ "

A white circle appeared in the air and tiny warrior in heavy white armor fell from it. The monster's body was covered in blue lines that covered the left side of its chest, knees and shoulder plates, while red ones covered the right sides. Its helmet was black and elongated toward the back with a tiny blue eye on the left side and a large monocle-shaped red eye on the right side. The tiny warrior raised its arms upward and the white circle that transported it transformed into a golden spear with a long black blade surrounded by three white rings.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Flag Bearer**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT FIRE/Type: Fairy/Fusion/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 1300/DEF: 0**

 **Effect: Must be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing 1 LIGHT monster with 1000 or less ATK and cannot be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by other ways. You can tribute 1 monster you control or in your hand: Special Summon 1 of you banished LIGHT monsters, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of "Astral Angel Flag Bearer" once per turn.**

* * *

"Due to Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne's effect I draw a card when it's banished." A spell card… It seems that Toyotomi didn't waste his Counter Trap after all. "I now release a monster in my hand to activate Flag Bearer's effect! I revive my banished Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne!"

Flag Bearer threw its spear on the ground and the three rings on it began to glow, transforming into a glowing golden flag with white outlines as my drone flew out of it and landed behind Flag Bearer.

"And now, I tune the Level Two Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne and the Level One Astral Angel Token to my Level Three Flag Bearer!" Flag Bearer's flag turned green and then three rings appeared around it with my other two monsters standing behind it. The rings then collapsed inward and exploded into a blinding light.

" _Beast born in the burning heart of a star. With your soul colder than the endless void, soar in a fiery rage! Synchro Summon! Level Six! Astral Angel Ophidien von Millionen (Lv.6, ATK: 1700)!_ "

"That one again?" One of the goons chuckled. "It's too weak to stand up to boss' monsters!"

"Ophidien's effect activates!" I ignored the idiots in the side. "When its Synchro Summoned, I Special Summon one of my banished Level Six or lower LIGHT monsters! Come back, _Astral Angel Protosaur (Lv.6, ATK: 1900)_!" A portal opened and Ophidien pulled the dinosaur out of it with its tail. "And now, all of your monsters lose attack points equal to Protosaur's! _Tyrant's Venom_!"

 **Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido", ATK: 2800 - 1900** → **900**

 **Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei", ATK: 2600 - 1900** → **700**

 **Karakuri Ninja mdl 7749 "Nanashick", ATK: 2200 - 1900** → **300**

"And last, I activate the Continuous Spell – _**Astral Angel Voraussicht**_!" I activated a card that showed a monk in white robes raising its arms toward the stars, which were forming into constellations. "I send the top three cards of my deck to the Graveyard, and then I get to Special Summon a monster in my Graveyard whose Level is less than, or equal to the combined levels of the monsters sent by this effect!"

* * *

 **Astral Angel Voraussicht** **(Spell) Continuous**

 **Pendulum Scale: 9**

 **Pendulum Effect: If a LIGHT monster(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish 1 card from the top of your Deck, for each of those monster(s) instead. You can only use this effect of "Astral Angel Voraussicht" up to twice per turn.**

 **When this card is activated: Send the top 3 cards of your deck to the Graveyard, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 LIGHT monster from your Graveyard, whose Level is less than, or equal to the combined Level of the monsters send to the Graveyard by this effect. Once per turn, you can place this card in your Pendulum Zone. You can only activate "Astral Angel Voraussicht" in your Spell/Trap Zone once per turn.**

* * *

I took the top three cards of my deck and slide them into the Graveyard, a Trap Card, another trap, and finally… "I sent the Level Six, Sola Starlit the Preon Seraph to my Graveyard, so I can revive a monster with a level that's all the way up to six! Come before me, _**Sola Starlit the Preon Seraph**_!"

The black graveyard portal opened before me and a large green pendulum floated out of it. The crystal broke apart and my new Sola flew out of it. Her appearance, for the most part, was the same as that of Sola Starlit the Pendulum Seraph, with only a few minor changes. She now had black armored platting that jutted from the sides of her waist and covered her thighs. A heavy black spine-like construct was attached to the back of her body with a black ring attached to each of her scapulas. My monster jumped into the air and the rings on her back generated a pair of white energy wings that she used to remain in the air.

* * *

 **Sola Starlit the Preon Seraph**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Pendulum/Effect**

 **P.S: 7**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 1800**

 **Pendulum Effect: Once per turn, during the turn this card was activated in the Pendulum Zone: You can destroy 1 card your opponent controls.**

 **Effect: When this card is Special Summoned: If you control another "Astral Angel" or "Sola" monster, you can destroy 1 face-up card on the field. Once per turn: You can target 1 of your banished monsters; Special Summon that target, and if you do, this card can't declare an attack during this turn's Battle Phase(s). You can only use each effect of "Sola Starlit the Preon Seraph" once per turn.**

* * *

"Another weird thing showed up." Toyotomi looked at his Duel Disk. "What is a Pendulum monster?"

"It's the monster that's going to end this duel. Sola's effect activates! When she is Special Summoned, I can destroy Nanashick! _**Giga Cutter**_!" A holographic triangle appeared in front of Sora and she fired a beam through it, the reaction causing the beam to turn into four lasers that cut through the field as well as Nanashick, destroying it.

"Let's end this now! I activate Astral Angel Voraussicht's effect to set it in the Pendulum Scale, now battle! I attack Bureido with Protosaur! _Star Disobedience_!"

The claws on Protosaur's arms increased in size once more and it swung them down at the Synchro monster.

"At this point the effect of Sechste Dimension is going to increase Protosaur's attack by four hundred!" My monster's claws turned yellow and it cut Bureido in half.

 **Astral Angel Protosaur, ATK: 1900 + 400** → **2300**

 **『** **Toyotomi LP: 3300 - 1400** → **1900** **』**

"And now, I use Sechste Dimension's second effect! Targeting Protosaur and Burei, these monsters must battle this turn! Cut him into pieces!" Protosaur roared and made a sharp turn, charging at the robotic shogun next.

"Then I'm going to end this for you!" Toyotomi yelled. "I activate the Trap Card – _Karakuri Klock_! Since a Defense Position Karakuri monster on my field was selected as an attack target, this will destroy all of your monsters!"

Heh, thought so.

"Astral Angel Voraussicht's pendulum effect activate. For each of my monsters that would be destroyed, I banish a card from the top of my deck instead." I took three cards and slid them in the banished zone just as three golden haloes appeared over my monsters' heads protecting them from the trap's effect. "With this, Protosaur is now going to finish your last monster!"

My dinosaur cut off the last Synchro's head clean off and jumped back on my side, letting the Synchro's body to explode from the damage inflicted upon it.

"Impossible! You actually managed to foresee my trap?!" Toyotomi exclaimed.

"I didn't foresee anything! Like I told you, the best way to ensure you victory is to believe that no matter how strong you are, your opponent always has something prepared to counter your moves! I was prepared for this situation, so that's why I won! Go, Sola, finish this duel! _**Dynamic Booster**_!"

Sola flew up in the air, the bolts covering her arms and back began to generate electricity, which flew into her wings. Once she charged up, Sola brought her arms in front of herself and her wings conjuring a blinding beam that caused everything around us to shake from the energy used in this attack. I didn't give Toyotomi a moment to react as the beam hit him immediately and exploded. The ground began to shake and pieces of the ceiling before to fall down, the goons that held Oni began to scream and run away.

 **『** **Toyotomi LP: 1900 - 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

I deactivated my Duel Disk and quickly jumped off the platform, running off toward Oni. She didn't wait and jumped into my arms, hugging me tightly.

"You did it, neechan! You-" Just as she was about to say something, Oni's eyes suddenly widened, her lips remained parted away and then… her body suddenly collapsed forward, falling into my arms.

"Oni?" What was wrong? "Oni what's wrong?! Oni!" I looked her over and then I noticed it.

A knife.

In her back.

"Shit…" I glared back at the platform, Toyotomi was looking back at me, blood dripping from his face and a knife in his hand. I should have seen that coming. That worm wasn't going to keep his end of the bargain.

He raised his hand, preparing to throw the second knife toward me and I prepared to dodge it, but before either of us could make a move, more rubble fell down in-between us, blocking his vision. This was my chance! I wasn't going to waste time trying to get pointless revenge. I held Oni in my arms and ran off, my feet were dragging against the floor. I turned down a different hallway from the one through which I came, not sure where I was going, just trying to get away from this band.

The weight of Oni's body was starting to grow more and more, soon I could also hear the voices of the goons behind me, quickly getting louder. They were onto me. I looked around, hoping to find some place where I could hide until they passed, but the only thing before me was a straight hallway with no end in sight. The only thing I could do was run; run with the last of my strength and hope that by some miracle I would find an exit before they find them.

"She went this way!" Someone yelled from behind me; no luck this time, they were coming for me and I was at my limits already.

"Avice!" At that moment, another voice called out my name and someone appeared before my vision. Was that…

"Ventus?" How did that guy find me? "Where did you come from?"

"A tunnel? The surface was shaking and explosions could be heard from a mile away, so I came to investigate and see who was distrubing the innocent people above." Well, I wasn't going to argue with that logic. "So, what did you get yourself into this time? And Oni,"

"She needs medical attention." The knife that was in her back would keep the blood from spilling, but I couldn't leave her like this. "There are thugs on my tail. Will you cover me? Please?"

Ventus didn't respond. Our ninja wannabe simply stepped past me and continued on in the direction from which the goons' voices were coming. I would have to thank him for this, but now I had to move. Oni… I got you into this mess, so I'm going to be the one to make it all alright. Just, please, hold on until we're out of this hellhole.

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K.**

 **Cross-Attributed** **: Is a special ability only available for the "ChronoDevil" and "Astral Angel" archetypes as a sort of natural evolution meant to kept them from being restricted by their singular attribute.**

 **Through Cross-Attribute is enforced a special Attribute Hierachy according to which LIGHT and DARK stand above FIRE, WIND, EARTH, WATER. Due to this, Cross-Attribute can only be achieved if the given monster has one higher and one lesser attribute.**

 **Monsters with two higher, or two lesser attributes are counter as pseudo-Cross-Attributed and therefore don't have the special abilities of the usual Cross-Attributed monsters, which includes the ability to partially deactivate their primal attribute in order to enforce their lesser attribute, therefore negating the negative effects of attribute-specific cards that directly hinder the monsters, such as '** _Light-Imprisoning Mirror_ **'.**

* * *

 **Chapter 46: Learning of Consequences**

 **Summary:** After being brought time to escape by Ventus, who choose to stay back and hold off Toyotomi's gang, Avice tries to carry the injured Oni to safety, but the effects from her harsh duel with Toyotomi and the lassitude cause her to lose consciousness. After Avice awakes, she found herself lying in an apartment with a pair of twins standing next to her. Meanwhile, Yugo explains to Yuzu and Elizabeth about the current situation of his dimension.

 **Chapter 47: Demons Move Across Dimensions**

 **Summary:** Finding themselves in the Synchro Dimension with most of the other Lancers gone, Evan follows Reiji and his plan to go and negotiate with the higher ups of this Dimension about creating an alliance against Academia. At the same time however, Kiharu who had the same idea, but due to her tattered outfit got mistaken for a Common is confronted by the security defending the Capital Building. Finding the safety of the Lancers as a much more important priority than negotiating, Reiji and Evan showcase the tremendous strength of the Standard Dimension's dueling!

* * *

 **A/N: And hopefully Avice will be able to make-up for her extreme fuck-up in this chapter next time! Actually, so many things happened in this chapter that I'm not sure where to start, but I'll try anyway.**

 **The criminal underworld of Domino City is going to actually be a very important part throughout the Synchro Arc, so in case anyone wonders, no Toyotomi's gang aren't a one-shot group that will never appear again. As I said during my Standard Arc, this Synchro Arc will focus on the world itself, instead of the Friendship Cup, so prepare for a lot of crazy stuff to happen!**

 **There were also two new dueling terms used in this chapter, the more eye-catching "** Cross-Attribute **" and the less noticable "** inherent Special Summoning method **", both of which are going to get their own T.M.Y.K. section in the future. Only thing I want to note is that when I introduce a monster whose two attributes are _DARK_ and _LIGHT_ , it won't be typed as _DARK LIGHT_ or _LIGHT DARK_ , but as _CHAOS_. So, no, monsters with CHAOS attribute don't have some sort of new eighth attribute, they are just a fusion of LIGHT and DARK.**

 **And since I'm still on the topic of Cross-Attributes, I must give credits to** _SPRGMR27_ **as the idea for monsters with two attributes might or might not have come from her idea for Pre-Typing...**

 **Now onto the reviews!**

ScalchopWarrior **: About Liz, duel. Yes, I admit that the main idea behind it wasn't to make it interesting but to introduce her new archetype. Also, sorry for the mistake with the names, I just had Rayen changed to Cyania AFTER writting the chapter and failed to spot that one.**

 **Also, surprised that you say "Evice "graced" us with her holy bitchness" after calling the Avice vs Evice duel** **"Thot vs Waifu". D-did you mistake the two of them?**

ThePLOThand **: You critique is always important to me. For instance, you were the only one who noticed that some of my cards weren't as original, or at least were the only one who called me out of it, so your imput is always important to me. I listen to pretty much everyone who has something they want to share.**

 **I'm going to only respond to your problem about how you usually don't have to root against the lead role.** **Well, Evan IS the villain. Yes, I want to make him more human-like and more sympathetic, but that doesn't mean that he will stop being the villain. Its not that far away that you would root against the villain of a story right? As whenever his unpleasantness comes from the fact that he is a villain or by how his character is a whining brat, that's a different problem that I'm going to try and sort out.**

 **And that's all from us! Thanks for reading and we will see ya next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer and-! Wait, what?**

 **She's still angry about the chapter?**

 **Well, I have to close off right now, so I won't be able to be her punching bag until this is over** **...**

 **Diabolic Tracer out!**


	46. Chapter 46

Learning of Consequences

 **Avice's POV**

Damn it, I couldn't do it anymore. I was carrying Oni's body for hours, my arms, my legs, basically my entire body was starting to give up and the fatigue became unbearable. Maybe it was finally time to put Oni down and rest, but I had to find a goddamn hospital first! I couldn't see how bad Oni's wound was while carrying her, but she wasn't doing well, her body was burning and she had a hard time breathing. Symptoms of fever I presume. The body wasn't reacting well to the knife and I don't dare remove it because that would just open her wound for blood to spill out faster.

No, I just couldn't do it anymore. My legs began to drag against the ground as I moved and everything before me was starting to get dark. Well, it was already night, but that wasn't what I meant. I lied down, unable to move anymore, just waiting for my vision to turn completely black. Hopefully someone would find us and help Oni before it was too late, even if the chance for this to happen was very low, I would pray to whatever divine power watched over us – please, save Oni. I don't need to feel quilt over her dead, so someone, something, save her.

That's all that I…

* * *

 **Elizabeth's POV**

"It's nice to see that you managed to make it out." I said to Yuzu and Yugo once they showed up. I was waiting for like an hour here, hoping that Security won't sniff me out.

"Well, it wasn't as easy as I expected." Yugo commented, removing his helmet. I raised an eyebrow; what was that supposed to mean? Did they get in trouble?

"A Security patrol challenged us to a Riding Duel." Yuzu commented, she looked a bit scared… "These Security Forces, they really aren't holding back."

Yeah, she could say that again. I was never an anime fan, but I believe that even in 5D's the cops were a bit off an ass toward those who weren't from the city, or had that criminal mark. However, I don't remember them treating people like literal criminals just because someone walked into a park, was fucking weird and only made me more worried about my siblings. Seeing how the police here would arrest anyone for doing literally nothing, I couldn't imagine the amount of trouble Evan and Avice would get themselves into with their crazy antics.

But since Yugo was with us and he was raised in this world, maybe I could ask him why exactly the Security came after us. Yes, that was a good idea indeed.

"I suggest you lie low for a while." Yugo commented. "Security doesn't give up until they arrest those who cross their path, so it's likely that they already have dispatched a few dozen squads to look for us."

"And why exactly are they so aggressive toward us?" I asked him. "People also called us Commons, are those some crime group or something?"

"Nothing like that!" Yugo shouted back at me. Wow, I didn't expect such a sharp reaction from him.

"The society in this city is divided between two classes." Yuzu told me. "The Tops, who represent the rich class and have control over most of the resources in the city and the Commons which,"

"Live at the bottom." I finished instead of her.

Ah shit, I never thought that Yu-Gi-Oh would try to get insert one those political messages about the class dividing and such, but it made me angry. As any normal person, I hated when people picked on the weak, and if entire society was built this way, I think I would lose control and punch a Top in the face just for the heck of it!

"Let's be going." Yugo walked past me, pushing his D-Wheel along the way.

Um, going where? I wasn't with them during the escape and we didn't make any plans for after we reunite, so I looked over to Yuzu for an answer, but she seemed just as confused as me. I sighed and tapped Yugo's shoulder, causing the boy to turn around and look at me.

"What?" He sounded a bit annoyed…

"Where're we going?" I asked him. "In case you haven't noticed, me and Yuzu aren't familiar with this city, so we got no idea what you are planning?"

"To a secure place where Security surely won't come to look for any of us!" Yugo put a hand on his chest and continued. "We'll hide in the orphanage that I grew at! The people there are nice and all of them are Commons, so no one's going to turn us in to the Security."

"Wait, you were rising in an orphanage?" I asked him; I didn't expect that Yugo could have been rising without parents, he was way too nice for someone rising by strangers.

"Of course I was!" Yugo exclaimed. "That's true for most children of Commons. Since everyone here has to fight for their own food, parents don't have the ability to rise their kids and most often give them to the orphanage for care."

Oh. That sounded, sad. I could sympathize with Yugo to a certain extent, we both were raised without parents, but unlike him, I lived in much better conditions and yet, I still carved something more. More luxury, an even better life. Geez, I was just as greedy as the rest of my family, wasn't I? Maybe that was something inherited by blood…

* * *

 **Avice's POV**

"Do you think that she will be fine?"

I heard a voice, followed by another one. They were talking, saying something that I didn't pay much attention to. For some reason, I felt hot, like someone had put a lamp right in front of my face. I opened my eyes and immediately covered my face with a hand, the sun was shining right into my eyes.

"Hey, she woke up!"

"Shhh, Lua! You'll scare her!"

Those voices, they sounded like little children, well, not much smaller than me, but they definitely weren't adults. I turned away from the light and looked around. I have awaken inside someone's apartment, lying on a sofa with my Duel Disk and deck placed on a table right in front of me. But those details weren't of much importance as I turned toward the voices and looked at the kids that were with me.

No way!

I knew those kids! They were Leo and Luna from 5D's! Well, now we all know that the Signers exist in this universe, folks.

"I guess I should thank you for saving me." What? Even If I wasn't conscious, given that I was in an apartment, taken care of and all, it was basic deductive reasoning to figure that one out. "Where's Oni?"

"Oni?" Leo tilted his head, looking confused. Shit! Don't tell me that you took only me and left the bleeding girl on her own!

"She means the girl that she has been carrying." Luna shook her head and turned toward me. "Don't worry, she's in the next room, we called a doctor to treat her injury."

That was a relief. I felt that I was going to grab both of them and throw them through the window if I heard that something happened to Oni, but since she was treated it was all ok, I wasn't going to try and murder someone. Well, it was my rash behavior that got both me and Oni in this situation in the first place. Hopefully she won't have me when she wakes up.

"Can I see her?" I asked the twins.

"Of course, but can't you introduce yourself first?" Leo asked me.

"Lua!" Wait, Lua? Oh right, this wasn't the dub, so they had different names from the ones I was used with. To forget such simple things, I must have taken a lot of damage during that last duel…

"It's fine." I raised a hand to calm Luna down. "Given that you just saved two collapsed girls, one of which had a knife in her back, I'm sure that there are most pressing questions you got for me, but I'm Avice. Avice Greyson."

"Avice… You aren't from around here, are you?" Lua asked me another question. Jeez, he acted so casually despite everything, was he just an airhead? Oh wait, he was an airhead in the anime, so of course he would be one here as well.

"I'm sure that where she's from isn't as important right now." Luna retorted, then looked at me. "But I believe we should introduce ourselves as well, before we continue this conversation. I'm Ruka and this is my twin brother, Lua."

So, her Japanese name was Ruka. What? I was never that interested in the anime and remembering foreign names for a long period of time wasn't the way I rolled. Surely, I would have to ask these two for their names again in a week or two. Hopefully by that time everyone would have gotten the way I wanted and I won't need help from the weakest of the Signers.

"I see…" I took my deck and Duel Disk, putting the latter onto my wrist. I wasn't even going to check to see if any of my cards were stolen, these kids weren't the type that would steal someone else's cards, I already knew that.

"In which room is Oni?" I asked them. Yes, there was much that I would have to answer about, but I wanted to make sure that Oni was in a better condition before doing any of that.

"She's in one of the spare bedrooms." Lua pointed at the exact room. "The doctor told us to let her rest, so we haven't visited her,"

I ignored Lua's explanation and walked into the room and found Oni sleeping on the bed there. Frankly, I had no idea where the twins managed to find a doctor who would treat this girl's wound and not ask any questions, maybe they did, and maybe Security was going to knock on the door any second now. That wasn't what mattered at that moment. There was just one thing that I had to remember – this was my fault. I thought myself better than everyone, well, I was better than everyone, but even a giant could be overpowered by a thousand or so men.

I put my pride at front stage. I went to challenge those criminals armed with only my belief that my brother would take care of everything, when he wasn't there to save us if things go through. I should have kept my cold and acted rationally – face the obstacles with my brains, not with my pride. But what was the point of realizing that now?

I walked outside and closed the door behind me. I was the one who put Oni's life in danger, I was no role model, just a bringer of disasters. I don't want to think such awful things, but could I have followed a wrong path in life until now? No, it all worked out for my brother. Maybe I was just inexperienced and needed more time to understand all of this. Right?

"Is she your sister?" Ruka walked to me and asked.

"No, but I'm the one who takes care of her." Or that was what I was supposed to be doing, not putting her in danger. "But my siblings would freak out if they hear about this."

"So, you do have siblings?" Lua joined into the conversation. "Are they close? Maybe it's best to tell me what happened."

"I don't know where they are." I shook my head. Actually, this was too vague and suspicious answer. "You see, we just came in town and were searching for a place to stay when I and Oni got separated from my older siblings. We found ourselves in the poor parts of the city and, you can figure out how the story went from there, can't you?"

"It was the Commons, doing!" Lua realized.

"Don't say it like that, I'm sure not all Commons are bad." Ruka tried to reason with her brother.

"How can you be so sure, Ruka?" Lua turned toward his sister; so now he was ignoring me? "Reports of crimes committed by Commons are being reported on a daily basis. Can you tell me one Common who isn't a criminal?"

"Isn't Jack Atlas a Common as well?" Wait, Jack existed in this universe as well? I mean, I expected it since Lua and Ruka do, but those words just confirmed it for me.

"H-he's different." Lua crossed his arms and turned his back to us. "The rumors about him being a Common are most likely spread by people jealous that Jack's the king."

Watching them argue like this remind be of how Evan and Elizabeth always argued with one another. Actually, in TV siblings always had arguments and even fought between each other, those were actions that I was never able to understand. Why would someone fight with their siblings? But TV always showed their relation like this with brothers and sisters fighting, but making up at the end. It rose a question in my mind, were sibling fights a common thing? Was I the weird one out?

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" I interrupted them, but I have gotten curious.

"What is it?" Of course, Ruka was the first one to give up on their arguing and turned toward me with Lua following suit.

"Is there a problem?" Lua asked as well.

"I was just curious… It's a stupid question, but don't you think it's wrong for siblings to argue with each other?" It was a weird question, but after my last failure I think that maybe it would be best to start looking for other people's opinions, and this was the first topic I was going to ask people to give me their opinion.

"I dunno." Lua shrugged. "I and Ruka never have serious arguments, we get along for the most part, so I'm ok with it."

"I don't see why giving our opinions to one another should be wrong." Ruka added. "Though only if Lua listened to me a bit more, he wouldn't get in so much trouble."

"Hey!"

So, it was a normal thing for them as well? I had to admit that looking from the side it was pretty amusing, if not even cute. It made me realize how unusual my sibling relationships were. Even though I never liked Elizabeth's view of the world, the way she acted, I never talked with her, never tried to understand her. Instead, I hide in Evan's shadow, I had in darkness denying to look either of them in the face and see them for what they truly were. For what all three of us were.

Flawed. We were just a group of teens. Each of us had their own set of flaws and strengths. It was my mistake for only looking at the good in my brother and the bad in my sister instead of looking at both of them as a combination of good and bad traits.

"Hey, there's something that I almost forgot!" Lua suddenly shouted out loud and ran into the living room.

I looked at Ruka for any hints about what her brother meant, but she just shrugged back at me and the two of us followed after him. As we did, he jumped through an open door holding up a blue Duel Disk. Synchro Dimension's Duel Disks were definitely different from Standard, they still used a simplistic body, but it was circular in shape.

"Let's duel!" Lua exclaimed, holding up his Duel Disk.

"Where did that came from?" I asked.

"You are just bothering her, Lua." Ruka shook her head. "After what she went through this isn't the best time."

After all that happened, huh? I guess she was right, but all that happened was the reason why I had to duel more. I would have lost back then because I was confident and made rookie mistakes. I knew that beating the bastard easier wasn't going to change the end result, but right now I needed something to get my attention away from that failure. I just didn't want to think about it anymore.

"No, don't get me wrong." I put a hand on Lua's shoulder. "I don't mind having a duel with you, but this request kind of came out of nowhere."

"Yeah… Sorry about that." Lua laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "I just thought that since you have a Duel Disk and a deck, you could help me train out my combos."

"Don't you combos usually cause you to lose?" Ruka spoke up.

"It's just that I never get the chance to pull them off!" Lua argued back. "If I was given the chance, I would have totally won all of those duels!"

I see, so Lua was a novice Duelist in this universe as well? Really, I didn't want to beat his ass, but I should keep my form as well and I wanted to improve my new deck, so maybe I could try to play easy on him. Still, if we wanted to really raise the stakes…

"Ok, I'm up for a duel."

"Really!?" Lua and Ruka exclaimed in unison.

"Of course." I tried to put up a smile. "How about we have a team duel? You and your sister against me?"

"Won't that be unfair?" Ah Ruka, you have no idea how unfair this duel would be, for you two of course.

"I like challenges!" I argued back. "Just give me a moment to do a few changes to my deck, ok?"

The siblings looked at each other, then nodded. To cut explanation short, in the next ten minutes I combined my old and new deck to form a much better, yet familiar deck that I could use. After finishing it, I walked outside, where both Lua and Ruka were already waiting for me with their Duel Disks on.

"So, are you ready?" Lua asked excited.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Ruka muttered.

"Come on, let's just have some fun." I can't believe that those words came out of my mouth. "Here's how we will do this. It will be a Battle-Royale like duel where you two will be teamed up against me. Each of you will have four thousand Life Points and their own separated field. If that's ok with you, we'll start with Lua's turn."

"That's fine with me!" Lua nodded eagerly.

"I understand." Ruka nodded.

"Good." I have also deactivated the Action Field option on my Duel Disk, not that I was going to use it either way. "Now let's,"

"DUEL!" We all shouted out loud.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Lua LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Ruka LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"Here I go!" Lua exclaimed, grabbing one of the cards in his hand. "I Normal Summon _Morphtronic Celfon (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_!" A yellow cellphone appeared on the field and transformed into a robot. "Now you will see the special power of my Morphtronic deck! The ability of my Morphtronic monsters depend of their battle position, and since Celfon is in attack position it gains its first effect."

I rolled my eyes. I remember that this was his to-go monster back in 5D's, something that apparently hasn't changed, despite this being a different timeline. He also wasn't very careful, leaving a 100 ATK monster on his field? I would be able to destroy it in seconds!

"Next I activate the effect of Celfon! I roll a dice and reveal the top cards of my deck equal to the number I got, then, if there are any Level Four or lower Morphtronic monsters among them, I can Special Summon one!" The numbers on the monster's chest began to glow and the number 3 was chosen at random. "Aaaand… There it is! I Special Summon _Morphtronic Clocken (Lv.2, DEF 1100)_!"

A white alarm clock appeared on the field next. Ok, I had to admit that I haven't heard of this one before, which is a surprise.

"Hehe, now Clocken's defense position effect kicks in!" Lua pumped his fist forward. "Once per turn, I can put a Morph Counter on it and by Tributing this card, I can inflict a thousand points of damage to you for each Morph Counter! But for now, I'm going to choose to just put a counter and wait until I get enough to finish this in one hit!"

"Don't tell your opponent what's your strategy, Lua." Ruka shook her head in disappointed. "Also, this combo again? You weren't able to pull it last time either, so just move on from it already!"

"Ah, mind your own business, Ruka!" Lua exclaimed offended. "I just haven't had luck before, but it will be different this time around!"

Was this what bickering between siblings looked like? I had to say, it looked kind of adorable, albeit me and my siblings never did stupid things like this. We were able to work together, for the most part, but I'm sure that there must have been at least one time in our life when we looked just like these two. Having an argument about game strategy when we were just playing for fun? Yeah, I could see my brother and sister doing something like that if they were younger.

"It's not a bad strategy." I commented, catching the twins' attention.

"R-really?!" Lua's eyes widened as he stared at me in awe, while Ruka just seemed confused.

"Indeed." I nodded, completely serious about it. "Because a duelist starts with just four thousand Life Points, you have to only protect your monster for four turns, something that should be easy enough to do if you run a lot of stun cards. It's still a worse version of Wave-Motion Cannon, but if you know what you are doing, it would be easy to pull it off."

"Heh, thanks!" Lua rubbed the back of his head and a small blush appeared across his face. "Then I better secure my strategy! I set two cards and end my turn!"

"Lua!" Ruka exclaimed. "Don't tell your opponent what kind of cards you are setting! Now they are sure to disrupt your strategy!"

"Oh." Lua's eyes widened. Seriously, watching Ruka call out Lua on what he was doing wrong was the most entertaining thing I have done in a while – which speaks a lot more about me than about them.

"It's my turn then." I said and looked down at my improved deck. "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Avice] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"At this moment I activate my Trap!" Lua exclaimed, turning one of his set cards face-up. " _Morphtronic Bind_ 's effect stops all of your Level Four or higher monsters from attacking while I have a Morphtronic monster on my field!"

A green energy web appeared around me, covering my entire field. That wasn't a bad move by itself, but maybe Lua would have been better off saving it for the Battle Phase, because right now this is just a sitting Mystic Space Typhoon target.

"Ok, here's an advice for you." I said. "Next time you use a trap to block attacks, wait for the Battle Phase to activate it, or else your opponent might play around it. Sort of like how I'm about to do right now! I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne (Lv.2, ATK: 800)_!"

"A Level Two!?" Lua's eyes widened.

"Calm down, Lua." His sister spoke up. "Her monster is three hundred points too weak to destroy Clocken, your strategy is safe."

"Huh?" Lua looked at his sister and then back at his Duel Disk. "You are right, Ruka! My Clocken is still safe!"

"Also, only the last player is allowed to attack on their first turn in a Battle Royale." I added. I mean, I wasn't sure about this rule since most of the other duelists seemed to ignore it, but I wanted to give Lua a chance to set up a decent field before I beat him and his sister. "So, I can't attack either way. Instead, I'm going to set a card and end my turn!"

"That means that it's my turn now." Ruka smiled. "Now look, Lua, this is how you make a strategic play. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Ruka] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

Ruke looked down at her hand. She was planning carefully her moves, unlike Lua who seemed to be just going with the flow of things. I should play more carefully around her…

"First, I'll activate _Foolish Burial_ to send _**Ancient Fairy Pegasus**_ from my deck to the graveyard." Wait, wasn't Ancient Fairy the name of her dragon? Now it was the name of her archetype?

* * *

 **Ancient Fairy Pegasus**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 1700**

 **Effect: You can discard this card to your Graveyard; add 1 Level 3 or lower "Ancient Fairy" monster from your Deck to the hand. Once per turn, if there's a face-up Field Spell on the field: You can destroy 1 set card your opponent controls. You can only use each effect of "Ancient Forest Dragon" once per turn.**

* * *

"I activate the Field Spell, _**Ancient Fairy Forest**_! When this card is activated, I can add an Ancient Fairy card from my deck to the hand!" A card popped out of Ruka's Duel Disk and she showed it to me. "And now, I Normal Summon the monster that I added, _**Ancient Fairy Spirit**_!"

* * *

 **Ancient Fairy Forest (Spell) Field**

 **When this card is activated: You can add 1 "Ancient Fairy" card from your Deck to the hand. When a monster is Normal Summoned, you can change it to Defense Position. During the End Phase, if a monster declared an attack, destroy that monster. You can only activate 1 "Ancient Fairy Forest" per turn.**

* * *

A tiny blue spirit with a mischievous smile on its face appeared on the field. The creature didn't have any arms or legs, only a small golden crown sitting on top of its head and glowing yellow eyes.

* * *

 **Ancient Fairy Spirit**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: DARK/Type: Fairy/Tuner/Effect**

 **ATK: 300/DEF: 1400**

 **Effect: You can discard this card to your Graveyard, to target 1 "Ancient Fairy" monster in your Graveyard: Add that target to your hand. When this card is Summoned, if there's a face-up Field Spell on the field: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower Fairy-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position, but its effects are negate.**

* * *

"Spirit's effect activates! If it's summoned while there's a Field Spell on the field, I can revive a Level Four or lower Fairy monster from my graveyard!" Spirit's body changed into the shape of a ring with black mist filling the inside of the ring. A moment later, a white Pegasus with wings made from silver and a golden grown a top its head appeared on the field.

"Now, I tune my Level Four Pegasus to my Level Three Spirit!" 4 and 3 combined equaled 7 and Ancient Fairy was a Level 7 Synchro Monster, so I already had an idea where this was going.

" _Spirits that reign over the forest of light, merge and become the majestic protector of magic! Synchro Summon! Level Seven!_ _ **Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna**_ _!_ "

The new Ancient Fairy Dragon looked like a more mature version of the original. Instead of two wings, the new one had four, which were much larger in size with golden plates of armor covering its wings. Its face was longer as well with sharper teeth and four eyes instead of two. The dragon landed in front of Ruka and immediately, both the edges of its wings and its tail began to glow pink.

* * *

 **Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Dragon/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2100/DEF: 3000**

 **1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: You can excavate the top 4 cards of your deck, add 1 Field Spell from among them to your hand, then return the rest on top of your deck in any order. During either player's turn: You can return 1 face-up Field Spell you control to the hand, then immediately after this effect resolves, activate a Field Spell with a different name from your hand. You can only use each effect of "Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna" once per turn.**

* * *

Ok, I was facing against a retrained Signer Dragon. I believe that anyone else would be hyped to be facing off against the ace monster of one of the Signers from 5D's, but I was more worried about that 3000 booty sitting before me. My monsters had ways to deal with high ATK monsters, but high DEF monsters? Not that much.

"Whoa!" Lua exclaimed with a huge smile. "You were able to Synchro Summon on the first turn!"

"I know, right?!" Ruka smiled back at her brother. "I wasn't sure if this combo was going to work!"

They were both still noobs. Shouldn't be surprised, but since we were dueling either way, I might as well give them a few more tips on how to improve their dueling. For starters, while Lua was all cocky and confident in himself, Ruka was lacking in self-esteem – so both of their characters were in different extremes, when it came to dueling.

"And now I shall activate the effect of Luna!" Ruka raised a hand toward her dragon. "Once per turn, I can look at the top four cards of my deck and add a Field Spell from among them to my hand. I add _**Synchro Sanctuary**_ to my hand and return the rest of the cards on top of my deck in any order that I wish!"

* * *

 **Synchro Sanctuary (Spell) Field**

 **Synchro Monsters cannot be targeted with card effects by the opponent of the player controlling that Synchro Monster(s). If a Synchro Monster(s) leaves the field, the controller of that monster can Special Summon 1 Tuner monster from the hand.**

* * *

"Arranging which cards you are going to draw next?" I whistled in surprise. "That's one strong Synchro Monster that you got there."

"Thanks!" Ruka nodded and then looked back at her cards. "Hmm, let's see… How about this? I set two cards and since Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna is in Defense Position, I'm going to end my turn here!"

"Hey, why didn't you attack, Ruka?" Lua whined. "If you destroyed her monster and inflicted over a thousand damage, I would have needed one less counter in order to finish her off!"

"She has a set card, Lua." Ruka sighed. "If I attack and she used her set card to negate it, or to destroy my monster, it would only put us in the disadvantage."

"It's always good to be on guard." I told her. "That way you can avoid some nasty surprises. But, if you play only defensively and don't take risks at times, you would never be able to become a better duelist. The opposite could be said about you Lua, if you play all smugly without a real solid strategy, you'll only look stupid when your opponent beats you. You two could learn a lot from one another. Each of you has his own strength that make up for the other's weaknesses."

"So, what you are saying is?" Lua looked at me with the face of someone who was still unable to see the bigger picture.

"I get it!" Ruka perked up. "Lua, what she's trying to tell us is that in order to win, we must work as a team! Your reckless playstyle and my more defensive oriented one can together form a solid strategy!"

Actually, what I wanted to say was that they had to learn from each other, but there wasn't a better way to learn something than through teamwork, so they still got what I was trying to tell me, sort of. But I already had something to block the damage from Lua's monster, I just needed to collect a few more pieces and I would be set for a counterattack!

"Since I already had my turn before Ruka's it's your move again, Lua." I informed the boy.

"So, me and Ruka get a block of turns?" Lua raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit unfair?"

"I don't mind." Maybe it would be unfair if they dueled against someone else, but believe me, they were lucky that I let them have a block of turns without any interference from my side.

"Ok then, but don't complain later on." Lua warned me – as if I would be the one complaining after this… "My turn. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Lua] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"Here I go! Morphtronic Celfon's effect activates again!" This time, the number 4 was lighted up. I'm just starting to notice this, but Lua and Ruka both appeared to have cards which search after turning up a specific number of cards from the top of their deck. "And this time, I get to Special Summon _Morphtronic Boarden (Lv.3, ATK: 500)_!" A white skateboard appeared on Lua's field and transformed into a robot. "Next, I Normal Summon _Morphtronic Remoten (Lv.3, ATK: 300)_ and the best part – it's a Tuner!"

1 + 3 + 3 equals 7. Power Tool was a Level 7 Synchro Monster. Yeah, I already knew what was about to slam me across the face.

"I tune my Level One Celfon and the Level Three Boarden to my Level Three Remoten!" Insert the generic Synchro Summoning steps here…

"Courage and power combine with this dragon made of steel to protect peace with its iron resolve! Synchro Summon! Level Seven! _**Power Tool Assembly Dragon**_!"

A much bulkier version of Power Tool appeared on the field. Several metal spikes jutted out of the side of its head and neck, its chest and waist were covered in heavy grey metal with a red energy core in the center of its chest. Each of its arms separated into two sections from the elbows down. The first were normal arms with eight fingers, each of which end with sharp metal claws. The second set of arms consisted of an oversized screwdriver on the left and a round saw on the right. The monster's tile ended with a sharp drill instead of a shovel blade.

* * *

 **Power Tool Assembly Dragon**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: EARTH/Type: Machine/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2300/DEF: 2500**

 **1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: During your opponent's turn: You can equip 1 appropriate Equip Spell Card from your Deck or Graveyard to 1 face-up monster on the field. That Equip Spell Card is sent to the Graveyard at the end of this turn. You can only use this effect of "Power Tool Assembly Dragon" once per turn. Once per turn: If an Equip Spell is sent from the field to the Graveyard, draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Next I activate Morphtronic Clocken's effect to put a Morph Counter on it." A second counter, two more and I would be done for. "Then I equip _Power Converter_ to Power Tool Assembly Dragon!"

Lua's ace roared as a large armor appeared in the air and landed on its back, towering over the dragon with twice its height. That was convenient, but I wonder what else Lua had in store for me.

"Let's battle!" Lua exclaimed and threw his fist forward. "I attack your monster with Power Tool Assembly Dragon!"

"So you plan to just straight throw yourself head-first into a fight?" That was a predictable move. "I activate my Trap Card _**Dimension Reflektor**_! Through this card's effect, we must switch our monsters during the battle and by discarding a card, I can negate their destruction!"

* * *

 **Dimension Reflektor (Trap Normal)**

 **When an opponent's monster declares an attack targeting a face-up "Astral Angel" monster you control: Switch control of the opponent's attacking monster with the targeted monster you control, then calculate damage. You card discard 1 card: Those monsters can't be destroyed by this battle. Control of both monsters switches back during the end of the Battle Phase.**

* * *

"What?!" Lua exclaimed. "But then that would mean…"

"Use your Equip Spell's effect, Lua!" Ruka shouted.

"That's right!" It appears that Lua figured out what to do thanks to his sister… "I send Power Converter to the Graveyard and activate its effect! I gain Life Points equal to Power Tool Dragon's attack points and until the end of this turn, Power Tool loses all of its attack points!"

What? The armor on Power Tool's back exploded and the dragon roared as its ATK dropped to 0 while Lua gained Life Points equal to its attack. At the same time, my own monster turned around and took aim at me and the Power Tool that I was controlling. As you could tell, this was going to suck…

 **『** **Lua LP: 4000 + 2300** → **6300** **』**

"Go, Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne! Attack!" At Lua's order, my drone fired its canon, hitting Power Tool's armor. The dragon roared and stepped back; to think that Lua would actually damage his own dragon. Tch, it must have been because of Dimension Reflektor's protection that he allow his dragon to be harmed, since Power Tool was still going to survive. Anyway, I still took the damage from the attack, thankfully I wasn't at 3000 or less, and so Lua would need two more turns to build up enough counters to one-shot me.

 **『** **Avice LP: 4000 - 800** → **3200** **』**

"Through Power Tool's effect I draw a card when an Equip Spell is sent to the grave." Lua explained, as he drew another card, making a total of two in his hand. "I end my Battle Phase and so the effect of your trap card ends as well, returning control of our monsters."

Power Tool leaped in the air and landed in front of Lua while Artillerie-Drohne moved over to me and turned around to face our opponents.

"Now I'll activate the Equip-Spell, _Morhptronic Repair Unit_ , targeting Morphtronic Boarden!" Lua kept on going. "Through my Spell's effect, I can Special Summon _Morphtronic Boarden (Lv.3, DEF: 1800)_ , but the monster summoned through this effect is unable to change its battle position and will be destroyed once Repair Unit leaves the field."

"But that doesn't really matter because due to Boarden's effect, your Morphtronic monsters can't be destroyed by battle, except for Boarden." I told him. It was a good enough defense, due to Morhptronic Bind my Level 4 and higher monsters can't attack and Level 3 or lower monsters don't usually have the strength to deal with an 1800 DEF wall.

"Heh, you are pretty sharp yourself." Lua rubbed the edge of his nose. "My lineup is now unbeatable, it's your turn."

"I'll take it with pleasure." I needed only two more pieces to assemble a sure One Turn Double Kill against the twins. Come on, Astral Angels… "Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Avice] LP: 3200, Hand: 4** **』**

I looked at the card and… It was good enough. "I Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Schwärmende Wespe**_!" A black and pink robotic wasp with arms and legs and an almost human-like head with a headset appeared on my field. The monster looked like it was a woman dressed in robotic wasp costume with a pair of pink energy wings coming out of its back.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Schwärmende Wespe**

 **Level: 3/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Insect/Effect**

 **ATK: 1100/DEF: 400**

 **Effect: If this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can add 1 Level 2 or lower "Astral Angel" monster from your Deck to the hand, and if you do, send cards from the top of your deck to the Graveyard equal to that monster's Level. If this card is banished: You can target 1 "Dimension" Spell/Trap Card in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.**

* * *

"I activate Wespe's effect! When my monster is summoned, I can add a Level Two or lower Astral Angel from my deck to the hand – I add Astral Angel Digital and then send the top two cards of my deck to the Graveyard." Once piece remained to complete my art…

"Now I set a card and end my turn." You know what? This duel is a very good way to train my patience, having to play defensively while slowly collecting the cards needed to turn this duel around.

"Huh, is that all?" Lua tilted his head.

"I don't think there's much she could do with how you have locked down the field, Lua." Ruka told her brother. "It's my turn now, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 6 [Ruka] LP: 4000, Hand: 4** **』**

"I activate Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna's effect!" Ah, another Field Spell search. "I add _**Spell Chapter – Blazing Sun**_ and then I activate Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna's second effect to return Synchro Sanctuary to my hand and activate _**Spell Chapter – Blazing Sun**_!"

* * *

 **Spell Chapter – Blazing Sun (Spell) Field**

 **If a Synchro Monster you control battles, all battle damage inflicted to your opponent is doubled. If this card is sent from your field to the Graveyard: Add 1 "Spell Chapter" Field Spell from your deck to the hand, except "Spell Chapter – Blazing Sun".**

* * *

"I see, so you plan on going in the offensive to bring my Life Points low enough for your brother to finish this next turn?" I guessed. This Ruka was different from the one in 5D's, she was more willing to go in the offensive, but her dueling style was still supportive in nature…

"I also activate the Continuous Spell – _**Distorted Space**_! Through its effect I discard Synchro Sanctuary to give my spell its effects." A Continuous Spell that has the ability to copy a Field Spell's effect? I could see that being abused if this was my world.

* * *

 **Distorted Space (Spell) Continuous**

 **When you activate this card: Send 1 Field Spell from your hand to the Graveyard. While this face is face-up on the field, it gains all the effects of the Field Spell sent to the Graveyard by this card's effect.**

* * *

"Due to Synchro Sanctuary's effect, you can't target my Synchro monsters with card effects!" Ruka exclaimed. "And now that everything is prepared, I'm going to attack your Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne with Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna!"

The Ancient Fairy Dragon retrain flew over me and waved its wings, sending a gust of wind toward me and my monster. If I allowed this attack to go through I would lose 2600 Life Points…

"Sorry, but I can't receive your attack." I apologized and pressed a button on my Duel Disk. "Trap Open! _**Dimension des Verräterischen Licht**_! When this card is activated I put an Astral Counter on it for every monster on my field, the effects of all monsters are negated and while this card is face-up, no monster is allowed to attack!"

* * *

 **Dimension des Verräterischen Licht (Trap) Continuous**

 **When you activate this card, place Astral Counters on it equal to the number of monsters you control. Negate the effects of all monsters that were on the field when this card was activated. During each of your Standby Phases, remove 1 Astral Counter from this card. When there are no Astral Counters on this card, destroy it. While this card is face-up on the field, neither player can declare an attack.**

* * *

As my trap opened, a series of swords made of light fell from the sky, creating a barrier between me and Ruka's monster. This was the clearest way to block their attacks with the kind of protection that they have built up and even if they destroy it, their dragons' effects would remain negated.

"Negated!?" Lua exclaimed. "But then my Morhptronic Clocken's effect is negated as well!"

Oh, I forgot that Clocken was on the field for a moment. This was great, it meant that he no longer had a Wave-Motion Cannon on legs!

"I'm sorry for that, Lua." Ruka apologized. "I Normal Summon _Kuribon (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_ and end my turn!"

Why would she summon this monster all of a sudden? Wait… Kuribon's effect is to negate the damage that she would have taken and give me Life Points when I attack that fur ball. Ah, I see, she was trying to lure me out, wasn't she? One of those set cards of hers must be _Bad Reaction to Simochi_!

"It's my turn now!" Lua exclaimed, drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 7 [Lua] LP: 6300, Hand: 2** **』**

"Oh, that's nice!" Lua jumped in the air. "I equip _**Power Cord**_ to Morhptronic Clocken! Through my card's effect, the equipped monster's effects can't be negated!"

* * *

 **Power Cord (Spell) Normal**

 **This card can be equipped only to a Machine-Type monster. The effects of the equipped monster can't be negated. If this card leaves the field, banish the equipped monster.**

* * *

"Now I activate Morhptronic Clocken's effect to put another counter on it!" Three counters, one more needed… "With that, I end my turn!"

"It seems that now you are the one who can't do much." I teased the boy before going to action. "It's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 8 [Avice] LP: 3200, Hand: 4** **』**

 _Kuriray_ … Now I have gathered all the pieces needed and Morhptronic Clocken's effect was still activate. My next turn was going to be the last one in this duel. "Due to the effect of Dimension des Verräterischen Licht I must now remove one Astral Counter from it."

Half of the swords blocking Ruka and Lua's dragons disappeared from the field along with the counter. Just a bit more and…

"I end my turn!" I only need them to waste one more turn to win!

"My turn!" Ruka stepped forward next. What was she going to do?

 **『** **Turn 9 [Ruka] LP: 4000, Hand: 2** **』**

"I activate the Field Spell - _Ancient Fairy Forest_!" Her achetype's Field Spell… Not only did it have the ability to search, but it also destroyed any monster that declared an attack at the end of the Battle Phase. She was taking a note from her brother's book, wasn't she?

"I activate Ancient Fairy Forest's effect! When it's activated, I can add an Ancient Fairy monster to my hand! I add _Ancient Fairy Spirit_ and then I Normal Summon it!" That one again… But it was a Tuner, so was she going for another Synchro play now? "Then I activate Harmonic Waves to turn Spirit into a Level Four monster!"

 **Ancient Fairy Spirit, Lv. 3** → **4**

"Now I tune my Level One Kuribon to my Level Four Ancient Fairy Spirit!" I narrowed my eyes listening to Ruka's words. The 5D's counterpart didn't have more than one Synchro monster, so this was going to be an interesting one to witness.

" _Sitting atop the tree's branches, singing her harmonic song is a mischievous witch beloved by the forest spirits! Synchro Summon! Level Five!_ _ **Ancient Fairy Witch**_ _!_ "

The monster that appeared was, as its name suggested, a witch. The woman had golden eyes and a long green hair that covered her left eye. Her outfit consisted of a blue witch hat with a pink heart on top of it, a short black cape covered in star stickers over a long blue hooded tunic with a moon symbol at the center of the chest. A pair of long boots with metal plating around the knees and a brown sash around the waist finished the witch's look. In her left hand, she carried a wooden wand in the shape of a dragon with two rubies acting as the dragon's 'eyes'.

* * *

 **Ancient Fairy Witch**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: DARK/Type: Fairy/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 800/DEF: 2400**

 **1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: When a Field Spell is activated: Gain 800 LP, and if you do, inflict 500 damage to your opponent. You can target 1 Level 4 or lower Fairy-Type monsters in your Graveyard: You cannot enter your Battle Phase the turn you use this effect, also, Special Summon that target in face-up Attack Position, and if you do, it gains the following effect:**

 **Your opponent cannot target "Ancient Fairy" monsters for attack or with card effects, except for this card.**

 **You can only use this effect of "Ancient Fairy Witch" once per turn.**

* * *

"I activate Ancient Fairy Witch's effect!" Ruka continued. "Once per turn I target a Fairy in my graveyard and revive it in attack mode! Come back, _Kuribon (Lv.1, ATK: 300)_!"

Now I could see the kind of combo she was going for. Were these kids for serious? Were we just going to have a competition on who would be the bigger asshole and put more restrictions on the Battle Phase?

"Due to Ancient Fairy Witch's effect, you can't attack or target my monsters with card effects, except for Kuribon." Ruka kindly explained. "I end my turn!"

"Then it's my turn again!" Lua exclaimed and drew.

 **『** **Turn 10 [Lua] LP: 6300, Hand: 2** **』**

"I activate Morhptronic Clocken's effect to put another counter on it!" Four of four, but I'm ready to block it. "And now I activate the second part of Clocken's effect! I release this Defense Position monster and inflict a thousand damage to you for every Morph Counter on it! There are four, so you take four thousand points of damage!"

The clock monster's alarm went off and its body exploded, all of the energy that it collected throughout the duel flying toward me. Now was my buddy's time to shine!

"I activate Kuriray's effect from my hand!" I countered, showing the card to Lua and Ruka. "When I would take effect damage, I can pay half of my Life Points to negate it!" my Kuriray appeared in front of me and absorbed the energy from the explosion inside its body, protecting me in the process.

 **『** **Avice LP: 3200 / 2** → **1600** **』**

"A Kuri monster!?" Lua exclaimed, her Kuribon began to jump happily and so did mine.

"Y-you negated the damage!?" Lua cried out.

"Sorry, but I can't lose here, Lua." I told the boy. "If you want to prove your strength, then you must face your opponents at their full strength. Due to Kuriray's effect, it gets Special Summoned and half of the damage that was negated by its effect will now become its attack points!"

 **Kuriray, ATK: 0** → **2000, DEF: 0** → **2000**

"You are right." Lua sighed. "But I'm not done either! By returning a Morhptronic monster from my hand to the deck, I can activate Morhptronic Accelerator and destroy your trap card!" At his words, a futuristic jet flew over my card and dropped two bombs, blowing up Dimension des Verräterischen Licht. "Then, I draw a card! And now that there's no longer a card to stop my attacks, I'm going to attack Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne with Power Tool Assembly Dragon!"

"I activate the effect of _**Astral Angel Orbit Aufseher**_ from my Graveyard! I banish it to change Assembly Dragon's battle position!" A small sphere made of orange and brown rocks appeared in front of me with two rocks levitating before it. The rocks glowed blue and a sudden gravity field pulled Assembly Dragon to the ground.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Orbit Aufseher**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Rock/Effect**

 **ATK: 100/DEF: 100**

 **Effect: Discard this card: Activate 1 "Dimension" or "Astral Angel" Continuous Spell from your Deck, but banish it during the End Phase. You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 monster on the field; change its battle position (This is a Quick Effect). You can only use 1 effect of "Astral Angel Orbit Aufseher" per turn, and only once that turn.**

* * *

"Ah, she negated my attack as well!" Lua panicked while I just watched, trying to hide my smirk.

"Calm down, Lua." Ruka told her brother. "If your attack went through, she would have still had some Life Points left and my Field Spell would have destroyed your dragon."

"It would have?" Lua blinked. It seems he wasn't as familiar with his sister's deck as Ruka was with his.

"Focus Lua." I added to the conversation. "It's still your turn, are you going to do something, or can I move to my turn."

"I…" Lua looked at the last card in his hand and then turned toward his sister. "Ruka, I trust you to finish this on your next turn, ok?"

"Huh?" Where did that come from?

"I activate the Spell Card, _Junk Box_! This card allows me to bring back one Level Four or lower Morhptronic from my grave, but as a cost, it's going to be destroyed during the End Phase! Come back, _Morphtronic Clocken (Lv.2, DEF 1100)_!"

The little clock monster appeared before Lua once more. Wait for a moment, card's didn't use to have a hard once per turn during 5D's era, did they?

"I activate Morhptronic Clocken's effect!" Lua continued – yep, they didn't have a hard once per turn. "I put one Morph Counter on it, then I release Morhptronic Clocken to inflict a thousand damage to my opponent for every Morph Counter on it!"

The little clock exploded once more, but this time the impact caught up to me, knocking me backward.

 **『** **Avice LP: 1600 - 1000** → **600** **』**

"Not a bad move. This caught me by surprise." I admitted, dusting myself. "But you made one fatal mistake just now."

"What?"

"You brought my Life Points below a thousand, which means that I'm sure to win this duel now!" I shouted back at Lua and drew my fourth card.

 **『** **Turn 11 [Avice] LP: 600, Hand: 4** **』**

"I activate the effect of Astral Angel Einplus in my Graveyard! By increasing the Level of Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne by one, this monster can be revived to my side of the field!" My triangle monster appeared over Artillerie-Drohne's head, giving it another level.

 **Astral Angel Artillerie-Drohne, Lv. 2** → **3**

"Huh? But then that means…" Lua muttered something and looked at his fingers. "This means that she can bring out a Level Eight Synchro Monster!"

"Not yet. For now, I'm going to tune my Level Three Artillerie-Drohne to my Level One Einplus!" My triangle Tuner transformed into a single ring and surrounded Drohne.

" _When complete serenity reigns over the world a punker would descend from beyond the doors of heaven to deliver some fun to the world! With your malicious mind turn the borders of space into a playground and tell us about your next prank! Synchro Summon! Level Four! Astral Angel Teleporman (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)!_ "

"Oh, that's what her Synchros look like." Ruka commented, staring at Teleporman. I couldn't tell by her expression if she was amazed, just surprised, or something else entirely.

"Allow me to demonstrate my monster's power." I told the twins and gestured at Teleporman. "I activate Teleporman's effect! Once per turn, I can equip a LIGHT monster to it, I choose your Kuribon!"

"Kuribon!" Ruka cried out as a blue portal appeared under her monster and it feel through.

"Don't worry, you will see it soon enough. I activate Teleporman's other effect! By sending the Kuribon that's equipped to my monster to the graveyard, I can use Teleporman's ability to destroy Morphtronic Bind!"

Teleporman turned toward Lua's field next and fired a blue laser from the gem on its chest, cutting the Trap Card into two before its hologram disappeared.

"Then, I activate Cards of Purgatory to destroy one face-up Spell on the field and draw a card! I choose Distorted Space!" My spell fired a beam that shattered Ruka's spell next. "Then I draw a card, and since the card I draw is _Dimension Overlap_ , I can draw one more card!"

"She keeps slowly destroying our cards while picking up more card to use against us!" Lua grabbed his head in panic while Ruka only stared at me like I was some ghost.

"Next I activate the effect of _**Astral Angel Wanderer**_ from my Graveyard! I banish it to Special Summon one of my banished monsters!" A humanoid cloaked by a dark blue robe with star drawings all over it appeared before me and summoned a portal.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Wanderer**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT WATER/Type: Thunder/Effect**

 **ATK: 100/DEF: 1200**

 **Effect: If you control a LIGHT monster, you can banish 1 card from your hand: Special Summon this card (from your hand), and if you do, this card's Level becomes the same as that of 1 other monster on the field. You can banish this card from your GY, then target 1 of your banished LIGHT monsters; Special Summon it. You can only use 1 effect of "Astral Angel Wanderer" per turn, and only once that turn.**

* * *

"Rise again, _Astral Angel Einplus (Lv.1, ATK: 200)_!" I called out for my monster. "Now I tune my Level Four Teleporman and Level Three Astral Angel Schwärmende Wespe to my Level One Einplus!" Einplus turned into a green ring once more and the other monsters jumped through it.

" _The legend under whose wings reigns Armageddon, become the harbinger of a new future! Synchro Summon! Level Eight!_ _ **Astral Angel Katastrophen Drake**_ _!_ "

My new monster had a demonic appearance being composed of large sharp bones that covered its purple skin underneath. It was a goat legged creature with hooves made of metal and the bones covering its legs jutting over the pelvis and to the side protecting it from attacks. Going up, the demon's chest was covered by a heavy ribcage with small curved spikes jutting from the center, its shoulders had large bones covering them similarly to shoulder plates. The monster's face didn't have flesh to cover its sharp teeth, its lower chin was split in the middle and was hanging downward. Instead of eyes, the demon had a large black horn which was curved backward and split into two that went to the sides of its head. Its back had two wings made of multiple black plates attached to one another.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Katastrophen Drake**

 **Level: 8/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Zombie/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2200/DEF: 2400**

 **1 LIGHT Tuner monster + 2 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: If this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy a number of cards on the field, up to the number of face-up monsters with the same Attribute(s) as this card. This card gains 300 ATK for each of your banished LIGHT monsters. If a card or effect is activated: You can turn 3 of your banished cards face-down; negate the activation.**

* * *

"Katastrophen Drake's effect activates when it's Synchro Summoned, but I'll use this chance to activate the Quick-Play Spell, _Photon Lead_ – Special Summon _Astral Angel Digital (Lv.2, ATK: 200)_ from my hand!"

A halo ring opened in front of me and the little robot flew through it, jumping on my shoulder. Sadly I couldn't chain its effect to Katastrophen's and increase the amount of destruction.

"Now Katastrophen Drake's effect resolves." I continued. "For every face-up monster with the same attribute as Katastrophen, I can destroy a card on the field. Since there are five cards that share Drake's attributes, I destroy five cards! _**True Armageddon**_!"

"Five?" Ruka looked at her Duel Disk and then, after only a moment, her eyes went as wide as a dining plate. "Your monster has two Attributes!?"

"Um, didn't you two pay attention to the previous Cross-Attributed monsters that I summoned?" As the twins looked at each other, I already figured out the answer myself. "Whatever, I choose to destroy, Power Tool Assembly Dragon, Ancient Fairy Dragon, Luna, Ancient Fairy Witch, Morphtronic Boarden and Ruka's left face-down!"

The undead raised in the air and spread outs its wings, purple plasma began to gather at the center of the wings and then moved toward the edges. Katastrophen Drake roared and clapped its wings unleashing a wave of plasma that incinerated the cards in its path. Also, just letting you know, Ruka's set card was indeed Bad Reaction to Simochi, I called it.

"We are so toast." Lua gulped and Ruka nodded to her brother's words.

"Due to Digital's effect, when it's Special Summoned, I can Special Summon two more of it from my deck!" Once again, my filed was filled with monsters, but I was far from done. "Then I activate my Spell Card, _Nildimensional Summon_ with this card's effect, I can tribute one of my Digital to Tribute Summon my ace, _Sola Starlit the Preon Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)_ directly from my deck!"

One of my monsters turned into a golden ring with a black portal in the center of it. The portal showed several planets and then a blue sun which moved toward the portal and as it came closer, its size turned smaller and smaller, until the thing that flew through the portal was Sola Starlit.

"Due to Digital's effect I can banish it to draw a card!" The card that I got wasn't important, however Drake's other ability was. "Due to Drake's power, my monster will now gain three hundred extra attack points per banished LIGHT monster!"

 **Astral Angel Katastrophen Drake, ATK: 2200 + 900** → **3100**

"Lua! Ruka!" I shouted out their names, both of them raised their heads to look at me. "Both of your showed me a lot today, both in dueling tactics and some things that I was too blind to notice until now. But now, this match has to come to its end. I attack Ruka directly with Katastrophen Drake! _**Shadow Miasma**_!"

Katastrophen Drake roared and fired a black fireball from its mouth toward Ruka. Now, let's see what her last set card was.

"Sorry, but I can't let it end this way!" Ruka exclaimed. Oh, so her other set card was something strong? "I activate my trap, _**Ancient Fairy Karma**_! By discarding a card, this trap allows me to destroy all of your face-up Attack Position monsters, but while a Field Spell is on my field, I can banish them instead."

* * *

 **Ancient Fairy Karma (Trap) Normal**

 **When an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can discard 1 card: Destroy all face-up Attack Position monsters your opponent controls. If there's a face-up Field Spell on the field, you can banish them instead.**

* * *

"Sorry, but that won't work." I sighed; it was a good try though. "I activate Katastrophen Drake's effect! I turn three of my banished cards face-down and negate your card's effect!"

"Oh no!" Ruka gasped as my monster's attack continued toward her. Due to turning my LIGHT monsters face-down, my Synchro lost all of its ATK boost, but it still had enough attack power.

 **Astral Angel Katastrophen Drake, ATK: 3100 - 900** → **2200**

"Ahhhh!" Ruka cried out as my monster's attack knocked her back.

 **『** **Ruka LP: 4000 - 2200** → **1800** **』**

"Ruka!" Leo gasped, he must feel bad seeing his sister getting beaten up, but this was a duel, so it couldn't be helped.

"Next, Kuriray will attack you directly as well!" My Kuri monster jumped onto Ruka and began to… lick her face? Ruka began to laugh and hugged it, but she still took the damage either way.

 **『** **Ruka LP: 1800 - 2000** → **0** **』**

"At last, I'm going to activate the Quick-Play Spell, _Dimension Overlap_! I release Katastrophen Drake and give half of its attack points to Sola, along with the ability to attack twice this turn!"

 **Sola Starlit the Preon Seraph, ATK: 2500 + 1100** → **3600**

"This is the final attack." I winked at Lua and raised my hand to give Sola her signal. "Attack with _Dynamic Booster_!"

Sola flew up in the air, the bolts covering her arms and back began to generate electricity, which flew into her wings. Once she charged up, Sola brought her arms in front of herself and her wings conjuring a blinding beam toward Lua. Since this wasn't an Action Duel there would be no damage on his body, but I couldn't make any promises about his ego.

 **『** **Lua LP: 6300 - 3600** → **2700 – 3600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Avice** **』**

After the duel ended and all of my monsters disappeared, I put my Duel Disk on the back of my belt and walked over to Lua, giving him a hand for a handshake.

"You were much better than I expected." Lua admitted, accepting my handshake.

Usually I would agree with him, since they had no chance of beating me to begin with, but this time, I felt that I should do things a little bit differently. I wasn't sure why, but after all the kindness that Lua and Ruka showed to me and Oni, I just had that feeling inside my chest, that voice telling me that I should do something in return.

"Both you and your sister have talent to become amazing duelists as well." I told Lua and turned toward Ruka as well. "Ruka, your dueling is top-notch, you are able to utilize your deck to its full potential and keep control over the field through the various effects of your Field Spells. You just need to believe more in yourself and put your heart fully into the duel."

Ruka's eyes widened at those words and then she smiled at me, nodding. After that I turned back to Lua and continued. "As for you Lua, you are a very smart duelist, coming up with all sort of gimmicky combos. Your only weak points are that you can be very cocky at times and that the combos you come up need a lot of cards in order to work. A real combo utilizes the cards that you currently have at your disposal to their maximal potential."

"If I must be honest with the two of you." I stepped back, so I could see both twins at once. "You two would make a perfect team. Ruka, your deck is more supportive, it's more defensive by nature with the offensive aspect being focused more around helping stronger monsters to gain the edge in a fight. In comparison, Lua, your deck doesn't have a focus in neither offensive nor defensive capabilities, but your Power Tool can be a very dangerous foe to face, so if you focus your deck more around supporting your ace, I believe that you will find a more coherent play style."

"Focusing more on Power Tool, huh?" Lua rubbed his chin. "Yeah, I think that I like this idea!"

"I was never very ken of being the center of attention, so I don't try to duel much, but a supportive role sounds good." Ruka smiled.

"Heh, what can I say?" I chuckled. "It seems I'm just good at judging characters."

"Hey, promise that after I rebuild my deck, we are going to have a duel again!" Lua suddenly appeared next to me.

"Of course! Maybe we could make it a team duel, show you what my siblings are capable of!" Dueling together with your sibling… Don't tell this to anyone, but I want to know what it would feel like if I dueled beside my sister for once. I never teamed up with Elizabeth before, so it got me curious, just how good would a team-up like that work out.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"It seems we're about to get the party starting, finally."

A hooded figure stepped forward and looked into the distance. Past all the skyscrapers and other buildings, behind all the security squads patrolling on the street, lied their prize. The Administrative Council – the organization that sat a top this city's administration, the absolute authority that answered to no one else.

"What are you looking at?" Levant asked, stepping forward so that he was standing next to the other boy.

"Our next destination." The figure replied and raised its arms, stretching out.

"You know where the Administrative Council is located?" Levant raised an eyebrow, clearly having a hard time to take the idea seriously.

Instead of answering immediately, the figure pulled down the hood that covered their face. Her locks of hair feel right over his right eye, as the two crimson orbs kept staring at the city ahead of them. His lips curved into a mischievous smile as he answer.

"Of course not." Evan sighed and tilted his head back, so that he could look at the sky. The boy raised his right hand toward the sun. "I just can't help but think that it's right in front of me."

And right in front of him it was. Not just in his imagination, but in reality, the thing that he was looking for was standing right there, in the distance.

Evan closed his hand around the sun.

The next step toward his completely victory, toward his destiny.

He could feel it just within hand reach.

* * *

 **Avice: And now for the previews with the Neo New Avice!**

 **Chapter 47: Demons Move Across Dimensions**

Summary: Finding themselves in the Synchro Dimension with most of the other Lancers gone, Evan follows Reiji and his plan to go and negotiate with the higher ups of this Dimension about creating an alliance against Academia. At the same time however, Kiharu who had the same idea, but due to her tattered outfit got mistaken for a Common is confronted by the security defending the Capital Building. Finding the safety of the Lancers as a much more important priority than negotiating, Reiji and Evan showcase the tremendous strength of the Standard Dimension's dueling!

 **Avice: As it seems, there aren't any new previews yet. *Sigh***

* * *

 **So, chapter 46 is out, yay! Most of what we got here was the second step of Avice's character development, so if you feel that you got nothing from reading this, it's probably because you aren't a fan of her.**

 **Jokes aside, there's not much to cover about the chapter itself, but there are a few things I want to say about Lua and Ruka's decks. First, I'll start with Ruka and her new Ancient Fairy deck. I know, turning a main character's ace monster into an archetype is something that most people aren't fans off, neither am I, but I just didn't have any more original name for her deck.**

 **Actually during the writing of this chapter I had ideas for three different decks that she could use. First I was planning to go with just random cute and fairy-like monsters, you know, the type of deck that she used in the anime. But then I quickly realize that the reason why the writers had her use that deck was because in the anime she had a total of 4 on-screen duels where she barely did anything and most of the time it was Lua's deck that saved the situation.**

 **Then I came up wit the idea of an "Fairy Dragon" archetype which was originally going to be made of Dragon-Type monsters, but I gave up on that idea since Ruka doesn't use Dragon-Type monsters, except for her ace. Having a deck made of nothing but dragons would make as much sense as giving Jack a Winged-Beast deck. So, I reworked that deck and got our final product. The Ancient Fairy archetype is made of LIGHT and DARK Fairy monsters with effects that activates when there is a Field Spell on the field.**

 **And before you ask, the choice to make them only LIGHT and DARK comes from the fact that Ancient Fairy Dragon and Ancient Pixie Dragon are LIGHT and DARK respectively. Also, originally I was going to have Ruka use Ancient Pixie because Ancient Fairy is currently banned and despite it not being banned during the Arc-V period, I just didn't want anyone to shout at me for using banned cards. Of course Pixie's more offensive effect doesn't match with Ruka's character, so I made the retrain you saw earlier. Despite that, Ruka will most likely use Pixie at a later point in the story.**

 **And this is where Lua's deck comes in. His Main Deck is literally Morphtronic, nothing new about that. The only real change is his new Power Tool. Like with Ruka, I originally wanted to use the Power Tool Mecha Dragon from the 5D's manga, but I ended up making a retrain instead because giving Ruka a retrain while having Lua use an old Power Tool seemed weird. But as with Ruka, Lua will most likely use** **Power Tool Mecha Dragon later on.**

 **I most likely said nothing of value once again despite using an entire wall of text. So to end this, I'm going to respond to my two Reviews.**

bennyf5302 **: I was originally going to put what happened to Ventus in this chapter, but I forgot until around the end, so we'll have to wait until chapter 47 to learn that.**

ScalchopWarrior **: I did actually use Takasu as prototype for the criminal that Avice dueled, so its convenient that you felt similarities between the two duels. Cross-Attributes weren't fully explained. This new ability neutralizes only half of the deck's weakness, aka cards that directly affect monsters of those attributes. However cards that don't cause direct harm, such as Clear World, will work even twice as better against Evan and Avice's decks now.**

 **And that's it. Thanks to everyone for reading this, hope you got something out of this and till next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice Out!**


	47. Chapter 47

Demons Move Across Dimensions

 **Evan's POV**

Since we were in a different dimension, inside a reality where people casually battle using gigantic monsters, you probably expect to hear some exciting story and not a description of normal people doing normal things, right? Of course, giving some backstory would be necessary to make a connection between the start and the present. So for starters, when I was teleported to the Synchro Dimension the only person that was with me, was the blue ninja that doubled as Reiji's sidekick, I believe? Luckily, his 'ninja training' or whatever bullshit it was that he used, leaded us to Levant and Reiji. After that our fearless leader sent his ninja fanboy to check the area and he found about a building belonging to the Administrative Council. I didn't ask for details, but apparently that council was made from the most influential people of this dimension.

Of course this was what Reiji was looking for so the four of us immediately went to talk with them. Simple so far, right? Well, there was a comment from Reiji that caught my interest – if the Administrative Council didn't want to join forces with the Lancers, we would make them rethink their decision with force. The Obelisk Force's attack and the damage they did in Standard has really changed Reiji's view on the conflict, he was starting to see my respective on the matter. The only way to win a war was to completely annihilate your enemy and everything they stand for while using power and fear to keep your allies in line.

"So, say that everything goes fine and dandy and you get the Administrative Council to ally with us, are we going straight for Academia next?" I asked our fearless leader for the next step in his plan.

"I believe that we would have better chances if the remaining forces of the Xyz Dimension joined in our army as well." So, he was finally referring to us as an army instead of Lancers?

But his way of thinking was flawed. Even with the anger that he was feeling toward Academia, his character was too flawed to be a good leader. Yes, he never played games that he wasn't sure he could win, but while trying to build up his forces, he was giving Academia an opportunity to strike us down any moment they choose. If MY forces were to overpower Academia, the Xyz Dimension would have to be forsaken. It was likely that Academia had stationed forces there, after all, every military power puts soldiers to protect the conquered land. If we attacked it they would just have to send more troops.

However, if instead of that we were to attack the Fusion Dimension and aimed for the head of the snake, they wouldn't be able to get reinforcements, we won't give them the chance to call for those. With its troops split between two dimensions, Academia was most vulnerable right now. But to cut them some slack, expecting people to have an understanding of military tactics and strategies in a world where all conflicts till now used to be resolved through a card game, would be unfair.

"Our fight against Academia is still far away in the future, we should focus on recruiting allies right now." Levant interrupted. "Also, let's try to stay on the good side of the authorities in this dimension. As outsides, we shouldn't case them any trouble."

"I would usually agree with you, but I think that Reiji knows what he's doing." I replied.

"It wasn't Reiji that I was saying this to." Levant retorted. Wait for a moment…

"Ah, yeah. Have Evan be the straw man, how nice of you!" Not that I didn't like being the wild card in this club of interdimensional losers, but comments like this and reminding Reiji that he had placed me under supervision would weaken my influence over the group.

" _ **You're pushing your luck, mortal. It's much better to keep your tongue behind your teeth than to piss them off."**_ Yuksel spoke into my head. Oh, so now even the demon entity living inside my soul was talking against me? _**"We were lucky enough that they didn't find out what you did during the Battle Royale. Don't give them reason to put us behind bars."**_

I ignored the Nightshroud wannabe's voice. All of my moves were calculated, they were far from flawless, but I wasn't stupid enough to push people around when they could push back.

"Reiji-sama!" And just then the blue ninja came back to us. "It appears that there's already trouble near the council's building!"

"What is it?" Reiji immediately asked, keeping his calm.

"I saw that Koharu was fighting with the guards." Of course she would get into a fight right after we got transported into the Synchro Dimension. The Xyz remnants in this group were more troublesome than useful.

"Koharu has a track record of rash decision and suffers from a short temper." I spoke up. "The chances that her actions are justified are very low, so taking her side or doing anything to help her out would get us in trouble. The best choice I can suggest to show that we come with peace would be to neutralize the cun-! I mean, Koharu, and let the authorities in this dimension choose how to deal with her rash behavior."

"As much as I'm against outing one of our own, if Koharu is fighting guards just because of one of her temper tantrums, the best course of action would be what Evan suggested." Levant added on, joining my side on the argument.

"Securing the safety of the Lancers is a much higher priority to me than negotiations." Reiji retorted and turned toward me. "In a situation like this, wouldn't you suggest to use our power and intimidation to showcase the authority our strength and the damage they risk to suffer by allying with the other side?"

The massacre at the stadium has seriously messed up with Reiji's mind, he's not acting like himself anymore. But I couldn't deny that my decks were hungry for some chaos and mayhem. Still, I was conflicted… Those savage desires were disgusting, a good villain isn't the one who caused the most mayhem, but the ones able to control their own evil and keep a clear mind. Yet, a part of me desired the same as my monsters. Destruction, death, the taste of flesh and blood, even if it was wrong, I wanted all of that. The urge to kill everything standing around me was glowing inside and that… Scared me?

"What are your orders?" I stepped back and looked at the ninja who was talking with Reiji.

"You and I are the strongest members of this party." I spoke up to Reiji as well. "There is no reason to have the rest involved. When your show the strength of your army in order to inflict fear or respect into someone, you show them only the most fearsome warriors, not some third rates."

Not saying that Reiji's skills were anywhere above a second rate, but I watched the blue ninja's duels during the Miami Championship. His entire strategy revolved around burning away the opponent's Life Points through the use of Action Cards, it was mediocre at best. As for Levant, I haven't seen his dueling or what deck he uses, at any point his skills should be a near the most skilled duelists in this universe. As you could probably tell, that didn't mean much, but the fact that I haven't seen his dueling so far made him a wild card I must eliminate soon.

Reiji didn't say anything back, but he nodded and walked off. I, of course, followed after the leader of the Lancers leaving blue ninja and Levant to follow a bit behind us. We were going to enter the scene guns blazing, so why don't I make a small change in my deck? This felt like a good chance to try out this new deck that I was given.

* * *

 **3** **rd** **POV**

"Go, King of Dreams, Hope! Attack our opponent directly!" The Xyz monster threw its swords in the air and then grabbed them, swinging down at the bodyguard, knocking him out.

 **『** **Guard LP: 1300 - 2500** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Koharu** **』**

Koharu sighed and fixed her air as her monster disappeared from the field, leaving only a bunch of knocked out guards surrounding her. This certainly wasn't the way that she expected her visit to the Council to go. She just wanted to talk to some higher-up and warn them about Academia's expansion, but before she could do that these assholes stopped her, saying that 'Commoners' didn't have the right to be there and that they would have to arrest her. Arrest her! Of course Koharu had no idea why these guards were so hostile, nor did she know what they meant by 'Commoners', but frankly, she could care less. Having to fight a literal army for the last months, Koharu had grown to dislike authorities and because of that she had no problem beating the guards once they threatened to arrest her for doing absolutely nothing.

But after calming down and looking around to see the scene that she caused, Koharu was starting to hate her short temper. Who was going to believe her that she came with peace after all this? Maybe she should have thought about it before responding to the guards with violence.

"Are you people from the Xyz Dimension savages or something?"

Koharu turned her head and frowned as Evan walked up to her with Reiji, Tsukikage and Levant following. Koharu sighed, Reiji was probably going to tell her something about her recklessness, but she was just happy that she wasn't on her own anymore. Still, that didn't mean that she missed Evan's statement.

"Why are you always surrounded by bodies!?"

"How did you find me?" Koharu ignored the question and asked one on her own.

Evan opened his mouth to reply, but before he could do that Levant pushed him aside. "Tsukikage has spotted you attacking the Council's building. We came to clear the mess that you made."

"It's not my fault!" Koharu shouted. "I approached the building and they told me that Commons aren't allowed before trying to arrest me. I simply acted in self-defense."

"We could use that to excuse your action." Reiji replied.

Evan snored at the idea. If Reiji walked over to the security and told them that Koharu's violence was justified, they would be less willing to cooperate than if he showed 'sympathy' and apprehended the girl, THEN tried to explain things in a way that would lessen Koharu's quilt, not completely ignore it. He didn't bother to speak up his opinion; the sound of police sirens echoed from further down the road and several police cars showed up, surrounding the five Lancers in a few moments.

The Security Officers all stepped out and aimed the black rifles they were carrying toward the group. Evan smirked, somewhat satisfied with the turn of events. Reiji was amazing at negotiations, but Evan wanted to see him explaining to the officers why the five of them were standing in the center of a pile of bodies. If the D/D duelist could talk his way out of this, then he truly deserved to call himself a leader, if not – it didn't matter since Evan was going to backstab him anyway.

"On your knees!" One of the officers shouted.

"So, you are going to tell the cops that this is a mistake, right?" Evan teased with a cynical smirk.

"From the look on their face, it appears that they don't want to listen." Reiji replied.

He could try and come up with something, but these officers clearly didn't appear interested in listening and the D/D duelist couldn't blame them. This scene alone was enough to explain things to them and any attempt to prove a different truth would be taken as a criminal trying to cover up their misdeeds. Koharu lowered her head, if even Reiji couldn't come up with something to say, they were out of luck. This time the Xyz Duelist had to raise her hands and surrender. Even if she had trained taking down multiple opponents at once, which she did mere moments ago, she had enough brain to figure out that beating this Dimension's police while saying that she came with peace wouldn't work out well for her.

"I'm a humanitarian, so can we talk this out?" Koharu's question was met with silence from the Security Officers that surrounded her.

Then, without a warning, one of the officers fired a green energy web from his rifle at her. Koharu rolled to the side to dodge the web. Or so she would have if Tsukikage didn't step in front of her and cut the web to pieces with his katana. That momentary interrupting was a sight for the Xyz Duelist who quickly activated her Duel Disk just as all the other Lancers in the area did.

More energy webs were shot at them, but all of those were cut to pieces by Tsukikage who stood in front of the group. Seeing that their strategy wouldn't work the Security Officers put the rifles on their backs and activated their own Duel Disks, charging at the Lancers.

"Back away third rates, I and Reiji will take care of the pests." Evan ordered.

"How are the two of you going to take down six officers!?" Levant yelled back.

"I'm taking two!" Koharu pushed Levant and Evan aside, raising her Duel Disk.

"Levant," Reiji turned at his underling. "Tell the Council that we have to talk with them while I, Evan and Koharu clear the area."

"You are the leader here." Levant sighed and turning toward the building. "I'm sure you are aware of this, but I hope things were won't escalate." After saying that, Levant ran off toward the Council's building with Tsukikage following suit.

"I never thought that Reiji's the type who would prefer fighting small flies that focus on one of his big plans." Koharu muttered.

"It seems that our fearless leader has a problem coping up with his citizens being slaughtered by Academia's troops." Evan retorted. "But I don't think that slaughtering a bunch of no names would heal the butthurt that he's feeling. Of course I've never had to deal with that type of stuff, but seeing how much you like to cause mayhem as a way to cope with your own butthurt, it might be what he needs."

"Butthurt?! We're talking about civilians getting buried under a dozen tons of cement!" Koharu yelled back, prompting the Greyson to roll his eyes. "I can sympathize with his anger."

Evan glanced at Security Officers that moved toward them. The Greyson felt that continuing this conversation with someone from Xyz would only make them angrier with one another, so for once, he was going to keep his mouth shut.

"You take the two on the felt while I take the two on the right." Evan commanded and stepped forward. "Reiji can take the ones in the center."

The Security Officers appeared to have the same idea as the Lancers, as they separated into teams of two and activated their Duel Disks.

"DUEL!"

 **『** **Evan LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Officer #1 LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Officer #2 LP: 4000 Hand: 5/-/Koharu LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Officer #3 LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Officer #4 LP: 4000 Hand: 5/-/Reiji LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Officer #5 LP: 4000 Hand: 5 & Officer #6 LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"My turn!" Security Officers 1, 3 and 5 exclaimed at the same time as they began their respective turns.

"I Normal Summon _Jutte Lord (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_!" The First Officer stretched his arm forward as a warrior in Japanese style armor appeared on his field. "Next, I Activate Jutte Lord's effect to Special Summon _Jutte Fighter (Lv.2, ATK: 700)_ , then I tune the Level Four Jutte Lord to the Level Two Jutte Fighter! Synchro Summon! Come out, _Goyo Guardian (Lv.6, ATK: 2800)_!"

Evan clicked his tongue. The most annoying Level Six Synchro that he ever had to duel against just made its appearance and he couldn't be any less excited about taking it down. Not that it would be a problem as long as he had his ChronoDevil deck.

"Now I set a card and end my turn!" The first Security Officer finished.

"I Normal Summon _Samurai Sword Baron (Lv.4, ATK: 1600)_!" At the same time, Security Officer Number 3 was taking his turn, summoning a samurai-like monster. "With a Warrior on my field, I can Special Summon _Fire Flint Lady (Lv.1, ATK: 100)_ from my hand, then I activate _Tuner's High_ to discard the Level One Attack Gainer from my hand and Special Summon the Level Two Tuner, _Jutte Fighter (Lv.2, ATK: 700)_ from my deck! Now, I Synchro Summon!"

The Jutte Fighter that was summoned began to glow and transformed into two green rings which surrounded the other two monsters on the Security Officer's field. Samurai Sword Baron and Fire Flint Lady transformed into four and one stars respectively before they all combined into a line and a beam of light shot through the sky.

"Synchro Summon! Come forth, _Driven Daredevil (Lv,7, ATK: 2400)_! A warrior wearing a demonic mask to cover the lower part of its face and carrying two swords in its arms appeared on the field. "With this, I end my turn!"

"I pay a thousand Life Points to Special Summon _Garbage Lord (Lv.5, ATK: 0)_ from my hand!" The fifth Security Officer stated, summoning a monster with 0 ATK.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 4000 - 1000** → **3000** **』**

"Next, I Normal Summon the Tuner, _Fabled Raven (Lv.2, 1300)_ and tune it to my Garbage Lord!" The rings flew around the unmoving giant who burst into a pillar of white light. "Synchro Summon, _Chaos King Archfiend (Lv.7, ATK: 2600)_!" A purple and black demonic monster with burning wings and long blades coming out of the back of its arms jumped in front of the Security Officer that summoned it. "I set two cards, turn end!"

"I hope that you set a good a card, or this is just going to be another easy one turn kill for me!" Evan laughed before placing his fingers on the top card of his deck.

"Summoning a single level seven Synchro without any backrow to protect it? It's almost like you are aren't giving your best because I'm a girl. I will crush your skull for that!" Koharu shouted and grabbed the top card of her deck.

Reiji fixed his glasses and gave his opponent's field a quick glance, processing all the information, he quickly came up with a strategy. "My turn."

"DRAW!" the three Lancers shouted at the same time, each of them drawing a card.

 **『** **Turn 2 [Evan] LP: 4000, Hand: 6/-/ Turn 2 [Koharu] LP: 4000, Hand: 6/-/ Turn 2 [Reiji] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"Nice!" Evan exclaimed. "I'll start this duel by activating the Continuous Spell, _**Timeline Fortress**_!" The card that he played showed a fortress composed of clock towers connected by a wall made of clock gears with cannons aiming from the small openings in the wall and the towers. "And when this card is activated, I can add _ChronoDevil D'Arc Avenger_ from my deck to the hand! And when I control no monsters I can Special Summon _**ChronoDevil Rush Tuner**_ from my hand!" a blue curly ball with two big green eyes and claws jutting out of its sides rolled on the field in front of Evan.

* * *

 **Timeline Fortress (Spell) Continuous**

 **When this card is activated, you can add 1 "ChronoDevil" monster from your Deck to your hand. Your opponent cannot target DARK monsters you control with Spell/Trap cards or their effects. If this face-up card is send to the GY: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "ChronoDevil" monster from your Deck. You can only activate 1 "Timeline Fortress" per turn.**

* * *

 **Chroneality Rush Tuner**

 **Level: 1/Attribute: DARK EARTH/Type: Beast/Effect/Tuner**

 **ATK: 100/ DEF: 200**

 **Effect: If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, draw 1 card.**

* * *

"Since I just Special Summoned a monster, I can Special Summon _**ChronoDevil D'Arc Avenger**_ from my hand!" A purple pentagram appeared on the field and Evan's monster raised from it. The new ChronoDevil had the appearance of a female wearing a torn cape over a set or rusty knight armor with a missing chest piece and a fully exposed left arm. She had long red hair and her skin was greyish dark in color with glowing purple veins covering her neck and arm. The monster had three small horns on the left side of her head and was carrying a large broadsword with a dark red blade.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil D'Arc Avenger**

 **Level: 2/Attribute: DARK FIRE/Type: Warrior/Effect/Tuner**

 **ATK: 800 /DEF: 400**

 **Effect: If you Special Summon a DARK monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If a Synchro Monster(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or card effect, you can banish this card from your Graveyard instead.**

* * *

"And to add to the party, I Normal Summon _**ChronoDevil Synergic Maiden**_!" A monster that looked like the twin sister of ChronoDevil Steam Maiden appeared on my field. She had short dark purple hair with two large triangular metal-like objects located on the sides of her upper-scalp and her arms were completely robotic, with several small openings revealing that they used gears as their main mechanism.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Synergic Maiden**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: DARK EARTH/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 1500 /DEF: 1000**

 **Effect: When an opponent monster declare a direct attack you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn: You can target 1 DARK monster on the field; until the end of this turn it's treated as a Tuner monster.**

* * *

"Now everything is set!" Evan exclaimed and threw his right arm forward. "I tune my Level Four Synergic Maiden to my Level Two D'Arc Avenger!" D'Arc placed her sword in front of herself and it glowed turning her into two crimson rings of energy that Synergic Maiden flew through, turning into four orbs of black light.

" _Legend lost in time, rebuild yourself through the pain of a dystopic past and emerge as a weapon of a continuing legacy! Synchro Summon! Level Six!_ _ **ChronoDevil Steel Fist**_ _!_ "

A black pillar of energy landed behind Evan and a large creature made of mostly white rocks with several black segments on her neck and shoulders. The creature had the appearance of a muscular humanoid with a boxing helmet made of dark grey rocks covering the top and the side of its head, while its face was made of two lime colored orbs acting as eyes. Lastly was the creature's arms, its left one was normal in size with a broken shackle hanging from its wrist, while the right one was a giant robotic arm made of steel with four fingers that were placed in a circle around the wrist.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Steel Fist**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: DARK EARTH/Type: Rock/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2200/DEF: 1400**

 **1 DARK Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn: You can halve this card's ATK until the end of this turn; destroy 1 card your opponent controls. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of this card's ATK.**

* * *

"I activate Sell Fist's effect! By halving its attack points until the end of this turn, I can destroy your set card! _**Dystopic Furry**_!" The warrior pointed its right arm at the Security Officer's set card. Its fingers retracted back into the wrist forming four firearm barrels whose muzzles pointed at the card. Steel Fist's arm then fired four small rockets that exploded on contact with the set card, which flipped face-up to show that it was Dimensional Prison before exploding.

 **ChronoDevil Steel Fist, ATK: 2200/2** → **1100**

"It appears that the set card wasn't that dangerous." Evan grumped. "Well, that doesn't matter anymore. I activate the Spell Card - _**Limited Oversoul**_! This card's effect allows me to revive a monster in my graveyard as long as it has a thousand or less attack points. Come back, D'Arc Avenger!" A black portal appeared in front of Evan and his Spell Card summoned several black chains that pulled the demonic warrior out of the grave.

* * *

 **Limited Oversoul (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 DARK monster in your Graveyard with 1000 or less ATK; Special Summon that target, but destroy it during the End Phase.**

* * *

"Next I tune the Level Six Steel Fist to the Level One Rush Tuner!" The blue ball jumped up and down, transforming into a single red ring that Steel Fist jumped through.

" _The black rune overseeing all tragedy, transcend beyond the limits of the universe and unveil your true form! The sage who wields dark power over time! Synchro Summon!_ _ **ChronoDevil Horology Magician**_ _!_ "

A red orb appeared on Evan's field. After a moment the orb began to glow and a long black metal wand appeared around it. Following that ripples began to appear in the space around the magical item and a humanoid formed out of it. The monster that came was a human male wearing a closed dark brown jacket that resembled the type of clothes worn during the Industrial Revolution. The lower part of the cloth reached below the magician's knees and partially covered its black pants and metal boots. The monster was wearing bronze shoulder pads with golden clock emblems, the lower part of its face was covered by an orange scarf while the long black hood of the jacket covered the monster's hair and its left eye.

Once the magician fully materialized, he grabbed the magic staff and placed it in front of himself, summoning several purple magic circles in the air around him.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Horology Magician**

 **Level: 7/Attribute: DARK WIND/Type: Spellcaster/Synchro/Effect**

 **ATK: 2500/DEF: 2100**

 **1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters**

 **Effect: If this card is Synchro Summoned, you can Tribute 1 Tuner Monster you control; Special Summon 1 "ChronoDevil Horology Apprentice" from your Deck or Graveyard. Your opponent cannot activate Spell Cards during the Battle Phase. During the End Phase of either player's turn: If this card is in your Graveyard because it was sent there during this turn, you can add 1 "Phantom" monster from your deck to the hand.**

* * *

"First, Rush Tuner's effect activates when it leaves the field, allowing me to draw a card. Now I activate Horology Magician's effect!" Evan gestured toward his monster. "When he's Synchro Summoned, I can release D'Arc Avenger to Special Summon _**ChronoDevil Horology**_ _ **Apprentice**_! _**Teacher's Call**_!"

Horology Magician raised his staff in the air and summoned a black magic circle with a clock emblem in the center. The symbol caused ripples to appear in the space once more as a female monster flew through it. Like her teacher, the apprentice wore an outfit with a Victoria-Era feel to it. Her clothes consisted of a short black leather jacket that had leather spaulders attached to it and a long red cape with a yellow clock symbol floating out of the right spaulder. Underneath, the apprentice wore simple grey pants with knee-high black leather boots.

In addition to that, her outfit featured a heavy leather gauntlet on her right hand. Most of the monster's head was covered by a black hood, despite that her long blond hair and sparkly green eyes were fully visible. The monster carried a short black magic wand in her right hand, two blades jutting out of its sides with a large pink sphere in the middle between them.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Horology Apprentice**

 **Level: 5/Attribute: DARK FIRE/Type: Spellcaster/Effect**

 **ATK: 1700 /DEF: 2000**

 **Effect: While you control a face-up Synchro monster, this card cannot be targeted for attack or with card effects. Once per turn, during either player's Battle Phase: If a DARK Spellcaster-Type monster you control battles an opponent's monster, you can have your monster gain ATK equal to half its original ATK until the end of the Battle Phase.**

* * *

"Finally, I activate the Continuous Spell, _**Timeline Leap**_!" The card showed a space composed by purple and red energy with the shadows of various monsters floating through it. "This card allows me to tag out one of my monsters during the Battle Phase and summoned a creature dwelling in the future!"

* * *

 **Timeline Leap (Spell) Continuous**

 **If a "ChronoDevil" monster you control battles this turn, after the Damage Step, you can banish that monster, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Chrono" monster from your Deck whose Level is either higher or lower than the banished monster's Level by exactly 1. At the end of the Battle Phase, return the monster summoned by this effect to the bottom of your deck, and if you do, return the monster banished by this effect to the field. If this face-up card you control is destroyed and send to the Graveyard: You can add the card at the bottom of your deck to your hand. You can only activate each effect of "Timeline Leap" once per turn.**

* * *

"Now I'm going to end this!" Evan declared. "Horology Magician, attack Goyo Guardian! _**Dark Time Magic**_!" Evan's magician swung its staff in the air several times before unleashing a wave of dark magical energy at the opposing Synchro Monster.

"Fool!" the Security Officer called out. "Your monster's attack power is lower than mine!"

"I already know that, Sherlock." Evan rolled his eyes. "Can't I even catch my breath before having to explain my full play? Horology Apprentice's effect allows a battling monster of mine to gain half of its own original attack power during a battle! _**Apprentice's Illusion**_!"

 **ChronoDevil Horology Magician, ATK: 2500 + 1250** → **3750**

Horology Apprentice flew over to Horology Magician and the two looked at each other, nodding before crossing their staffs, creating a magic circle around their weapons. The two pointed their magic wands at Goyo Guardian and unleashed a combined magical attack that rapidly aged the Synchro Monster until it fell apart.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 4000 - 950** → **3050** **』**

"Next, Horology Apprentice is going to attack you directly! _**Burning Time Attack**_!" Horology Apprentice held her magic wand with both arms, summoning a ball of black fire, which it then sent toward the Security Officer, knocking him on the ground.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 3050 - 1700** → **1350** **』**

"And now, I activate Timeline Leap's effect!" Evan clicked his fingers and a purple portal held inside a frame in the shape of a clock gear appeared in front of Horology Apprentice. "I banish Horology Apprentice to Special Summon a monster from my Deck with a Level higher or lower than hers by one star! And the one I'm about to call is an evolution of my favorite monster, ever! Appear, _**ChronoDevil Lightning Archfiend**_!"

A demonic beast made of black bones held together by purple flesh appeared before Evan. The monster had a smut skull without any eyes. Two large red horns jutted out the sides of its head while the front had a triangular nose opening and an exposed jaw revealing its sharp teeth. Like Summoned Skull, the monster had large shoulders and its arms ended with large bestial claws. Its wings had a more bird-like appearance, with reptilian scales instead of feathers and three claws in place of the alula. Going lower, the monster had digitigrade legs made of bones and a long tail made of the same material.

* * *

 **ChronoDevil Lightning Archfiend**

 **Level: 6/Attribute: DARK/Type: Fiend/Effect/Pendulum**

 **ATK: 2500 /DEF: 1200**

 **P.S: 2**

 **Pendulum Effect: All Level 6 and higher Fiend-Type monsters you control gain 300 ATK, also they cannot be targeted by your opponent's card effects.**

 **Effect: If this card is Pendulum Summoned from your hand: You can destroy 1 monster your opponent controls whose DEF is equal to or lower than this card's current ATK. Your opponent cannot target Fiend-Type monsters you control for attack or with card effects, except this one.**

* * *

"And battle!" Evan pushed his right first forward. "Lightning Archfiend attack the opponent directly! _**Lightning Time Strike**_!" Lightning Archfiend hissed and raised its arms, summoning a ball of purple lightning, which it then threw at the Security Officer who yelled as his body was flung back by the attack.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 1350 - 2500** → **0** **』**

"A-a One Turn Kill!" The Second Security Officer cried out.

"Tch, I had to use three cards in order to pull this one." Evan clicked his tongue.

" _ **Don't you think that your expectations are a bit too far, given that this is the first time you're using this deck?"**_ Yuksel asked.

"Hmm," Evan rubbed his chin. His belief was that he had to always do his best, there were no excuses for a failure. So, if he didn't know how to properly use his deck, it was his fault. "I'm going to end my Battle Phase then, and due to Timeline Leap's effect, Lightning Archfiend returns back to my deck and Horology Apprentice comes back to join her master!"

A portal shaped like a gear appeared under Lightning Archfiend's body and the demon flew into it after which Horology Apprentice jumped out of the portal and sat down onto her magic wand while winking.

"I'll start by activating _Foolish Burial_ to send _Magician of Wishes_ from my deck to the graveyard." Koharu said, beginning her own turn. "Next, I Normal Summon _Necromancer of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 500)_ and activate its effect; when Necromancer is Normal Summoned, I can revive a Wishes monster from my graveyard, return, _Magician of Wishes (Lv.4, ATK: 1500)_!"

Two faceless magicians appeared on Koharu's field one after another. The Xyz duelist took a deep breath, if she summoned Hope and attacked with it, Driven Daredevil's effect would destroy it at the end of the Damage Step, but it was a risk she had to take.

"I overlay my Level Four Magician of Wishes and Necromancer of Wishes!" As Koharu's monsters transformed into streams of energy and got absorbed into the galaxy-like portal Koharu put a hand close to her chest and began to chant.

" _Hope, the enigmatic force that unites us, come as the courageous protector of dreams! Xyz Summon! Heavenly warrior of light! Rank Four, King of Dreams, Hope (RANK: 4, ATK: 2500)!_ "

The warrior clad in golden armor flew in the sky holding two blades. Koharu smiled a bit at the sight of her ace and then reached to press a button on her Duel Disk.

"Magician of Wishes' effect activates! When it's used as material for a Xyz Summon, you take five hundred points of damage!" At Koharu's command, Hope spread out its wings and unleashed a wave of energy that hit the Security Officer in the guts.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 4000 - 500** → **3500** **』**

"What the?" The officer exclaimed, falling down on one knee.

"Careful, this is one of these summoning methods that the director warned us about!" the other officer told him.

"Your director?" Koharu was going to ask them what their director knew about Xyz Summoning, but she shook her head. No, she had to beat these officers, not question them. "Battle! I attack Driven Daredevil with King of Dreams, Hope!"

The Xyz Monster swung its blades and then slashed at the Synchro Warrior. Their swords clashed and the two monsters stared each other down while trying to overpower one another.

"Due to Driven Daredevil's effect, my monster won't be destroyed!" The Security Officer laughed. "Instead, at the end of the damage calculation, your ace will be the one cut to pieces."

"That won't happen! I activate King of Dreams, Hope's effect! I detach a Xyz Material from it to make Hope's attack points zero during the battle!" Koharu's monster absorbed one of its Xyz Materials and suddenly its blades broke into pieces, leaving the monster unarmed.

 **King of Dreams, Hope, ATK: 2500** → **0**

"And now I activate the Quick-Play Spell! _**Unbound Strength**_!" Koharu activated a card that showcased a knight holding a sword while a second version of the warrior that was twice the original's size was forming behind the original. "Due to my Spell's effect, if a monster's attack changes, Unbound Strength will make its attack equal to twice that difference!"

* * *

 **Unbound Strength (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 monster on the field whose current ATK is different from its original ATK: until the end of the Battle Phase, that monster's ATK becomes twice the current difference between its current and original ATK.**

* * *

"But twice the difference would mean…" The Security Officer trailed off, realizing what Koharu was on about.

"Exactly! Hope's attack power will be doubled!" Koharu raised a fist into the air and a new pair of golden swords appeared in Hope's arms as the monster took another swing at the Synchro.

 **King of Dreams, Hope, ATK: 0** → **5000**

The Xyz monster's blades crashed with Driven Daredevil's sending the Synchro skidding backward while the Security Officer grunted in pain.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 3500 - 2600** → **900** **』**

"Driven Daredevil's effect activates!" The Security Officer exclaimed, gesturing toward his monster. "At the end of the damage step, if it battled a monster with higher attack power, that monster will be destroyed!"

And sure enough at the Security Officer's words the samurai leaped at King of Dreams, Hope and cut the Xyz Monster's body into pieces, destroying it. Koharu stood unfazed by her ace monster's destruction, she took another card from her hand and activated it.

" _ **Rank-Up-Magic Redemption**_ _**Force**_ activate! This revives a Xyz monster destroyed by battle or card effect this turn!" a golden portal appeared at Koharu's feet and King of Dreams, Hope raised once more. "Then, I rank it up!" Hope transformed into a stream of energy and fell back into the golden portal.

* * *

 **Rank-Up-Magic Redemption Force (Spell) Quick-Play**

 **Target 1 of your Xyz Monsters that was destroyed by battle or an opponent's card effect this turn; Special Summon it, then Xyz Summon 1 LIGHT Xyz Monster that is 1 Rank higher than that monster you control, by using it as the Xyz Material.**

* * *

"Rank up?" The Security Officer repeated. "The director said nothing about this!"

" _From the sorrow and pain of yesterday's dystopia, a spark of hope was born at the horizon toward tomorrow! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Raise, the guardian of dreams and hope!_ _ **Knight of Dreams, Hope**_ _!_ "

The evolution of Hope flew out of the galaxy-like portal and landed in front of Koharu. The new Xyz Monster had heavy golden armor covering its chest and legs, while its stomach and arms were covered by a more slim red armor plating with black fingerless gloves on its hands. Two curved white swords hung from the steel belt on its waist with a green core glowing in the center of each blade's handle. Like all other Hopes, this one had a pair of robotic wings attached to its back, but unlike previous forms, this one's wings were complete composed of black swords. A large white collar jutted around the monster's head, which was covered by a golden helmet with a red faceplate that had four golden blades pointing downward in a way that made them look like a beard. The monster's eyes glowed blue and a single yellow Xyz Material orbited around its body.

* * *

 **Knight of Dreams, Hope**

 **Rank: 5/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Warrior/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 2800/DEF: 2400**

 **3 Level 5 monsters**

 **Effect: During either player's Battle Phase, when this card battles an opponent's monster: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent currently controls, also, halve that battling monster's ATK. Those change last until the end of the Battle Phase. When this Xyz Summoned card is destroyed and send to the Graveyard: Target 1 Rank 4 or lower LIGHT monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target, and if you do, attach this card to it as Xyz Material.**

* * *

"It's time to end this!" Koharu exclaimed. "Knight of Dreams, Hope attack Driven Daredevil! And now I activate Knight of Dreams, Hope's effect! By using one Xyz Material, I can negate the effect of all face-up cards you currently control, as well as halve Daredevil's attack points!"

"Wait, but then…" The security officer tried to speak up, but Knight of Dreams, Hope absorbed its Xyz Material and the swords attached to its back shot out, trapping the Driven Daredevil before the duelist could respond.

 **Driven Daredevil, ATK: 2400/2** → **1200**

All that it then took was a single switch strike from Hope's swords to finish the Synchro monster for good, as well as knock out the Security Officer who controlled the destroyed Synchro monster.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 900 - 1600** → **0** **』**

"I'm now going to set a card and end my turn." Koharu stated, placing one of her last two cards into her Duel Disk.

"I'll make this a quick duel." Reiji fixed his glasses. "I activate the Continuous Spell, _Dark Contract with the Gate_! Once per turn, this card allows me to add a Level Four or lower D/D monster from my deck to the hand, I add D/D Swirl Slime and activate its effect! Using _D/D Swirl Slime_ and _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon_ in my hand as materials, I going to Fusion Summon!"

Two creatures, one made of green slime and the other being a dark purple crystal covered in armor, flew into a multi-colored vortex as Reiji began to chant.

" _Arcane swirl that takes in all forms! Engulf the deity ruling over all kings. Be reborn into a new king! Fusion Summon! Come forth, ruler who carries the glory of God! D/D/D Oracle King - d'Arc (Lv.7, ATK: 2800)!_ "

A demonic knight in white armor flew out of the vortex and placed its sword in front of its chest.

"And now, I'll use the Scale Six, D/D Proud Chevalier and the Scale Ten, D/D Savant Newton to set the Pendulum Scale!" Two columns of light raised from the sides of Reiji's field.

"What the?" One of the Security Officers dueling Reiji gasped.

"A Pendulum Scale?" The second officer tilted his head.

"Through my Pendulum Scale, I'm able to Pendulum Summon monsters with levels from seven to nine! Grand power that shakes my very soul, arise within me and become a new light that rends the darkness. Pendulum Summon! Come before me, my monsters! _D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok (Lv.8, ATK: 2200)_ and _D/D Savant Thomas (Lv.8, DEF: 2600)_!"

"This is just ridiculous…" The first officer muttered.

"I want to go home." The second one shook his head.

"I activate Abyss Ragnarok's effect! When it's Summoned, I can revive a D/D/D monster in my Graveyard! Come back, _D/D/D Doom King Armageddon (Lv.8, ATK: 3000)_!" A portal appeared on the ground and Abyss Ragnarok threw its black belts inside, pulling Reiji's 'ace' monster out of the grave.

"I overlay the Level Eight, D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok and D/D Savant Thomas!" Reiji's two monsters turned into streams of purple energy that flew into a galaxy-like portal while their owner chanted!

" _When two suns rise, the horizon of a new world shall open up! Xyz Summon! Appear and come forth, Rank Eight! D/D/D Duo-Dawn King Kali Yuga (RANK: 8, ATK: 3500)_!"

A large demonic monster appeared out of the portal, sitting on a throne. The creature raised its arms and came out of them, dropping all other monsters onto their knees.

"Kali Yuga's effect negates the effects of all other face-up cards on the turn its Special Summoned!" Reiji explained. "This render's your monster's effects unusable, and now, I activate Kali Yuga's other effect! I detach one Xyz Material from it to destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field!"

A ball of dark energy appeared above Kali Yuga's head. The D/D/D monster then threw its arms forward once again, the sphere exploding and erasing all of the officer's set cards along with Reiji's own Pendulum Zones and Dark Contract.

"This is over." Reiji fixed his glasses and gestured toward his monsters. "D/D/D Oracle King d'Arc destroy Chaos King Archfiend!" Reiji's Fusion monster flew forward and slashed at the Synchro, destroying it.

 **『** **Security Officer LP: 3000 - 200** → **2800** **』**

"Doom King Armageddon will now attack you directly." Reiji finished, His monster firing a barrage of dark energy blasts at the Security Officer, knocking him out.

"Oh jeez, will you look at this? We all beat our opponents on the first turn." Evan chuckled and stretched out his arms. "Wonder how that happened."

"It's clear that the bunch of you isn't anywhere good enough to fight us." Koharu stated and pointed at the remaining officers. "Just run away and we won't have to humiliate the rest of you!"

The Officers only glared back in response to Koharu's suggestion. If they turned around and ran, the director would not just fire them, but would most likely throw them in the facility to root for the rest of their lives. So even knowing that they were outmatched, they had to continue this duel and…

"That's enough."

Both Lancers and Security lowered their Duel Disks and turned toward the source of the voice. Standing at the stairway leading toward the council's building were Levant, Tsukikage and five other people. Going from the left to the right was an elderly man with dark hair and a yellow robe, a man with light brown hair and a more French-like outfit, a man with white hair and matching white robe, a woman in blue clothes and another man in red and orange clothes.

"T-the Administrative Council!" One of the Security Officers gasped.

"It appears that this conflict was started by a misunderstanding." The man at the left began.

"We'll be the ones who'll judge their actions." The woman added.

"Your orders are to stand down." The man in French clothes told them.

"Correct, Chairman?" the man in red and orange robes turned toward the eldest of them and asked.

"Yes." The man in white smiled. "If you please, we would want the director of the Security Bureau to be present for this meeting as well."

The officers nodded and ran off, leaving the Lancers and their fallen colleagues behind. Evan raised an eyebrow at that display. For them not to care about the officers that fell, the security system in this city should either not allow for partnership between its officers, or there was some sort of competition between them.

"So," Evan took a step back, moving beside Reiji and then gestured his hand toward the Council. "Lead the way, 'boss'."

* * *

 **Evan's POV**

We all gathered inside the Council's Hall of Dominion or something, with Reiji trying to explain who we were what our objective was and the most important of all - explain that we weren't native to this dimension. And if the fact that the Student Council didn't immediately call him crazy and called for the guards to throw all of us into an asylum wasn't alarming to you, they appeared to be buying Reiji's story about the different Dimensions.

Worse than that, they never questioned the acts of terrorism that the Lancers were involved into so far. If you couldn't tell, I personally wasn't carrying much about the Lancer's standing in this Dimension, so I was standing close to the door, waiting for a chance to walk out and leave the others. That was until the doors opened and the 'director' of Sector Security walked in. He had a long nose, green eyes, and most interesting of all, was wearing a purple coat. Call me crazy, but his entire design screamed 'Fusion' to me.

"I received your call." The man stood in the center of the room and looked up to the council. "But it seems that you already have… guests?"

The man looked, angry at our presence. Or was it the Council that he was angry with? They did call him out of his work to come and talk with some strangers, so I guess there was a reason to be angry, at both us and them.

"Director of Security Bureau, this is Akaba Reiji, leader of the Lancers." The man in the yellow robes started gesturing toward our 'leader'.

"He told us an 'interesting' story that we wanted your judgment on." The woman added.

"Since you are director of Sector Security, we find it only appropriate if you give your own professional opinion on the matter." The French guy continued after the woman.

"Correct, Chairman?"

Uh, did they always talk like this? Council my ass, just from the speaking pattern I could tell that these people were on their current positions just so they could enforce their shared interests, and nothing else. The members of the Council lacked any sort of identity, the way each of the added onto what the last one said made them sound like a swarm following a single thought process.

"Is that what you called me here for?" the director asked, definitely not pleased with this. "I've got more important duties to attend to."

"We are sure of that." The man in the yellow robes spoke up again.

"We already know about your Security Forces' recent collisions with duelists using unknown summoning methods." The woman followed up with another bit of information.

"Don't forget that we're the ultimate authority in this city, Roget. We know about everything that's going on within the borderline of our city."

"Correct, Chairman?"

"Indeed." The grandpa smiled. "This may represent a rupture in the security of this city, so the Council requires control over the investigation."

"But if that's a security problem then it should be the Security Bureau handling it!" Roget retorted. "In all due respect, but the Council has no legal authority over ongoing investigations. You are overstepping the boundaries of your judicial power!"

Welp, it seems that I should step in as well, even though I had no knowledge in politics or law. But what was I supposed to do when the security director have such a good argument on why I shouldn't trust the Council. From my limited knowledge on the idea of separation of power, the judiciary system had the power to interpret law and applies it to the facts of each case. They were the court and if Reiji managed to get them on his side, it meant that no matter what happened from here on, even if the Lancers get arrested, the moment they have to stand a trial, they would be freed. So, Security's job to catch criminals just became useless.

"I'm going to agree with the director there!"

"EVAN!"

I ignored Koharu's protest and the unpleasant faces that Reiji and Levant were making. I needed allies in order to bring the Lancers down when the time comes.

"You already have full control over the case without meddling in the investigation. But as a Lancer, I can't close my eyes to the mischiefs of my teammates. The actions of my teammate over there are proof that there are bad apples in every basket. If anything, letting Security investigate and arrest the rest of the Lancers would prevent more severe incidents from taking place."

"You said 'arrest the rest of the Lancers', does that mean that you are part of that group as well?" Roget asked us.

"That's what the Council wanted you to listen to." Reiji stepped in. "We, the Lancers are a group of duelists that crossed dimensions in order to aid your dimension in the dimensional war, as well as make sure that Academia's invasion would fail. We never intended to cause any chaos."

"Crossed dimensions?" Roget narrowed his eyes. Now he probably thought that Reiji was crazy, spouting such nonsense and stuff. "This would explain why members of your group are able to use summoning methods nor present in this world."

Wait, did Roget immediately buy that? And he did it based on what summoning method is being used? There was something fishy with that guy, I tell you!

" _ **I feel the same way as you, we shouldn't let our guard down with a moral like that."**_ Yuksel spoke up inside my mind. _**"There's no way for him to know about the worlds' separation by summoning methods, unless this isn't his first encounter with dimension crossers, or…"**_

' _If he was a dimension crosser himself._ ' I got what Yuksel was trying to tell me. But that was just a hunch, I shouldn't come to any conclusions until I got to know that man a bit better.

"You say that you came to aid us, but I don't believe that this is your true purpose to show up in the city." Roget continued. "So far, my men have come across several groups of your 'Lancers'. Your friends out there have not only caused panic among the citizens, but also resisted Security several times, and let not forget that you invaded this building. There was also the incident in the old tunnels where my men were thankfully able to arrest the one responsible."

"You found a Lancer inside a tunnel?" Levant asked.

"So we believe." Roget nodded. "The suspect was using Xyz Summoning alongside Synchro Summoning. My men had to ambush him with an energy web in order to restrain him."

So Ventus was the first to get arrested? And here I thought that Yuya or some of his idiotic friends such as Yuzu and Gongenzaka would be first to evade getting throw behind bars, but I must have misjudged their ability to commit crimes and escape responsibility.

"If we take what these so called Lancers said as true and there is indeed a dimensional war, I would argue that your actions so far were of invaders, nor saviors!" Roget turned his back to the Council and Reiji. "Protecting this city is Security's duty, so until we find all the Lancers and make a full investigation that confirms your motives, your friends outside will be treated like the criminals that they are."

And after saying that, the director left the building. It was good for me that at least one person in this dimension had some common sense. I put my hood on and turned to leave as well, just for Koharu to step in front of me and put a hand on my chest, stopping me from leaving. She was really pissed, glaring daggers at me.

"On whose side are you!?" She shouted at me. "Saying that we were trouble and should be arrested, are you trying to undermine us or something?"

"I just stated the facts." I responded, slapping her hand. I couldn't just let these idiots run around the city doing as they want. "If you're all going to try and blind the authorities of this dimension about the potential danger of an out of control Lancer group, I don't need to stand here and listen to what you are going to say. I'll find the rest of this team and bring them in, after everyone is here and all the facts are laid bare, the Council can decide if we're a threat or not. How does that sound?"

The Council whispered between each other after which the grandpa standing in the center gave me their vote. "The Council seconds your decision."

Koharu looked like she wanted to strangle me, but despite that the Council has already spoken in favor of my suggestion, so the only thing she could do was to step aside and let me go. Finding every Lancer's hideout in a city as large as this would take me months of work, but lucky for me, today I got acquainted with someone who would be willing to lead me a hand.

* * *

 **Avice: Hello and welcome to our new set of previews!**

 **Chapter 4** **8:** **A New Order Rises**

 **Summary:** Academia is in a crisis! A group of rebelling soldiers lead by the son of a former Academia instructor turns one of the former Academia islands into their base. In response Academia sends Evice to the island in order to complete her second field test by wiping out all of Academia's enemies. However the clone soon realizes that there's much more to the island who has been used to imprison the Sacred Beasts – a trio of legendary monsters with power that even Academia couldn't control…

 **Avice: Why is the copycat getting her own chapter?!**

 **Chapter 4** **9:** **Duelist of the Stars**

 **Summary:** Starting his quest to find the remaining Lancers, Evan visits Roget first, making a deal with the director to help him put Evan's former teammates behind bars. Armed with information about the Lancer's last known locations, Evan starts his hunt when he suddenly comes across a girl possessing a Signer Dragons and an unexpected partnership is started…

 **Avice: We already know how that duels will go, so moving on...**

 **Chapter** **50:** **A Soldier's Fears**

 **Summary:** After Oni's recovering is finished, she and Avice leave in order to find the latter's siblings while in another part of the city Elizabeth's preparing to do the same. Meanwhile Evan earns information about a duo dueling random people on the streets asking about 'Academia' while leads him to Serena and Sawatari. But just as the two Lancers reunite a Special Force Squad sent by Roget attacks them and a duel ensues…

 **Avice: Really? Another chapter about my brother?**

 **Chapter** **51: Inevitable** **Collision**

 **Summary:** Avice's and Elizabeth's group come across each other leading to the sisters reuniting. Unaware that another Special Forces Squad was following them, the group is confronted by a small army of Roget's elite forces. An all other Battle Royale ensues, but the Lancers find themselves quickly losing advantage as each of them gets cornered. Just as the Greysons run out of options a voice calls out to them. Will the newcomer change the tide of the battle!?

 **Avice: I spy with my little eye, something starting with... Chrono...Devils?**

* * *

 **And Reiji's group finally made a move in the Synchro Dimension with Evan following them! You might have noticed Reiji acting a little differently that how he did in the canon, but I wanted to explore a new side of him through this chapter. You probably remember that unlike the canon, in this story Academia actually attacked the stadium resulting in a massacre. For Reiji that failure meant several things.**

 **First, the fact that Academia dared attack civilians meant that his father no longer cared about the Standard Dimension, at all - so unlike the canon where Reiji had hope for his father, here he completely abandones any hope that Leo could be redeemed. And Second, if you are a mastermind whose plans a 100% "success" rate, you are bound to react emotionally if your only failure is of such a massive scale.**

 **Moving on, we got our first look at Evan's new ChronoDevil deck! It still the same ChronoDevil deck in terms of playstyle, but now it ultimizes the "Timeline" series of Spell/Trap Cards. And while Evan did use cards with "Timeline" in their name before, such as "Timeline Fusion" I never though of giving his deck its own series of searchable** **Spell/Trap Cards until now.**

 **Another new thing are his monsters, or more** **specifically Horology Magician,** **Horology Apprentice and Lightning Archfiend. Obviously these cards are reimaginations of certain iconic (and not as iconic) cards used in other YGO series, but they also push the idea of what ChronoDevils really are. As a deck created by Evan's emotions and memories, naturally they would take the shape of something familiar.**

 **And that's all I had to say for this chapter. Thanks to eveyone for reading, we hope to see you next time!**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Avice out!**


	48. Chapter 48

New Order Rises

"Evice, do you have a moment?" Dr. Polk called out to one of his experiments – the first one, to be exact.

Evice, who was busy destroying one training bot after another lowered her Duel Disk and turned back to her creator. A wide smile appeared across her face as she nodded and tip-topped across the field of grass to the good old doctor. Once she made it across, the young girl crossed her arms behind her back and look up to the man with her big green orbs glowing, while she waited to hear what the doctor needed her assistance with.

"I see that your condition has been becoming better as of late." Dr. Polk told her. "Your body no longer deteriorates outside the lab, and your dueling skills have only been becoming better with every passing moment. I believe that this would be the best chance to show your strength and value to both the Professor and the Academia as a whole. I already have an assignment prepared for you, that is if you believe that you are ready for it."

"Of course, that's what I was built for." Evice nodded. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "I'll take the assignment, whatever it is, but what about Project Two? Won't he come as well?"

"Avon is not ready for a field test yet. Like you, his body needs some time to be stabilized enough to walk outside the laboratory, but thanks to the data I gained from you, he'll be outside in no more than two days." Polk explained. "And even when he's ready, I've got a different task for him, one that requires him to go to Standard."

"So, the Professor wants that traitor dead. I guess that Avon will also be doing recon for Academia there?" Evice guessed.

"You don't have to worry about your fellow clone," Polk reassured her. "What you must focus on is your own mission. Academia has recently lost control over the original island. The Professor's forces have been storming the old school building for a few days, but the rebels controlling it showed more potential than originally expected. The situation recently escalated, when we found out that chancellor Samejima kept a series of cards known as the Sacred Beasts buried under the Academy's grounds."

"The Sacred Beasts?" Evice tilted her head to the side. "I don't know why, but these words remind me of something. Egyptian Gods, Wicked Gods – I feel that I've heard those before."

"That could be the True Light inside of you making the connection. After all, all the aforementioned groups of monsters were created from the True Light and True Darkness." Polk rubbed his chin. "I'm sure that you understand how dangerous those creatures can be in the wrong hand. Professor wanted to send the Armityle Purple Force there when he heard about the Sacred Beasts, but I talked him into my idea instead. Evice, your objective will be to break through the rebels' defense, defeat their leader, Martin Kanou and secure the Sacred Beasts."

"Kanou…" Evice muttered, rubbing her chin in thought. "Wasn't there an instructor with the same name on Academia's data?"

"It must have been Napoleon… And before you, no, I'm not talking about the historical Napoleon." Polk quickly shut down the clone before she could retort. "There used to be a professor in the Academia that went by that name. He disapproved of the Professor's plans to invade the other dimensions, which got him fired and later assassinated while trying to start a 'revolution' on Academia's grounds. He was at first a professor at the first Academia, so he must have known about the Sacred Beasts as well."

"And if he knows, then his son would be sure to know as well." Evice frowned, then smirked as a mischievous idea came to her mind. "You know, I'm almost tempted to let him find these Sacred Beasts to make defeating him more interesting."

"Don't push it," Polk warned her. "Those creatures have powers that we don't know of. I want you to secure them and bring them to me, so I could test infusing them with Nightshroud's Darkness. See if that would be able to give them a boost."

"That's a dangerous game that you are playing, doc: Trying to corrupt gods and stuff. But I like it, so you can believe that I'll be able to complete the mission."

"Of course you will." Polk nodded and gestured toward a corridor. "I have already ordered to prepare a boat for your departure. Would you mind, if I walk with you to the docks?"

"Of course not," Evice replied and followed after the doctor. "I only have one worry and that's about my clothes. I think that if Academia soldiers see me wearing civilian clothes, they will mistake me for an enemy and attack me as well."

"Oh don't worry, I also had the tailors prepare a uniform for you," Polk reassured her. "Not that it would have been a problem for you. Professor Cobra is leading the charge against the rebels. He will ensure your safety. Ah! Before I forget, he also used to work at the old Academia for a while, so he would be able to give you a better instruction than me."

"I can put that info to good use." Evice sighed. There were going to be a lot of rebels to take down, even with her skills, it would take some time to defeat everyone. The clone was already thinking of alternative ways to approach the situation, without having the slightest idea what the situation was.

"I'll warn you: Try not to use the powers of True Light that are residing inside of you. We don't know if the power needed to use them can naturally be restored by your body, and since you were created by manipulating True Light, overusing the powers that it grans you could lead to the destruction of your physical body. A fate, you must avoid."

"No worries, I came packed with the instinct for self-preservation." Evice joked.

But Evice understood why Polk could be worried. After all, she wasn't a human; she wasn't cloned, even less born. Both Evice and Avon were no more than the essences of True Light and True Darkness, forced through some crazy experiments on Polk's part to take a human appearance. But outside their looks, there was nothing human-like about the two of them. Neither of them had any humanity, and even though they could understand concepts such as emotion, there was always a feeling of emptiness that ate Evice on the inside. A feeling that became only stronger when she met with her origin, Avice. Back then, she felt like half of something bigger, as a piece that needed its other half to become real, to have a purpose.

The two of them continued to walk in silence until they finally reached the docks. Because that area was far away from Polk's lab and Evice's training grounds, it was the first time that the girl got to see what Academia's docks were like. It felt a little weird to be there, to see that Academia was using boats to move around when they already had the technology to move through dimensions. But maybe the Professor wanted to keep that technology a secret for those outside the island?

Evice looked around. She noted the lack of boats at the docks. There were only a few small ones, but she could tell that there were meant to be a lot more there, some a lot bigger than a boat, maybe a ship?

"That there is your boat." Polk pointed forward.

Evice looked toward where Polk was pointing at. It was a white speedboat with an Obelisk Blue student on the wheel and three other passengers sitting behind. She noted that they all had different colored uniforms. Going from the lowest to the highest rank, first was a girl in a Slifer Red uniform. She had short brown hair with two pigtails on the sides and dark green eyes. Next was a boy with black hair and orange stands jutting out of the sides of his head in the shape of wings. He had silver eyes and was wearing the Ra Yellow uniform. Last was an Obelisk Blue girl with long blond hair tied into a ponytail and multiple green locks of hair, sticking out from among the golden color that surrounded them. Like the first girl, she had green eyes, but hers were more aqua green than dark.

It surprised Evice to see students from all three ranks together. As far as she knew, the Slifers, Ras, and Obelisks were closed groups. You could rarely see an Obelisk Blue and a Ra Yellow talking to one another, let not mention having any of them be around a Slifer Red. Both Blue and Yellows looked down at the Reds as failures that were no better than to act as meatshields on the battlefield.

"Um, who are the three?" Evice leaned toward Polk and whispered.

"I don't know." Polk shrugged. "But if they are in the same boat as you, then they must be going for the same destination as well. Maybe you could try to make friends while on the way. Officer, was the package I asked for delivered?"

"It's here, sir." The older Obelisk Blue nodded. "A special Academia uniform, right?"

"That's it." Polk nodded in confirmation and turned toward Evice. "This is where I must bid you farewell."

"I will be back before you sense that I'm gone," Evice replied with a grin.

The clone jumped into the board and took the package from the Obelisk Blue. The other three duelists looked at each other and then at the girl. No one recognized her, she had to be new, but they recognized Polk, he was a professor in Academia after all. The Ra Yellow and Slifer Red turned toward the Obelisk Blue girl and the three began to whisper something to each other. And while that trio was busy gossiping, Evice sat down across from them and opened the package to see the uniform they have prepared for her.

Surprisingly, it was in neither of Academia's four colors. Instead, it was a white officer uniform consisting of a jacket with golden shoulder bands and golden lines across the borders, and a similar white skirt. It wasn't what Evice expected, but at the same time, she wasn't surprised. That uniform was Polk's way to show the entire Academia the iniquity of his creations. She wasn't a Slifer Red, a Ra Yellow, an Obelisk Blue or an Armityle Purple. She was… Holactie White. Yeah… that's what she was. Holactie was the god of Light, while Evice was a child of the True Light.

The motor of the boat roared and the older Obelisk Blue drove off. Evice placed her uniform on her lap and looked back at the Academia. She had left that castle only once before, for a recon mission on Standard. Because of that, she never technically left the walls of Academia before. Unlike the others, she never got to see the large gates of the castle open wide for her. She never knew how little the island looked from a boat. There were so many things that she was experiencing for the first time.

"Are you an Armityle Purple?"

Evice turned her attention from the uniform to the trio sitting across from her. More specifically, to the Slifer Red girl, who looked at her with curiosity. The other two appeared to panic when their friends spoke up and the Ra Yellow pushed her on the shoulder, while the Obelisk Blue bowed to Evice.

"Sorry for her rudeness. She has never seen anyone of such a high rank before, so she doesn't know how to talk to an Armityle Purple." The Obelisk Blue girl apologized.

Didn't know how to talk with an Armityle Purple, huh? Evice leaned back in thought. Was that the kind of reputation that the Armityle Purple Force had in Academia? Evoking fear in their own troops? Evice would have never guessed that the other three ranks would be afraid of them. After all, all of her dueling training was done under the instructions of the Armityle Purple, so she was on good terms with most of them.

"It's not a problem." Evice finally said, looking at the three duelists that were in front of her. "I'm not an Armityle Purple, so feel free to talk with me, like with a friend."

"Are you sure that you aren't Armityle Purple?" the Slifer Red girl titled her head to the side.

"What are you asking?" now it was the Obelisk Blue's turn to hit her companion on the shoulder.

"Ouch!" the Slifer Red winched. "I thought that since she was given a different uniform from the rest of us, she was an Armityle Purple."

"The Armityle Purple Force were the only ones allowed to wear custom uniforms, right?" Evice asked, more herself than the trio. Since they were the best of the best if Academia, they had the privilege to wear clothes different from the official purple uniform.

"Yeah," the Ra Yellow nodded. "We haven't seen a white uniform before, so we thought that you were an Armityle Purple. I mean, why else would they make a white uniform for you, if you were among our ranks?"

"Actually, I'm from none of the four official ranks of Academia," Evice said. "I guess you could say, that I'm Academia's special force that is separated from the other groups. But enough about Academia. My name is Evice, no last name sadly, but it's nice to meet you."

Evice reached out for a handshake. A gesture that was visibly questioned by the Ra Yellow and the Obelisk Blue, while the Slifer Red immediately grabbed her hand to shake it while grinning like a little child.

"My name is Jun Yu." The girl introduced herself.

"It's nice to meet you, Jun." Evice smiled. She looked from the corner of her eye at the other two. They both seemed to shake their heads in disapproval from Jun's gullible personality. But the cat was already out of the bag, and it would be rude of them not to introduce themselves as well.

"My name is Ken Minami." The Ra Yellow introduced himself.

"Gwenda Gabriels, nice to meet you." The Obelisk Blue took Evice's other hand for a handshake.

"Heh, you see? We're like first buddies already." Evice said before leaning back. "But you know what I'm surprised about? That Academia called you three for reinforcements on the old island, but didn't call back one of the other boats to come to take us there."

"Yeah, a weird thing indeed." Ken nodded, nervously.

"Actually, we weren't called for backup," Jun said, causing her friends to face-palm, and for Evice to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yu!" Gwenda shouted at the Slifer Red. "You're not supposed to say that!"

The student who was driving the boat glanced back at Evice. The clone noticed that and looked back at the trio in front of her. If the three of them were acting out of order, they would be punished. A soldier of Academia wasn't allowed to leave the island without the authorization of a higher-up. There was a procedure that had to be followed in a situation like this, and though Evice didn't remember much from it, she remembered that in the end, the soldier who left without authorization should be either severely punished, or carded for betraying Academia.

Of course, Evice didn't have an interest in doing anything like that. Her royalty lied in Polk and not the Professor or his rules.

"Then why did are you going there?" Evice asked the group. "You aren't rebel sympathizers or something?"

"No, no, nothing like that!" Gwenda shook her hands. "We… We just wanted to help out, ok? Even though we were in Academia for a long time, we were never able to meet the requirements to be allowed to participle in the invasion of the Xyz Dimension. Even worse than that, we weren't allowed to participle in any of Academia's operations, even the humanitarian ones!"

"So, this entire thing that you're doing is to prove yourselves?" Evice rubbed her forehead. She was getting a headache thinking about it. They were breaking the rules, putting their own lives in danger, just to prove themselves capable? That was an irrational behavior that Evice just couldn't comprehend.

"Well, now that you say it this way, it does soon a little selfish." Jun rubber her shoulder.

"We have just run out of options," Ken said. "If we could have done it by the book, we wouldn't be here, but this was the best we were able to think off. I know that according to Academia's rules we should be,"

"Cut it." Evice raised a hand to stop him from continuing. "If you're doing this because you want to fight for Academia, I'm going to turn a blind eye to it. This one will stay off the book, ok?"

Evice looked at the driver after that last sentence. She knew that in Academia, the only loyalty that the students were taught was the one to the Professor. Because of that, they rarely stepped up for each other and often used every chance they had to backstab one another. The older Obelisk Blue didn't say anything back to Evice for that decision, but he also didn't nod in agreement. It was just her first mission, and she was already stepping on thin air for a bunch of students she met five minutes ago.

"Thank you." Gwenda smiled.

"You can thank me by sticking with me," Evice replied. "Not that you got much of a choice, do you? I don't think that the others would be as compassionate as me. And because I was sent by Polk's order, Professor Cobra would definitely be waiting for my arrival. You won't be able to sneak onto the island without being spotted by him."

"Right!" the trio nodded.

* * *

"So, that's what the old Duel Academy looked like? It truly is the work of art."

Evice looked at the large building in the distance from the docks on which she was standing. The original Duel Academy, it was a large spherical building build in the heart of a forest on a small tropical island with a volcano rising high behind the building. To her, it was beautiful to see a place like that, to get a better image on what the past of the Fusion Dimension used to be before the Professor militarized Dueling technology for his own crusade. The other students that followed her just shook their heads.

"It's just an old building from an era long gone." Ken crossed his arms. "The new Academia is far superior to this sphere of glass."

"You think so?" Evice turned toward the Ra Yellow with a smile on her face. "Don't you sometimes question what you're fighting for? Have you never questioned the Professor and why he built an army to conquer the other Dimensions?"

"What are you saying?" Gwenda narrowed her eyes. "Questioning the Professor's orders is the first step toward becoming a traitor. The same as our current enemies."

"Hmm, maybe you're right." Evice sighed. "But maybe, that's why the Academia forces in the Xyz Dimension haven't returned yet."

The trio looked at the clone, confused by her words. Raised by Academia's officers, neither of them understood what Evice was trying to hint toward. All they ever knew, was what Academia allowed its soldiers to know. For Jun, Ken, and Gwenda the remaining soldiers in the Xyz Dimension were there only to search for any hidden hostile forces, that managed to hide inside a hole or under some ruins when the might of Academia defeated their armies. They didn't know that the Xyz Dimension wasn't defeated yet. Destroyed yes, but there were still resistances powerful enough to oppose to Academia's advancement.

"What makes someone truly powerful isn't the deck they use." Evice finally explained. "The Xyz Duelists are strong, some of them probably stronger than Academia's. That's why there was a need to place an army there – to keep the local resistance from counterattacking." Evice crossed her arms and turned to enter the docks' building. "Those fighting for what they believe in and care about, such as a friend, their family, or their world, are always stronger and deadlier, than those doing it because they were ordered to do so."

The trio looked at each other and shrugged. They were unsure of what to make of Evice's words. The only thing they were sure about was that if someone else, a Duelist of a lower rank, told them that, they would have, without a doubt, ousted that person as a traitor to Academia's cause. But with Evice, a person who was trained by the Armityle Purple Force and with connections to Professor Cobra, they weren't so sure about her.

"I've been waiting for your arrival." A deep voice said, grabbing the Academia's student's attention.

Professor Cobra walked toward them with six Obelisk Force members escorting him. The large Academia officer stopped in front of Evice and looked her over, before turning toward the trio of students that were with her. Out of all the professors and officers at Academia, Cobra has always been the most feared. His large build and his cold voice, caused the regular students to feel intimidated the moment he showed up.

"I didn't expect from Dr. Polk to send any more backup…" Cobra trailed off, causing the trio to flinch.

"He didn't." the trio's faces turned white when Evice denied. "I took the initiative. Taking down the leaders of the rebellion takes priority over the regular rebels, but I can't allow them to come in my way, so I assembled a small team to help me out."

"Is that so? You could have requested some of my soldiers to accompany you. They have a better experience at facing a dangerous situation that a group of…"

"Don't worry," Evice cut the officer. "I've calculated the risks. More importantly, what is the current situation? I heard that the rebels might have a way to gain the Sacred Beasts, but since your units are all still in one piece, I take it that the enemy hasn't discovered these cards yet."

"My recon unit would have told me if they were able to obtain the Sacred Beasts," Cobra said before pressing a few buttons on his Duel Disk, activating a holographic map of the island. "Originally, the rebels used the four dorms as their first lines of defense. We were able to push them back during the initial attack, but because the Obelisk Blue's dorms were much better equipped, we lost too many units during their capture, which crippled our forces enough for an immediate siege of the Academy to be impossible."

"Which gave the rebels enough time to recover from their initial loses and to strengthen their defenses." Evice sighed. It was ironic how Academia's special treatment toward specific dorms caused them so much trouble. If the Obelisk Blue's dorms were built with the same standards as the other ones, the rebels wouldn't have caused that much damage and the siege would have ended quickly, without causing that much trouble for Academia and the Professor.

"After a few unsuccessful attempts to break their defenses, I choose to surround the building and keep them locked inside until they starve to dead," Cobra said. "But they were prepared for that too. According to my recon units, they had enough food supplies to last for at least two more weeks, long enough for them to find the Sacred Beasts."

"I see… I take it that there's an approach you want to suggest, right?" Evice crossed her arms and smirked, knowingly.

"The biggest disadvantage of the Obelisk Force and the Academia Duelists is that they have been trained to use numbers in order to overpower the enemy. They lack individual skills, making it hard to sneak in a group capable of holding their own against the rebels in their own domain. Even if we send a group of three or four Obelisk Force units, the rebels already know Academia's strategies and can easily defeat my units. I learned that first hand a couple of days ago."

"I see," Evice turned back to the trio. "What kind of decks are the three of you using?"

"Ancient Gears," Ken replied.

"A to Z." was Gwenda's answer.

"Neo-Spacias…" Jun looked away in embarrassment.

"Good." Evice smiled. "You three will be of use after all. Professor Cobra, me and my team will take it from here. We'll break the defenses blocking the front entrance, have the best of your soldiers ready to storm the building, while the rest surrounded it and look out for any rebel who might try to escape in the chaos."

"That was my plan." Cobra crossed his arms. "My units are already prepared. Only send a signal through your Duel Disk when the front gate is cleared, and we'll strike them down."

"You heard him, boy and girls." Evice turned toward her group. "Follow after me!"

* * *

Evice kept watch. Observing the Duel Academy from a distance wasn't a problem. Because whoever designed that, wasn't expecting the building to be used as a warzone, so they have placed it in the middle of a forest, in a way that made it easy to sneak without being spotted if you're careful enough. And aside from the rebels, the place didn't have any security on its own.

"If we try to charge them, we'll be outnumbered very quickly," Gwenda commented.

"You're forgetting something," Evice told the Obelisk Blue. "The rebels expect an attack from regular Academia units. The regular Academia deck doesn't contain any flying monsters, but ours might. Except for Ken, since he uses an Ancient Gear deck as well."

"Actually, I allowed myself the freedom to update my deck." The Ra Yellow stated. "I have Gadjiltron Dragon and Wyvern – both of them can fly."

"I don't believe that the rebels wouldn't place someone to guard the rooftop," Gwenda said.

"No worries, we'll beat them, if there's someone guardian the rooftop." Jun raised her Duel Disk, activating it. "I summon Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird."

A humanoid bird with red feathers and white wings appeared behind Jun and grabbed the Slifer Red duelist before flying off. The others facepalmed; letting the weakest and most inexperienced among them lead the attack would quickly make things worse for them. Evice, Gwenda and Ken took a card from their respective deck and placed it on the glowing energy blade. In an instant Astral Angel Ignis, Y-Dragon Head and Ancient Gear Wyvern appeared in front of their respective owner. The Duelists jumped on the back of their monsters and flew off to catch up with the Slifer Red.

"Come on, you should be quicker than that!" Jun called out her teammates, who were falling behind.

"And you should be quieter." Gwenda hissed. "What if they hear y-"

"LOOK OUT!"

Evice screamed, pointing up. Jun turned around to look in front of herself and just then, a blast collided with Air Hummingbird, blowing up the Neo-Spacian. The Slifer Red screamed, her body starting to drop now that the power of gravity was again working on Jun's body.

"Got you!" Ken grabbed the Slifer Red's arm and pulled her along.

The remaining three monsters spread apart, doing what they can to avoid the fired of the five Cannon Soldier MK-2 that were stationed on the rooftop, raining hell onto the invaders. It was as Gwenda had warned, the rebels have placed guards even on the rooftop, but that was what Evice wanted.

"Clear the rooftop and hold it!" Evice ordered her troops.

"Wait, we?" Gwenda's eyes widened. "What about you… um, sir?"

"I'll do the hard work," Evice smirked.

Before any of her teammates had the chance to question what she meant, the Astral Angel monster turned around and flew through a window, landing inside a corridor. Evice dismounted her ride and took Ignis's card off her Duel Disk, shuffling it back into the Deck. The Holactie White unit pressed her back against a wall and waited for the footsteps coming from the other side to get within range. Once the rebels were close enough for her to hear their breathing, the Academia soldier activated her Duel Disk and jumped in front of them. Not bothering with a duel, Evice swung her disk's blade, cutting the kneecaps of the first two, before making a front flip, kicking the one behind them in the face.

Combining the training she got from the Armityle Purple Force with the biological enhancements that Dr. Polk placed inside her body while she was still being formed, the young clone was at the peak of the human condition, able to displace any enemy that came in her way within seconds. She cut through the rebels with a surgical precision that didn't allow anyone to shout in pain and alert the other rebels. Evice swung her Duel Disk's blade at the last rebel's neck and a moment later ahead fell on the ground with a loud thud.

The Holactie White stepped carefully toward the next corner, pulling a new card out of her deck, she inserted it into the slot on the back of her Duel Disk and pressed the device against the wall.

"How long are we going to be here?" The Duel Disk recreated the voice of one of the people on the other side of the wall, allowing Evice to listen to their conversation. "Academia has kept us trapped like animals in a cage and our supplies are starting to fade!"

"It'll be over soon." Another one said. "The boss found out some keys that were able to open the Spirit Gates."

"Spirit Gates…" Evice muttered; she didn't like the sound of that.

The Academia soldier removed her hand from the wall and took the card that she used to spy on the troopers before pulling three new ones in its place. Although officially, the plan was to sneak in and open the front gates, doing so, would put the Academia's soldiers at a huge disadvantage. While walking into Academia, they would be trapped in small places that the rebels would be able to use to take them down one at a time. It was a hard decision, given the historical importance of the building, but the best course of action would require for the entire front part of the Academy to be blown apart.

"I hope that you won't be too angry with me for this, doc," Evice muttered before placing the three cards on her Duel Disk. Two of them went to the left-most and right-most corners of the blade, while the third one was in the center.

Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium - a giant robot with unholy firepower raised in front of Evice. Its body tore the walls and the ceiling, dropping debris all around its colossal body. The rebels who were guarding the entrance heard the sound, but it was late. Too late. A beam of bright light passed through all of them, burning off their skin before the heat turned their insides into liquid and then everything including their bones was incinerated, along with the entire front of the Academy.

At that moment, an army of boys and girls dressed in red, yellow and blue charged from the forest yelling 'For Academia's glory!'. Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium disappeared in a flash of white light and Evice turned to leave. The sound of panicked footsteps echoed from inside the school's hall, while the battle cries of Academia's army came from the outside. The first step of the mission was complete, Cobra would no longer need her assistance when dealing with the remaining rebels. Evice put the hood of her jacket on, covering her hair and eyes then ran off for the side. Why walked through the center of the battlefield, when she could just bypass all of the fights and go straight for her main target?

* * *

"Something's going on at the Academy."

"Academia must be trying to breach our defenses again. We don't have time to waste."

"Even if you unlock the cage holding the Sacred Beasts, do you think that they will let you use them? I heard that they are cursed, so what if…"

"If I'm not worthy, then I'll pay the price for awakening them with my own life."

Rei frowned at Martin's words, but still followed the young boy in the Ra Yellow uniform. She knew the risk of what would happen if the Sacred Beasts were displeased, but she didn't try to stop Martin back when they were making preparation for this attack, and now, it was too late for regrets. There was no doubt, if Academia caught them, they would be carded, or worse…

"This must be the place." Martin stopped and reached into his pocket.

"Are you sure?" Rei looked around. "It's just an empty field, I don't see anything."

"I'm sure, it's the location marked on Principal Samejima's notebook," Martin replied.

The Ra Yellow student pulled out seven medallions, each of which had a different shape with a symbol written on it in black ink. It was written in the notebook that the creator of those keys, Kagemaru, confirmed during his life that these items weren't necessary to unlock the gates and that the true key to unleashing the might of the Sacred Beasts was duel energy. Despite that, they were able to absorb said duel energy within themselves. So, by using the energy lingering inside, Martin raised the medallions.

The ground around the due began to shake and large towers raised from the forest. Loud cracking noises echoed through the field as the towers tore the roots of the trees that have grown over them, dropping the large hundred-year-old plants on the ground. After that, the ground in front of Martin split open and a metal box raised in front of the Ra Yellow, holding three cards inside an energy field.

Rei's eyes widened. "Are those really the Sacred Beasts?"

"Yes…" Martin muttered. He reached out, even so hesitantly, scared by the might of the cards. "It's them. I can feel their power flowing through me; the contract is completed. With this, we can finally get revenge for our parents, Rei! Rei?"

The Ra Yellow turned around to look for his companion when she didn't answer. But instead of a girl in a Slifer Red jacket, he saw someone wearing a white uniform with a hood over their eyes and a green energy blade glowing next to their Duel Disk. Lying on the ground in front of Evice was Rei's unmoving body with a large cut across her back and blood pouring out of it.

"Rei…" Martin clenched his fists in anger. "So, you were finally able to break our defense? I hoped that my comrades would be able to buy us more time…"

"Your warriors are still fighting bravely against the might of Academia," Evice replied. "I simply bypassed them. But if you defeat me quickly, you might still have a chance to save your friends."

"I already have," Martin smirked. "The Sacred Beasts' power is to absorb the energy of Duel Spirits. As long as they are outside that energy field, they will continue to absorb the spirits of the monsters, until none is left to be used as a slave of the Professor, as a weapon of destruction."

"I see…" Evice narrowed her eyes. "Your father, he was against what the Professor was doing. That's your revenge, isn't it? Bringing peace back to the dimensions by disabling the Professor's most powerful weapon – Duel Monsters."

"Every staff member of this Academy that was hired to work at Academia was able to see that the Professor's plans were self-serving madness! This war isn't about glory, about power, it's to satisfy the destructive urges of a madman! And even though they all knew, no one dared to step next to my father and support him! Until his final breath, he was trying to protect everything, but that doesn't matter to you, does it? You all still believe in the Professor's words, and continue to do his bidding like obedient dogs!"

"Believe me, if I was alive back then, I would have backed your father," Evice said.

"Then why are you fighting against me?!" Martin yelled. "Why did you come to massacre my friends, when the true enemy is sitting on his throne atop Academia, watching with satisfaction as the world burns?"

"Because as you said, I'm just a dog doing someone else's bidding." Evice raised her hand and looked it over, before clenching it into a fist. "I don't have a free will, so I must defeat you. As Academia is going to defeat all of your allies, thanks to your own actions."

"What are you talking about?" Martin bit his lip. "The Sacred Beasts' power should disable all of your cards!"

"Academia's monsters don't have a soul, Martin!" Evice shouted. "They are mass-produced machines of war and destruction. Only personal decks such as your friends would be affected, while the soulless Ancient Gears used by Academia would remain functional! As will my own cards!"

"N-no… this can't be…" Martin took a step back. He miscalculated. He couldn't see Duel Monsters' souls, he thought that all monsters had them, but if Academia's cards were soulless and his comrades weren't… He was responsible for his own friends' deaths!

"I'm sorry," Evice spoke softly. "But this is the end of the line. Give up, there's nothing else you can do."

"You're wrong," Martin growled, activating his Duel Disk. "I might have lost my friends, but I can still avenge them. With the power of the Sacred Beasts at my disposal, I'll defeat all of you on my own and kill the Professor, using his own weapon against him!"

"So be it then." Evice sighed. "I won't hold back against you, just because you're right."

"Duel!" Evice and Martin shouted.

 **『** **Evice LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Martin LP: 4000 Hand: 5** **』**

"I'll take the first turn!" Evice declared, taking a card from her hand. "I Normal Summon _Astral Angel Sagitta (Lv.2, ATK: 400)_!" a slim white robot with two long blades for hands and two small triangles for legs appeared on the Light Duelist's field. "I'm going to then set two cards and end my turn!"

"Is that it?" Martin asked. "You're facing off against the deck that contains the power of the three Sacred Beasts, and all you've got is a monster with four hundred attack points? Do you think that I won't summon the Sacred Beasts? It's my turn, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 2 [Martin] LP: 4000, Hand: 6** **』**

"I activate _Foolish Burial_ to send Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder from my Deck to the Graveyard." Martin began. "Then, I Normal Summon _Phantom of Chaos (Lv.4, ATK: 0)_!" A sphere of shadows appeared on Martin's field. "And now, I activate Phantom of Chaos' effect! Until the end of this turn, it gains the original attack points and effects of one monster in my Graveyard! I choose Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!" The shadow sphere changed shape, transforming into a large demonic monster with the skeleton-like appearance and large bat-like wings on its back.

 **Phantom of Chaos, ATK: 0** → **4000**

"Due to its effect, when Hamon destroys a monster by battle, it will inflict a thousand points of damage to you!" Martin pointed at the girl. "It's over! Battle! Phantom of Chaos, attack Astral Angel Sagitta! _Lost Thunder_!"

"I activate my trap." Evice raised her hand casually, flipping one of her set cards face-up. "Interdimensional Matter Transporter allows me to banish Sagitta until the end of this turn."

A strange device appeared in front of the hooded girl and it fired a purple beam behind Sagitta, opening a portal through which the LIGHT Machine disappeared.

"Useless move!" Martin shouted back. "If your monster is banished, that means that Phantom of Chaos is going to attack you directly!"

"The effect of Sagitta activates when it's banished," Evice smirked. "Through that same effect, I banish your Phantom of Chaos until my next Standby Phase."

"You what?" Martin looked over his monster. White bolts of lightning fell from the sky, hitting the demonic entity, incinerating it on the spot. "You… Then, I'm going to set two cards and end my turn!"

"Do you see now, kid?" Evice smirked. "Sacred Beasts or not, the Astral Angel archetype is a deck made of gods, even if their stats aren't impressive, each of my monsters is equally capable of dealing with any Divine creature you summon. And through the effect of Interdimensional Matter Transporter, _Astral Angel Sagitta (Lv.2, ATK: 400)_ will now return to my field. Draw!"

 **『** **Turn 3 [Evice] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"And now, due to Sagitta's effect, your own monster will return to the field." Evice gestured toward Martin's field as Phantom of Chaos appeared back in its spherical form with 0 ATK. "And now, I'm going to Normal Summon _**Astral Angel Trade**_!"

Another white robot with glowing yellow lines across its body and scales in place of arms appeared in front of Evice. The monster's legs had two blades jutting out of it the back, acting as heels, while its head was small, connected directly to its body, without a neck and with a large triangular blue eye in the center.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Trade**

 **Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Effect**

 **ATK: 0/DEF: 1800**

 **Effect: Once per turn, you can target 2 "Astral Angel" monsters on the field: Reduce the Level of the first target by up to 2 Levels, then increase the second target's Level by the same amount. If this card is banished: You can add 1 Level 3 or lower "Astral Angel" monster from your Deck to the hand.**

* * *

"I'll now show you something no Academia soldier would do," Evice smirked. "But first, I activate Trade's effect by reducing its Level by one, I can increase Sagitta's Level by the same amount!"

 **Astral Angel Trade, Lv. 4** → **3**

 **Astral Angel Sagitta, Lv. 2** → **3**

"Changing Levels?" Martin tilted his head to the side for a moment, when he realized just which summoning method would need two monsters with matching levels. "You can't be…"

"I am!" Evice shouted back before raising her arms. "I overlay the Level Three Astral Angel Sagitta with the Level Three Astral Angel Trade!" The two LIGHT Machine's turned into yellow bolts of lightning and shot into the sky, falling inside a galaxy-like portal.

" _Messenger of Gods that moves swiftly through the storms. Take your divine spear forged by the ancient blacksmiths of Olympus and join the fight against the titans of the new age! Xyz Summon! Rank Three,_ _ **Astral Angel Lightning**_ _!_ "

The monster's body appeared to consist mainly of light yellow energy, enclosed by armor made of black rocks that covered its chest, back, arms and its head. Its arms had the shape of claws with bolts of lightning jumping across its fingertips, while several spikes made of energy jutted out of its back. Instead of legs, the monster had a long tail of energy shaped like a lightning. Its head was covered by a helmet with two pointy hear-like structures on the sides and two yellow eyes burning out of its front. The monster held out its arm and bolts of electricity jumped into its palm, creating an energy spear shaped like a lightning.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Lightning**

 **Rank: 3/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Machine/Xyz/Effect**

 **ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400**

 **2 Level 3 "Astral Angel" monsters**

 **Effect: Once per turn, during either player's turn, If your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card while you have an "Astral Angel" attached to this card as Xyz Material: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate that card's activation, and if you do, attach it to this card as Xyz Material. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card that is a Spell/Trap Card to activate its effect.**

* * *

"Battle!" Evice declared, throwing her arm forward. "Lightning, destroy Phantom of Chaos! _**Thunder Spear Charge**_!"

"I won't let you destroy Phantom of Chaos so easily. Trap Open! _No Entry!_! This card changes all of our monsters to Defense Position, which negates your attack!"

"Heh," Evice chuckled. "I activate Lightning's effect! By detaching one material from it, I can negate your trap, and then attach it to this card as an Xyz Material! _**Zeus's Judgment**_!"

Astral Angel Lightning swung its spear around before smashing it into the ground. Bolts of yellow lightning shout out, hitting the Trap Card and pulling it back with themselves. The Xyz Monster then pierced the card with its spear, turning it into purple smoke that flew into the spear, giving it the same purple color. After absorbing the trap into itself, Lightning threw its spear toward Phantom of Chaos.

"Then I'm going to activate my other trap, _**Chaos Forming**_! I equip this card to Phantom of Chaos and activate its effect! When Phantom of Chaos is selected as an attack target, I can have it gain the attack and Defense Points of another random monster in my Graveyard!"

* * *

 **Chaos Forming (Trap) Continuous**

 **Select 1 face-up monster you control and equip it with this card. Each time that monster is attacked, select 1 random monster in your Graveyard. That monster's ATK and DEF become equal to the ATK and DEF of the monster in your Graveyard. When the equipped monster is removed from the field, destroy this card.**

* * *

"You've got only one monster in your Graveyard." Evice bit her lip.

"Exactly! So, take back the form of Hamon!" Martin ordered his monster, which transformed into its previous demonic form with 4000 ATK and DEF. "Now retaliate! _Lost Thunder_!"

Phantom of Chaos roared and four bolts of black lightning shot from the tip of its wings, falling into Astral Angel Lightning. The Xyz Monster flew around them, trying to avoid the bolts, but Phantom of Chaos continued to fire more bolts toward it.

"I guess there's no choice." Evice sighed and raised her arm. "Lightning's second effect activates! Once per turn, I can detach one of its Xyz Materials that is a Spell or Trap to activate its effect! I detach No Entry to change all of our monsters into Defense Position! _**Zeus's Gift**_!"

Lightning leaped back, dodging Phantom of Chaos; attacks and then knelt down in front of Evice holding its spear in front of itself while Phantom of Chaos spread out its wings and moved them in front of its body as shields.

"Even after this, you were able to survive." Martin narrowed his eyes.

"And I'm going to survive next turn too," Evice smirked. "Because Lightning is in Defense Position, you won't be able to inflict any battle damage by attacking it."

"But Hamon's effect can still hurt you." Martin pointed out. "It's my turn, I draw!"

 **『** **Turn 4 [Martin] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"First, I change Phantom of Chaos to attack position and then I activate its effect! Until the end of this turn, it will gain the effects and attack points of Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder from my Graveyard!"

The shadow sphere changed shape once more, transforming into the same large demonic monster with the skeleton-like appearance and large bat-like wings. The creature threw its head back and roared, summoning bolts of lightning that stroked the ground around the two Duelists.

 **Phantom of Chaos, ATK: 0** → **4000**

"Now battle! Phantom of Chaos, attack Astral Angel Lightning with _Lost Thunder_!"

"Didn't I tell you before that your gods are no match for the Astral Angels? Even less so a cheap imitation that can only take the appearance of a god. Trap activates – _**Astral Angel Vacuum Shield**_! This card, when activated, becomes an equip spell for one of my Astral Angel monsters and protects it from being destroyed by battle!"

A shield that had the appearance of a dark vortex, or a black hole, appeared on Lightning's arm and the monster held out its new weapon in front of Phantom of Chaos's lightning bolts, absorbing all of them inside its shield.

* * *

 **Astral Angel Vacuum Shield (Trap) Continuous**

 **Select 1 face-up "Astral Angel" monster you control and equip it with this card. Once per turn, that monster cannot be destroyed by battle. If battle damage would be inflicted, you send this card to the Graveyard: Banish any number of cards from the top of your deck face-up to reduce the damage that would have been inflicted by 400 for each card banished by this effect. "Astral Angel" cards banished by this effect cannot activate their effects.**

* * *

"Argh! Fine then!" Martin shouted, angrily. "If you won't let your monster be destroyed by a regular Sacred Beast, then I'll destroy both your monster and you with the ultimate Sacred Beast!"

"Ultimate Sacred Beast?" Evice wondered. "You don't mean… Is there really a monster that's more powerful than the Sacred Beasts themselves?"

"Just watch. I activate Magic Planter to send Chaos Forming to the Graveyard and draw two new cards." The boy dressed in a Ra Yellow jacket looked at the cards in his hand and smirked. "Perfect. First, I'll activate the Field Spell Fallen Paradise, while this card is on the field, you cannot target or destroy my Sacred Beasts with card effects. Next, I'm going to tribute Phantom of Chaos to Normal Summon _Dark Summoning Beast (Lv.5, ATK: 0)_."

The shadow of Hamon disappeared from the field, as a twisted and demonic creature raised in front of Martin with a red robe tied around its waist. A dark aura came out of the demon's body as it waited for its orders.

"I'll now release Dark Summoning Beast to Special Summon _Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (Lv.10, ATK: 4000)_ straight from my Deck with summoning conditions ignored!" Another large demon appeared on Martin's field. This time, its body was blue and purple and much muscular than Hamon's. "I'll then use Dark Summoning Beast's second effect! By banishing it, I can add Uria, Lord of Searing Flames from my Deck to the hand. Then, I'll activate _**The Wild Monsters Roam**_! I target one monster on my field which cannot be Normal Summoned or set, and Special Summon two monsters with the same or lower Level that cannot be Normal Summoned or Set straight out of my hand and Graveyard! So, come out, _Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (Lv.10, ATK: 4000)_ and _Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (Lv.10, ATK: 0)_!"

* * *

 **The Wild Monsters Roam (Spell) Normal**

 **If you control a monster with an original Level of 10 or less that cannot be Normal Summoned/Set: Special Summon 1 monsters that cannot be Normal Summoned/Set (1 from your hand, and 1 from your Graveyard) whose Levels are equal to or lower than the monster you already control. These monsters cannot attack during the turn this effect is activated, and they have their effects negated, also during the End Phase, shuffle all monsters Special Summoned by this effect back into your Deck.**

* * *

A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and the ground tore apart as a stream of flames raised over the trees. A large and yellow, skeletal demon with wings, as well as a large red serpent-like creature with wings appeared beside Raviel. Evice winched. She felt so uneasy in front of these demonic creatures, their divinity was interfering with the True Light inside of her, causing a strong pain in her chest. But she could endure… She could tame the monsters.

"And finally, I activate Dimension Fusion Destruction to banish _Raviel, Lord of Phantasms_ , _Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder_ and _Uria, Lord of Searing Flames_ as sacrifices for the ultimate Sacred Beast!"

The three Sacred Beasts hissed, their bodies dissolving with the dark energy kept imprisoned in their flesh freed from its bounds. Martin threw his arms to the side and began to chant, all while the dark energy behind with swirled around, taking on a new shape, a new, more fitting form.

" _Hear my plea, mighty beast ruling over its real of shadows! Destroy the barrier between dimensions and bring down heaven with your mighty cry! Come forth, Armityle the Chaos Phantom (Lv.12, ATK: 0)_!"

A long red and purple serpent body with golden rings around its waist appeared behind Martin. The entire creature, looking like a terrifying combination of the three Sacred Beasts, with Hamon and Raviel's head combined into one, Uria's head acting as the monster's left arm, and the gigantic golden wings of Hamon spreading out behind the creature's mighty form.

"Armytyle's effect activates! Once per turn, I can inflict ten thousand damage to one monster you control!" Martin pointed at Astral Angel Lightning. "And because of the difference between mine and your monster's attack points, the remaining difference will be subtracted from your Life Points. Disappear! _Land Wide Obliteration - Transmigration Wave_!"

Armityle roared and pointed its left arm at Astral Angel Lightning. Uria's head opened and a vortex of black energy shot out toward the Xyz Monster. The sphere hit its target and then exploded, sending a pulse of energy across the field. Evice's screams were muted by the loudness of the explosion that tore the nearby trees off the ground and knocked them back. It was over. A smoke surrounded Evice's field, it wasn't possible for anyone to survive

"It's over," Martin stated, and turned around to leave. "Your service as the Professor's dog is over; I freed you."

"But did you?"

Martin's eyes widened. The duelist turned back around and looked at the smoke. As the dust began to settle, he saw Evice, standing there unfazed, but with Astral Angel Lightning gone. The girl held one of her arms up, showing a pile of cards inside of it.

"I activated Vacuum Shield's other effect. By sending it to the Graveyard, I could reduce the amount of battle damage by four hundred points for every card that I banish. I banished twenty-one cards, to reduce the damage by eight thousand that four hundred."

"But then that means…" Martin's eyes widened.

"It means that I didn't lose a single Life Point." Evice nodded. "It's over, Martin. There's nothing that you can do anymore! You lost!"

"It's not over yet!" Martin shouted back. "I still have Armityle on my field. And I activate Lost Paradise' effect! Since I control Armityle the Chaos Phantom, I can draw two cards from my deck! I'll then activate one of them! The Equip Spell – _**Soul of the Phantom**_! This card can only be equipped to Armityle the Chaos Phantom and while equipped, it negates Armityle's effect to inflict battle damage through its effect, but gives it ten thousand attack points instead!"

* * *

 **Soul of the Phantom (Spell) Equip**

 **You can only equip this card to a face-up Armityle the Chaos Phantom you control. While this card is equipped to a monster by this effect, the monster's following effect: "This card can inflict 10,000 Battle Damage to a monster your opponent controls." Is negated, and its original ATK becomes 10 000. During your Main Phase: You can return this card to your hand.**

* * *

 **Armityle the Chaos Phantom, ATK: 0** → **10 000**

"There's no escape anymore! Soul of the Phantom can be returned back to my hand once per Main Phase, so if you summon a monster, I'll be able to inflict ten thousand damage, and if you don't summon a monster, I can attack you directly for ten thousand damage!"

"In other words: I've got to beat you during my next turn," Evice smirked.

"Why you…" Martin growled.

"It's truly regrettable that of all the jobs I could be assigned to, I need to kill a child who lost everything because of Academia." Evice shook her head. "But I've got a mission, and I can't come to my creator empty-handed. It's my turn, draw!"

 **『** **Turn 5 [Evice] LP: 4000, Hand: 3** **』**

"Using the Scale Five, _Astral Angel Sinistra_ and the Scale Ten, _Astral Angel Dextra_ , I set the Pendulum Scale!" Two columns made of white energy appeared behind Evice with her monsters rising inside the columns. A humanoid spirit made of light appeared behind her, placing its hands reassuringly on the clone's shoulders before it faded away.

"Pendulum Scale…" Martin muttered. "What the hell is this?"

"Your end," Evice replied. "Astral Angel Sinistra's effect. Once while it's in the Pendulum Zone, I can pay eight hundred Life Points to add one Astral Angel monster from my Deck to the hand. I choose Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium!"

 **『** **Evice LP: 4000 - 800** → **3200** **』**

"Swing! Create a world that I desire with your divine power! Pendulum Summon! The Golem controlling the stars! _Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium (Lv.8, ATK: 2800)_!" Evice cried out as a single beam fell behind her and her ace stood up, almost reaching Armityle the Chaos Phantom in terms on height. Deus-Ex Radium's effect activates. When it's Special Summoned, I can turn all of my banished monsters face-down to halve the attack power of your monster, as well as negate its effects! _Deus-Ex Machina_!

Armityle the Chaos Phantom began to trash around violently as a white aura surrounded its body, weakening the Divine-Beast.

 **Armityle the Chaos Phantom, ATK: 10 000/2** → **5000**

"Battle! Motabilem, attack Armityle the Chaos Phantom!" the machine raised it's first and threw it forward, smashing it into the Fusion's face. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell – Limiter Removal! Through this Spell's effect, my monster's attack points are doubled!"

 **Astral Angel Motabilem, Deus-Ex Radium, ATK: 2800*2** → **5600**

"Your monster's attack…" Martin muttered. "That can't be…"

The boy turned back to look at Armityle. The Fusion monster roared and collapsed, exploding into purple flames. Martin collapsed on his knees, completely broken at the sight of the monster he placed everything on, the monster he sacrificed his comrades to obtain, going up in flames.

 **『** **Martin LP: 4000 - 600** → **3400** **』**

"When two or more Astral Angel monsters are turned face-down for Motabilem's effect, my monster gains the ability to attack twice," Evice stated. "Farewell, kid."

The large robot reached out with its arm and opened its palm. A beam of light shot out, engulfing Martin. The rebels' leader closed his eyes, a single tear managing to fall on the ground, as he fell onto his back – defeated.

 **『** **Martin LP: 3400 - 5600** → **0** **』**

 **『** **Winner: Evice** **』**

"My dad gave his entire life for this Academy," Martin muttered. Evice walked over to the boy and knelt down, not saying a word, but listening to the boy as his tone broke with every word. "He was so obsessed with it, that he left both me and my mother. My parents have to divorce and I barely ever save him. The only reason I joined the Academy, the old one, was so I could be close to my father. What was I supposed to do, when that Professor took that away from me? With whom, could I share my pain? After dad's death, my mother broke, the rest of the world saw us as scum that dared go against the wisdom of some killer that they worship like a god. This was everything I had left, my last hope, and it's burning… It's burning to ashes…"

"I'm sorry," Evice muttered. "There's nothing wrong in wanting the man responsible for all this pain to be punished. I admire you for having the braveness to stand up against someone who's seen as a God by the rest of the world. But in a war, heroes who fight for justice never win. Those heroes that you read in history books? Those great men who fought for freedom? They were the biggest killers and enslavers of all, but they are worshiped as heroes because history is written by the victors."

"What will happen now?" Martin asked. "Will you card me?"

"I'll." Evice nodded while pulling the Sacred Beasts cards out of Martin's deck. "But I promise, both you and your father will be avenged. There is already a storm rising against the Professor, but he's too blind to see it."

"Then… I can die happy." Martin smiled pass the tears running down his cheeks.

"Good job, soldier." Evice smiled back before rising her Duel Disk. A flash of light later and a card fell on the ground.

"Evice! Evice!"

The clone stood up and turned around. She smiled as Jun, Ken, and Gwenda stopped in front of her. Their bodies were bruised and their uniforms were damaged, but besides that, they looked to be in good shape.

"He was able to keep the rooftop until Academia's forces arrived and helped us trap the traitors," Gwenda stated.

"After that was over, we quickly ran toward the columns, knowing that it must be where you're dueling." Ken continued.

"But halfway through, we noticed that our cards were starting to fade, so we panicked!" Jun cried out.

"I know, I know." Evice smiled. The clone raised her hand that was holding the Sacred Beasts cards and showed them to the group. The others, of course, had their eyes go wide at the sight of the legendary monsters.

"It was because of these bad boys, but I'm in control, so your cards should be back to normal," Evice told them. "As for the rebels' leader, he was defeated and carded. The card lies right there."

"What about the other one?" Gwenda gestured toward Rei. The girl in the Slifer Red jacket was still lying on the ground motionless, but she wasn't dead. At least not yet.

"Order for a medical team," Evice told them. "Then take her to the prison. Before being carded dead, the leader told me that there were other rebel camps preparing for attacks, she might know something about it."

"Right away!" The trio saluted their new commander.

Evice saluted them back before walking off. Her mission was over, Martin and his rebellion were out of the picture and the Sacred Beasts were in Evice's hand. Yet, something didn't feel right. She knows, deep down, that despite the results, she was the one who lost today. Why? It was simple, really. She was designed to be the host of the True Light, to be a force of nature meant to protect the world, to protect humanity, yet all she did was kill and destroy. She lost herself – her way, and that was worse than to lose a Duel.

* * *

"There you go." Evice threw the four Sacred Beasts on the table in front of Dr. Polk.

"I heard what you did." The doctor sat down on his chair, placing his hands together in front of himself. "Cobra told me that your combat effectiveness was impressive. But you're disturbed, aren't you?"

"I'm just a homunculus doctor, a soulless doll that has yet to obtain her free will." Evice crossed her arms. "But this… To lead a group of blinded children in a war against people who just want to live in peace, who don't want to be the slaves of some maniac, it just… It makes her feel dirty, soiled, for having to fight on this side, for having to make such inhuman things to my enemies."

"I understand where you are coming from, better than you might think," Polk replied. "When Aron lead all of us in a war against Grelyson, we all had to do things… awful things. Unlike you, I believed in the cause I was fighting for, but that doesn't mean that I don't remember the faces of those who I had to kill. Every time I close my eyes, I can feel their souls staring at me from the dark. It's never-ending torture."

"But Aron never really had to deal with those issues, did he?" Evice narrowed her eyes. "If he was willing to lead all of you into war, he must have been just another soulless monster. It's awful that commanders never are the ones who feel the regret, but the soldiers who must obey their orders."

"Don't say that," Polk said. "Aron was the one who kept us human back then. Every night, I saw him walking through the ruins of the city, press his head against the ground and cry. It was his home, Evice – the people he killed were those that raised him, dear friends that he spent many years with. But it was for the great good. That's the secret behind being a strong leader. You must do what's necessary, make sacrifices and even kill, but, you should also regret those decisions. You should remember them because those horrific memories are what make you human. The moment you stop regretting, stop caring, that's when you'll become a monster – like the Professor."

"So, it never comes better?" Evice asked.

"Never," Polk confirmed. "Now if you excuse me, I should go to work. See how well the Sacred Beasts would be able to function when infused with Nightshroud's essence. Also, after the success of this mission, the Professor would want you to become an official member of the Armityle Purple Force."

"Tell him that I decline." Evice turned to leave, but before that, she looked back at Dr. Polk with a smile. "Also, tell him that I want the three duelists I mentioned in my report to put under my order as special unit Holactie White."

Polk looked after the clone as she left. He smiled and turned back to the work he had to do…

* * *

 **T.M.Y.K (Ai, it's been a while since I made one of those, wasn't it?)**

 **Holactie White: An unofficial Rank of Academia that has so far been granted only to Evice. Despite its status as 'unofficial', the Holactie White member is accepted as a separated sub-group of the** **Armityle Purple rank. The members of this group wear a white uniform and they are in command of a group called "Holactie's Servants" which consist of duelists hand-picked by the** **Holactie White who's going to be their commander. The members of** **Holactie's Servants are still officially part of the rank from which they come and must wear said rank's uniform. The only rank that's not allowed to be part of the** **Holactie's Servants is** **Armityle Purple, due to them having an equal rank as** **Holactie White.**

* * *

 **Avice: Ok, why the fuck is that bitch having a chapter for just herself?**

 **Evice *holding a knife*: Shhhh, dear.**

 **Chapter 49: Duelist of the Stars**

 **Summary:** Starting his quest to find the remaining Lancers, Evan visits Roget first, making a deal with the director to help him put Evan's former teammates behind bars. Armed with information about the Lancer's last known locations, Evan starts his hunt when he suddenly comes across a girl possessing a Signer Dragons and an unexpected partnership is started…

 **Chapter 50: A Soldier's Fears**

 **Summary:** After Oni's recovering is finished, she and Avice leave in order to find the latter's siblings while in another part of the city Elizabeth's preparing to do the same. Meanwhile, Evan earns information about a duo dueling random people on the streets asking about 'Academia' while leads him to Serena and Sawatari. But just as the two Lancers reunite a Special Force Squad sent by Roget attacks them and a duel ensues…

 **Chapter 51: Inevitable Collision**

 **Summary:** Avice's and Elizabeth's group come across each other leading to the sisters reuniting. Unaware that another Special Forces Squad was following them, the group is confronted by a small army of Roget's elite forces. An all other Battle Royale ensues, but the Lancers find themselves quickly losing advantage as each of them gets cornered. Just as the Greysons run out of options a voice calls out to them. Will the newcomer change the tide of the battle!?

* * *

 **Well, that... took some time to write. I mean, seriously, if there's no Evan in the chapter, I just don't want to write it because it's just, eh, boring. But the best part of this whole chapter, for me, was writing the GX references. I don't know why, but coming up with ways to connect the old anime with the dimension based on it is so much fun to me!**

 **Also, this chapter officially introduces Ken, Jun, and Gwenda! Although they didn't have much of a presence in this chapter, outside of following Evice around, I have plans for them. By those plans, they will become an important part of the story DURING the Xyz Arc, so introducing them so soon was on the one side unnecessary, but on the other completely necessary to show how different Evice is to Evan and Avice. In fact, a good portion of the chapter was about exactly this - to show why Evice ISN'T evil like her original and Evan.**

 **Thanks to** electriuser **,** nerostar12 **,** kival737101 **and** thewarrior954 **for both following and favoring this story! Also, apologies that I went into a hiatus right when new readers began to appear.**

 **To the reviews... There's just one review, so that should be quick...**

ScalchopWarrior **: Thanks for alerting me about the mistakes, although after checking, I found out that the problem with the missing spaces appears only AFTER I post the chapter online. So, I believe that there's a problem lying in something I do while posting the doc or something, but I'm grateful for the help!**

 **And a specific line from the review that I want to respond to: "** **G** **otta say that I like Evan's new deck. The effects...well, they're a lot more simple, but that doesn't take away from the deck's effectiveness."**

 **That's... pretty weird to be honest. The idea about the ChronoDevil deck was always for it to be a simple, yet very effective deck. And I personality find his S2 deck to be more complicated than his S1 deck. I mean, it has to be more powerful, right? Otherwise, there wouldn't be a point in introducing it later in the story.**

 **That's all for today. Thanks for reading this, don't forget to put a review and until next chapter.**

 **Diabolic Tracer & Evice (wait, wut?) out!**


End file.
